For many years, Eurobodalla Shire Council has created the position of Deputy Mayor, usually for a period of one or two years.
Deputy Mayors have assumed the role of Mayor on occasions when the Mayor has been absent. On 25 September 2018, Council resolved: THAT in accordance with section 231 of the Local Government Act 1993 Council determine the term of appointment for the position of Deputy Mayor to be two years.
The current term of Council has been extended, due to Covid, for another year with the next Local Government elections scheduled for September 2021.
That means that the two year term enjoyed by Clr Rob Pollock as Deputy Mayor has come to an end and that a vote will be initiated at next week's Council meeting for the position for the remaining year until the next election.
Nominations be called for the position of Deputy Mayor and the election will be conducted Council determine whether the method of voting will be either via ordinary ballot or open voting.
Who will nominate? There is no financial benefit so it is only a position of prestige and function that looks good on a candidate's CV.
Rob Pollock, the current Deputy Mayor has been the bridesmaid to the position many times in his thirty year career as a Eurobodalla councillor.
As the position comes down to voting the best guess is to look at how the numbers stack up.
There is a tight voting block of Innes, Tait and Nathan. At the last election Tait only received fourteen votes and Nathan received only four, yet they both became councillors due to the fact that they were under Liz Innes' ticket.
The next voting block is Brown, Thomson Constable and Pollock. While they like to think of themselves as independent the numbers indicate that they rarely vote contrary to the Mayor and the Mayor rarely votes contrary to the recommendations of staff.
This leaves Councillors McGinlay and Mayne out on their own.
McGinlay is a Green and also a challenger to the Mayor and her groupies. So even if he nominates he won't get the numbers.
Mayne did get the numbers to be Deputy Mayor for the first two years however that ascendancy was short lived when the voting block realised that he wasn't one of them. They then put their own man in with Pollock rather than Brown.
This may have been a prearranged move as Brown has ambitions to be Mayor once again and might well maximise the title of Deputy Mayor to his political advantage.
Irrespective of what appears to happen on the floor of the Council Zoom Chamber the decision of who will nominate and who will vote for who has already been well discussed and the outcome already determined.
The Beagle guess.... James Thomson.... he is safe, he is being groomed for a career in Local Government with his sights on being a Eurobodalla Mayor (as was his father and grandfather) and he presents no challenge to the current Mayor, the General Manager or senior staff.
James has already been positioned on the: Disability Inclusion Advisory Committee, Eurobodalla Heritage Advisory Committee, Public Art Advisory Committee (Alternate), Floodplain Management Association of NSW, Southern Tablelands and South Coast Noxious Weeds Plan Committee, Gulaga National Park Board of Management.
