The option to directly vote for their own mayor is interesting to many Dubbo ratepayers who responded to a Daily Liberal poll.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Eight per cent of respondents in the non-scientific poll said they would like the opportunity to elect the mayor of Dubbo Regional Council at council election time.
Ninety-seven people responded to the online poll and many took to Facebook to voice their opinions. 14 respondents, at the time of print, were in favour of ratepayers voting for the mayor whereas others believe it's the councillors responsibility to elect the mayor.
Bruce McDermaid has concerns it could make the council not as cohesive.
"The problem has been what if we get a mayor elected by the people who does not have the support of the rest of the council, nothing will get done," he said.
Andrew Hilderbrandt thinks it's council's responsibility to choose the mayor.
"We (the public) should pick the team, then the team picks the captain," he said.
Whereas Facebook user Katie Hall is in favour of choosing her own mayor.
"I think we should be able to choose who's going to run our city," she said.
What do you think? Should Dubbo Regional Council move to let ratepayers vote for the mayor?
"I would like to vote for the Mayor without preferences though. Anything that limits factions during the selection of Mayor would be most useful," Alexandra Hartwig agreed.
Dubbo Regional Council mayor Ben Shield agrees with the popularly elected mayor system.
"I am in favour of the popularly-elected mayor. It provides stability over a four-year period and gives a community control over who leads their council," he said.
"It gives mayor candidates a chance to stand on a range of policies and projects and election gives them a mandate to carry those out."
It gives mayor candidates a chance to stand on a range of policies and projects and election gives them a mandate to carry those out.
- Ben Shields, mayor.
Cr Shields said the Dubbo City Council did visit the idea of a popularly-elected mayor 10 years ago.
"[The] council has always operated on the system of a mayor elected by the council. The issue of a directly elected mayor was discussed within [the] council in 2009 but ultimately decided against," he said.
To change the way the mayor is elected there would have to be a referendum at the next councillor vote.
The NSW Electoral Commission advises that running a mayoral election in conjunction with a council election adds about 10 per cent to the overall cost of the poll.
There are 33 councils Local Government Areas in NSW that directly elect their mayor.
DO YOU LOVE DUBBO NEWS? You can have daily headlines, sporting news, what's on news, breaking news and a weekly wrap all in your inbox throughout the week by simply subscribing to our website. Subscribe here or sign up to the emails below.