A popularly-elected mayor and a reduction in councillors from three in each ward to two will be recommended in a report to the Blue Mountains City Council this week.
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If adopted, the proposal would save $100,000 each council term but could require a $450,000 stand alone referendum to bring the idea to the people for a vote.
Mayor Mark Greenhill had asked for council staff to investigate the issue before to the December 2021 local government elections but said he will now defer the vote until later in this current term.
It doesn't mean he has given up on the idea. He also plans to stand again at the next council elections, and for mayor as well.
"It's something I really want to put before the people ... I believe people should have a chance to choose their mayor.
"The problem we've got is we have a massive infrastructure challenge after four natural disaster declarations in the last 12 months - there's $400 million [of damage] ... funds we don't have. With another La Nina summer predicted my focus has to be on repairing our infrastructure ... the council hasn't got the bandwidth to restructure itself while trying to build our city back. The rain events could not be predicted at the time I took this to council."
Two options mooted
Options before the current Labor-dominated council are to increase the councillors to 13 or decrease them to nine (council staff's preferred option).
Reducing the number of councillors in each ward would require candidates to receive a higher percentage of the vote to get elected.
The mayor said councillors can currently get elected with under 20 per cent of the vote but this would jump to closer to a third of the vote under an eight councillor and a popularly-elected mayor model.
Last place getters gone
On those numbers this would eliminate council's last place getters - current Liberals Brendan Christie and Kevin Schreiber, Greens Cr Brent Hoare and former Liberal and now Independent Daniel Myles - all elected in the third and final spots in their wards.
The mayor believes Blue Mountains council is the "second smallest metro council with the second highest number of councillors [and] my preference is to cut back ... the people won't vote for more politicians".
He said the current system was "antiquated, hailing back to the 1970s" and the idea of a community choosing a mayor was "more democratic".
"I am keen to revisit this in this term of council. What's attractive to me about this model is every candidate will have to get to know their communities very well to get elected and every councillor is going to have to work very hard to stay elected."
Cr Greenhill is elected by the people of Ward 4 in the Lower Mountains. Currently the 12 elected councillors go on to choose the mayor every 12 months.
"I am one of the longest, continuous serving mayors in the history of this city and one of the more senior currently serving mayors in Sydney, yet the people did not elect me to this position. That has always sat uncomfortably with me," he said.
One in four councils have popularly-elected mayor
Of the 128 councils in NSW only 35 have popularly elected mayors.
The NSW Electoral Commission said the process to determine whether a mayor was popularly elected would involve a referendum taking place to decide whether the community wanted to change the way the mayor came to power. In a local referendum, voters are usually required to tick either yes or no on the ballot paper.
Cr Greenhill said he originally floated the idea because of overdevelopment fears. He said a "mayor has enormous power and the new council could install someone who is prepared to tear up the local environment plan".
A stand-alone referendum must be completed not less than 12 months before the next Local Government Election in September 2024. This means it would need to be completed by August 2023. Council was told an alternative method to a standalone referendum is the much cheaper option of about $57,000, to include a referendum question in the next local government election.
