Calling Mr Riley a man of ‘immense integrity’, Mr Grant said he was shocked to hear the news of his departure from council last Thursday.

“I took a courtesy call from the mayor to advise me what had occurred so far as Mark Riley no longer being the general manager,” Mr Grant said.

“I wasn’t given any details about the circumstances or how that transpired. To say I was shocked is an understatement.

“There had been, across the community from small elements, some sentiment in relation to the general manager but I found him to be nothing other than a man of immense integrity who I’ve had a really good relationship working with.

“We’ve worked really well and Dubbo City and the Dubbo Regional Council has reaped in multi-million dollars worth of state government projects in recent times and Mark needs to take a lot of credit for that outcome.

At this stage Mr Grant said none of those projects are in danger of falling over, but he indicated council still has deadlines to meet.

He added any issues at an administrative level don’t create outside confidence.

“Whenever money is handed over there’s a funding agreement that’s reached and Dubbo Regional Council has the money in the bank from state government and now they’ve got to meet certain deadlines for those projects,” he said.

“If they fail to meet that they need to explain why or seek extensions, and if that’s not granted they lose the money.

“This is really important for council to consider, is they attract money from not only private investment but from state and federal governments when each of those bodies have confidence in the council.

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“I call on the council to make sure they get their house in order sooner rather than later and explain what they’re doing in the short, medium and long term regarding what has transpired over the last couple of days.

“If there’s circumstances between employer and employee that aren’t needed to be known publicly you’ve got to respect that too, and I don’t know all the circumstances.

“Without answers frequently coming forward then people start to second guess what’s happened and that’s where you’ve got to get rid of that uncertainty as quickly as possible.”

“Everyone is just asking why I guess. What are the justifcations for the GM no longer being there after a short time.

“I think seven of the councillors have never worked with the GM before. It’s only a short period of time to make a judgement of such significance.

“So I hope there’s reason and justification for the decision and hopefully that will get explained to everyone.”