Speaking in the council chamber Cr Shields said petty crime was "a great concern" to much of the community and offered his encouragement to the mayor.

The deputy mayor also laid down a challenge "to those seeking to silence people who are concerned about law order" to share solutions to the problem or admit they were not interested in fixing it.

Cr Shields was speaking at Monday's meeting of Dubbo City Council, which he chaired in the absence of Cr Dickerson, who was granted leave to attend to council business.

The deputy mayor's entry into the debate came after a more than week-long row between Cr Dickerson who called for "cold, hard data on sentencing regime of our particular magistrate in Dubbo", and the Orana Law Society (OLS).

The OLS last week resolved to lodge a code of conduct complaint to the council about Cr Dickerson and invite the mayor, councillors and the general manager to a private meeting with representatives of the OLS to discuss the mayor's concerns, among other actions.

Then on Friday a national media outlet made allegations about the roles of Dubbo MP Troy Grant and Cr Dickerson in lobbying to replace Dubbo magistrate Andrew Eckhold since June.

Statistics contained in the national newspaper's report suggested there was no evidence Mr Eckhold was a lenient magistrate.

On Monday night Cr Greg Mohr successfully moved as a matter of urgency the council seek assistance from Orana region counterparts in its endeavours to obtain data and in its pursuits to tighten sentencing laws for repeat offenders, which was when Cr Shields made his stand.

"The recent debate over law and order in our city has, in my mind, spiralled way out of control and has not advanced the interests of the city whatsoever by squabbling and screaming from various interest groups," Cr Shields said.

"I am aware that this might come as a surprise to many, but I am in full support of the mayor's right to speak out on issues relating to law and order in the very city on which he is mayor.

"The situation regarding our petty crime is a great concern to the vast bulk of the community.

"It has annoyed me to great lengths that there are people out there that are going as hard as they possibly can to shut up the mayor.

"What has annoyed me even more is that Cr Dickerson for over 10 years has largely kept out of the law and order issues in the city, and as soon as he starts to tackle the issues, he is cut down at the knees."

He said he gave his "encouragement" to the mayor and that if there were "anything technically said wrong by the mayor" organisations "like the Orana Law Society would have been best to approach council and the mayor and seek face-to-face discussions. . . ".

"To my knowledge this did not happen," Cr Shields said.

"What happened was a systematic cutting down of an elected official who was only trying to do his job by voicing the concerns of his constituents."

Cr Shields then issued his challenge "to those seeking to silence people who are concerned about law and order".

"Either, using your expertise, tell us how we as a city can properly fix the problem and exactly where we are going wrong, or admit that you are not interested in fixing the problem," he said.

"The only way Dubbo will grow and flourish is for people in positions of influence and authority to work united in an open and frank manner."

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