Dubbo mayor Ben Shields rejects Daily Liberal interview requests

On Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for Cr Shields confirmed the mayor would not respond to questions from the Daily Liberal, a day after confirming a response would be made.

Since his return to office, interview attempts from the Daily Liberal have been rejected numerous times by Cr Shields.

Questions were asked of the mayor on Thursday in relation to allegations of bullying and harassment.

Questions on his mental health and whether he would be running again in the September election also went unanswered.

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On Friday, Cr Shields was asked additional questions about the May council meeting on Monday following the release of the business papers on Thursday evening.

The Daily Liberal was told the mayor would not be providing a response to questions on calls for an independent investigator - which will be on the agenda at the meeting - or a notice of motion from deputy mayor Stephen Lawrence on the policies in place around the mayor's return to work.

Cr Shields also did not confirm if he would be attending the council meeting on Monday night.

Since his return to work on May 11, the mayor has released two official statements on his Mayor of Dubbo Facebook page.

The first covered the reason behind his leave of absence - an attempt to take his own life - and the second was a denial that he had done anything wrong when it came to the law or council's code of conduct complaints.

It is only through those Facebook statements that the Daily Liberal has heard from the mayor.

During his absence from council, it was councillor and friend Greg Mohr who provided comment to the media on the mayor's health, while it was chief executive officer Dean Frost who confirmed Cr Shields' return to work earlier in the month.

A press conference on March 30 was the last time the mayor answered questions from the Daily Liberal.

On March 31, Cr Shields was hospitalised.

Earlier that day a public statement signed by six councillors was released, calling for Cr Shields to resign and for members of the community who had concerns about their interactions with any councillor to come forward.

According to his statement on Facebook, Cr Shields spent six days on life support. During that time, Cr Shields developed pneumonia which required part of his left lung to be removed.

There are four pages of agenda items scheduled for Monday's council meeting.

The last two meetings were unable to go ahead due to a lack of quorum.