In response to last nights Lismore City Council meeting attempt to remove new General Manager John Walker (Plot to remove new GM fails at council meeting) the Mayor of Lismore Steve Krieg has released a statement publicly supporting Mr Walker and asking that all councillors be united and focused on the job of rebuilding Lismore.

As the Mayor of Lismore City Council, I would like to personally and publicly apologise to our wonderful community for the recent distractions occurring at a local government level.

Over the last fourteen weeks the general manager and myself have worked tirelessly to gain the support needed from both the state and federal governments to rebuild our City. Our focus has been to assist and support the many thousands of homes and businesses who have been dealing with life-changing impacts of one of the worst natural disasters in Australian history.

During Tuesday night’s monthly Council meeting, several attempts were made to discredit the work that has been achieved, including trying to stop a restructure of the Council to better align the organisation to meet the needs of our community, and most disappointingly the attempted sacking of the General Manager.

I would like to publicly acknowledge the great work that Mr Walker has already achieved and the direction our Council is heading under his leadership. I want to publicly restate my full support of Mr Walker and hope that the political grandstanding can now cease so that we can move forward united in the goal of making Lismore the best that it can be.

Steve Krieg

Mayor of Lismore City Council