In an extraordinary first sitting of Lismore City Council last night General Manager Shelley Oldham lost her job following a confidential session that ended at 12:30am.

Newly elected Mayor Vanessa Ekins said that Ms Oldham was not sacked.

"Council made a decision to end her employment contract under a no fault clause," Mayor Ekins said.

The enforcement of this clause is effective immediately with Michael Donnelly being appointed as Acting General Manager until a replacement can be found or until council appoints a new acting General Manager.

In the meantime, councillors will put out an expression of interest in the market to look for a new General Manager on a 12-month contract. "This will leave time for the newly elected council in September to employ a full-time General Manager," Mayor Ekins said.

"Shelley Oldham worked very hard on the transformation plan to turn Lismore City Council's financial position around," Mayor Ekins added, "Here we are as a council with a focus on getting the budget together in the next seven months. We need to address our finances and waste management strategy leading into the September elections."

Mayor Ekins went on to explain how LCC's financial position is linked to the state government's poor funding of our local road system.

"Local government looks after 77% of the road network and Lismore has one of the largest in NSW. We struggle to maintain our roads because of the lack of funding from the state government."

"We need to lobby them for a fair share of funding."

Former GM Shelley Oldham told the Lismore App that within council there exists an "unethical, toxic environment". "The general public need to know what is going on in that council," Ms Oldham said.

"All senior executive staff have a 'no fault' clause," Ms Oldham added, "if they get bored with you they can enforce the clause."

As for the reported $275,000 payout figure, "This is a sum that needs to be negotiated when we sit down together, which is the usual practice."

Ms Oldham recently purchased a farm and an investment property in the 2480 postcode so is invested in the community.

"I am seriously thinking of running against them at the next council elections in September," Ms Oldham said, "This city needs to go ahead."

"You have people that voted for a $16 million project like GSAC against a $2 million business case. You can't afford to have business listen to the way councillors deal with new development applications. It doesn't breed confidence to want to invest in Lismore."

Ms Oldham did say she leaves when council was about to announce $58 million worth of new grant revenue for the 2022 year.

"The team at Lismore City Council are fantastic and always pushing hard to get money in to help our community," Ms Oldham said, "There will be detail as to what the grant money will be spent on soon, no doubt".

If the first council meeting of 2021 is anything to go by, stay tuned for part II at 6pm tonight.

Due to the long time spent on the Two Mates Brewing DA application and in the confidential session the rest of the business paper will be completed tonight, this includes a quarterly budget review statement so we can see the financial situation of the Lismore City Council as they move from an $8 million deficit to a break even point.

This was driven by the General Manager Shelley Oldham as part of the 'transformation plan'.