Lismore City Councillors voted to go to the people at the next Local Council Election in September 2024 to decide how many councillors they would like to have from 2028 onwards, stay with the current 11 (including Mayor) or reduce the number to 9.

Councillor (Cr) Andrew Bing put a motion forward that Lismore City Council begins the process to reduce the number of councillors from 11 to 9.

As expected, there was much debate over the motion with the chamber split, however, some who voted against the motion also expressed the benefits of reducing the number of councillors.

On the 'against' side, were Cr Guise, Ekins, Bird, Rob and Colby while on the 'for' side was Cr Bing, Krieg, Gordon, Hall and Jensen. Councillor Cook was on leave for last night's meeting.

All councils in the Northern Rivers have fewer councillors than Lismore.

Ballina Council is divided into three wards (Ward A Ballina, Ward B Lennox and Skennars Head and Ward C Alstonville/Wollongbar and Wardell) with three councillors represented from each ward plus the Mayor so 10 councillors in total. A diverse regional representation.

Byron Bay Council has 9 councillors, Richmond Valley Council has 7 councillors, Kyogle Council has 9 councillors and Tweed Council with a population of 100,000 has only 7 councillors.

Cr Guise acknowledged that 11 councillors is quite a large number in comparison to some other councils around the region but it does reflect the diversity of our community. He then went on to discuss that saving two $24,000 wages is minimal compared to the billions being spent on our reconstruction and the fact that the numbers wouldn't be reduced until after the 2028 Local Council Elections.

There was plenty of speculation and concern over who would be the councillors that would not have been voted in, hypothetically, after the 2021 election. Cr Guise said, "I don't know whether it's a specific target at one or both of us," when referring to himself and Cr Big Rob being the last two candidates to be voted onto to council.

Mayor Krieg said it had nothing to do with who was 10th or 11th but it is to do with coming into line (with other councils in the region) and about community consultation. "As we hear so often in this chamber, community consultation is what it's all about. We're not making the decision, we're taking it to a referendum to let the people decide what they want."

Cr Gordon agreed with the mayor that this is about bringing LCC in line with other neighbouring councils and it is about involving the community in the practice of council.

Cr Ekins asked if council staff would be preparing the cases For and Against the referendum. This was confirmed by General manager Jon Gibson. Cr Ekins then talked about the cost of doing this being in the tens of thousands of dollars as well as having more representation means it is easier for the community to access councillors.

Cr Bird said this has come up previously and she has wondered if council would be more effective with 9 councillors. "As Cr Ekins has pointed out, when we had less councillors, it definitely did seem to move faster through this chamber." Cr Bird then went on to say that, "we are not an ordinary council dealing with ordinary matters and we won't be for probably 20 years," so she was firm in her decision that we needed more councillors.

Cr Rob defended the fact that he wouldn't lose his councillor status as the quotas would change so Crs Guise and Bing would be the two to not enter the chamber, "I'm as safe as houses," Cr Rob mentioned twice, "I'm happy to support this if you drop it to seven." Cr Rob then said he would not support it because he likes the diversity.

When it came to the vote, it was a 5/5 split with Mayor Krieg using his casting vote in case of a tie to pass the motion. So, the number of councillors at LCC will put to a referendum at the September 2024 Local Council Elections. Of course, a rescission motion is likely to be called for the April meeting when Cr Cook will return to chambers.

Cr Rob does appear to have a personal dislike for the job Mayor Steve Krieg is doing by his motion of no confidence against him and asking him to resign. Cr Rob's motion did not receive support from any other councillor in the chamber making it feel like a one-person crusade.

There was a Code of Conduct matter that councillors had to discuss and vote on which involved Cr Rob. Before going into confidential, Cr Rob asked that this be discussed in the public forum, "I've got nothing to hide, I've got no concerns. I don't care what happens but I really think we shouldn't go into confidential on this because it's a loaded process and no procedural fairness."

All other councillors voted to go into confidential with the motion reading "That council does not support the investigator's recommendations to censure Councilor Big Rob as it does not consider section 440G of the Local Government Act 1993 was breached."

Crs Bing, Colby, Gordon, Hall and Jensen voted for the motion with Crs Bird, Ekins, Guise and Krieg voting against.

This is not the first time that council has not accepted the investigator's recommendations, apart from September last year when Cr Rob was censured, you would have to search back a long way to when any councillors did. As many councillors have told the Lismore App before, this process is a toothless tiger.

For the record, a 440G Formal censure of councillor for misconduct is:

(1) A council may by resolution at a meeting formally censure a councillor for misconduct.

(3) A council may pass a formal censure resolution only if it is satisfied that the councillor has engaged in misconduct on one or more occasions.

(4) The council must specify in the formal censure resolution the grounds on which it is satisfied that the councillor should be censured.

(5) A motion for a formal censure resolution may, without limitation, be moved on the report of a committee of the council and any such report must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the council.

In positive news for the community, the Affordable and Diverse Housing Strategy and the Community Engagement Plan were unanimously voted for.

The next Lismore City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, 11 April at 6pm.