The current mayor, Steve Toms, says he won’t be standing down as mayor in the elections in September despite continually having a permanent majority against him on the council.
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He is often in the minority on votes but said he would be standing for re-election.
There are now two blocs on the seven member body. On one side are usually Crs Toms, Colin Price and Jeff Smith and on the other Deputy Mayor Carol Sparks, Glenn Frendon, Dianne Newman and Andrew Parsons.
In September, the mayoral position comes up for re-election and Cr Toms said: “I am going to stand”.
It’s not clear who would stand against him but Cr Sparks would seem to be likely. If the four to three split on the council is maintained, then she would win. She wasn’t available for comment at the time of going to press.
She is a member of the Greens party and has driven campaigns to get a permanent doctor at the hospital and to get a permanent youth centre established in the old shire council chambers on Bourke Street. Both campaigns have been high profile. In the case of the “youth hub”, she has achieved a victory.
Cr Toms said he would stand on his record of leadership. “It’s important that the council is focused on the best interests of this community as a whole.
“It’s about leading our whole council team. My role as mayor is to provide leadership and to develop productive relationships with our local members, other neighbouring councils and with the state and federal governments”.
He cites “having clear goals and disciplined financial management” as his strengths. He has been mayor since September 2016, following on from Cr Colin Price, and the two are allies. Cr Jeff Smith is not so closely allied though he usually votes with them.
One other possibility is that Cr Smith might win if one in the majority bloc switched sides. They may not have the hostility to Cr Smith that they seem to have to Cr Toms.
In Thursday’s meeting, Cr Toms and Cr Frendon confronted each other, with Cr Frendon jabbing his finger at the mayor. In a previous meeting, Cr Frendon accused Cr Toms of bullying Cr Sparks.
From the outside, it seems that the divisions aren’t always over policy. There do seem to be clashes of personality and the reasons for them are hard to discern.
September’s vote is only of councillors.
What the ordinary voters – residents and tax-payers – in the whole area make of the situation on their council is completely unknown.
