Chamber of commerce president Pam Dickerson tendered her resignation to DCDC board chairman Bill Kelly last week after the conflict of interest for brother and councillor Mathew Dickerson was revealed.

Ms Dickerson said the decision was her own, as did Mr Kelly, but he admitted the two of them had discussed the situation.

Dubbo City Council voted to offer DCDC a six-month, $114,000 contract to provide economic development services but that has been halted by three Dubbo councillors.

Councillors have hotly contested the issue of economic development at past council meetings, with votes more than once falling 6-5 in this term.

Dubbo council general manager Mark Riley yesterday advised he had received a notice of motion of rescission and that no action would be taken to implement the resolution made at the April 27 meeting.

Cr Dickerson declared a significant, non-pecuniary interest in the item and left the room before councillors voted 8-1 to approve the short-term contract.

Cr Tina Reynolds, who along with Ben Shields and Ann Barnard signed the motion of rescission, yesterday said there were lots of reasons for bringing the issue back to council.

Cr Reynolds said an alternative to the six-month contract was providing economic development services in-house, with the assistance of NSW Industry and Investment.

Cr Reynolds is a well-known opponent of council funding the DCDC, but yesterday she noted changes in the board line-up.

“I was surprised to learn today that Pam Dickerson had resigned,” she said.

“She was busting to get on the DCDC board - now her brother has a conflict of interest for the funding of it, she’s resigned,” Cr Reynolds said.

“It looks like it’s so her brother can go in and vote.”

Ms Dickerson confirmed that she had tendered her resignation late last week and that it related to her brother’s position on the council.

The chamber president and business woman claimed it was all her own decision and made in the interests of the city.

“The decision to resign became obvious to me as soon as I realised that my being on the DCDC board was creating a conflict of interest within the (council) in its discussions regarding DCDC,” she said.

“This was my decision to ensure the full functioning of our elected councillors on all matters of the city to happen freely.”

Both Ms Dickerson and her brother said that Cr Dickerson did not connect the conflict of interest until recently.

“It was only afterwards when I realised that there was a conflict of interest for Mathew to take part in (council) discussions on DCDC that I determined that it would be better for me to resign than to not allow full discussions within the (council) meetings given that (council) saw this as a conflict of interest,” Ms Dickerson said.

Councillors voted to note the DCDC’s six-monthly report at its finance and policy committee meeting on April 18.

Cr Dickerson confirmed that after it was “mentioned” to him on April 19, he rang his sister who confirmed she had been a DCDC board member since December.

He and Ms Dickerson spoke again after the April 27 meeting, when he told his sister he had left the chamber for the debate.

“She was surprised I had to leave the room as the DCDC position is a voluntary one,” he said.

“I explained that there was a possible perception that I had a conflict so it was safer to leave the room.”

Ms Dickerson had rung him last week to say she would resign to avoid putting him in a possible position of conflict, Cr Dickerson said.

He had not spoken to other councillors or Mr Riley about the resignation, he said.

Mr Kelly was yesterday fully abreast of the situation and accepted the outcome, even though it was “unfortunate”.

If Cr Dickerson’s legal advice had been that it was a conflict of interest, it was important that no councillors were in that position and that’s when he discussed it with Ms Dickerson, he said.

“It’s a tough one - going forward, we would not like if we were going to tender, that a councillor refrained from voting because a sister was chamber president and a DCDC board member,” he said.

“For all concerned it had to be taken out of the equation. The decision was Pam’s at the end of the day.”

Cr Reynolds also questioned the absence of advice about a date for when the rescission motion would be heard.

Late yesterday Dubbo City Council advised that an extraordinary meeting would be held on Friday and that a delay in that advice had not been due to Ms Dickerson’s resignation or any other factors.