An item on the agenda of tonight's Lismore City Council meeting will be of interest to Lismore App readers, a potential change to the way we elect our mayor.

Councillor Big Rob has put up a motion to change the procedure from a publicly elected mayor to one elected by our eleven (11) elected councillors. If successful, this would ultimately be decided by the people of Lismore.

Currently, our popularly elected mayor has a four-year term, until the next local council elections. A council-elected mayor can hold the office for two years, so an election would be held mid-term.

The majority of the 128 councils in NSW use the council-elected method, however, the north coast and the Northern Rivers favour the popularly elected mayor method to determine who should represent our city.

In the Lismore City Council (LCC) business papers, Councillor Rob's reason was to save ratepayers money each and every election and to ensure the Mayor is more accountable to councillors, who are in turn accountable to residents in the Lismore local government area.

According to the Governance and Risk Manager, the approximate cost for the public to elect a mayor is 10% of the cost to run a local council election, which is $426,000. So, a rough saving of $42,600 every four years.

If money was one of the key factors, Cr Rob could have saved council approximately $50,000 per year for two councillors' wages when the motion to cut the number of councillors from 11 to 9 was put forward in the March meeting this year. This was initially passed 5/5 with Mayor Krieg's deciding vote and then defeated 6/5 when Cr Darlene Cook was back in chambers after a rescission motion was successful.

It is more likely that Cr Rob wants to make the Mayor more accountable to councillors.

Cr Rob has put forward numerous motions asking that Mayor Krieg resign from his position in the last twelve months due to "A very poor performance to date".

None of Cr Rob's motions were seconded so the issues were never debated and never voted on.

A publicly elected mayor can not be removed by councillors.

As was the case with the number of Lismore City Councillors, the potential change is determined by the residents of Lismore at the next local council election which is September 2024. If successful, the change would take place following the 2028 elections.

We wait to see if Cr Rob's motion receives a seconder and is debated in chambers tonight.

The LCC October meeting starts at 6pm.