Editorial - Council vacancies

April 3, 2025

The new Oberon Council was elected in September, 2024. The October Council meeting was mainly to swear in the new Councillors and elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, so the first full meeting was in November, with another in December.

There was no Council meeting in January, 2025, and by the time the February meeting came around, Councillor Jill O'Grady had resigned. She had attended three Council meetings. The replacement process conducted by the NSW Electoral Commission meant that a replacement could not be sworn in until the March meeting, when Councillor Michael Crye took his seat at the table.

He lasted one Council meeting before "relinquishing" the role, triggering another replacement under the NSWEC rules and procedures. A clue as to why he is no longer a Councillor can be found here.

Councillors are elected to serve four year terms. There are obviously some good reasons for Councillors to leave before the end of their term - health, family problems, change in employment location, financial difficulties, ... - but generally people are elected with the expectation that they will serve the full four year term.

Replacing a councillor is not a trivial matter, because the mandatory countback procedure means that at least one Council meeting will happen without a full field of councillors. Also, councillors occupy a variety of committee positions, both internally within Council and across community groups and organisations. As the delegates have to be appointed by Council resolution, these committees are disrupted if they have to wait until there is a full Council again and some cannot operate effectively without a Council delegate.

There is also the matter of cost. Each countback election costs Council about $6,500, so the bill so far is $13,000 that could have been better spent on fixing some playground equipment or filling a few potholes. If none of the failed candidates in the September election put their hands up to fill the casual vacancy there could be another election for just one position, incurring the same costs as the full September election with the same inconvenience for everyone and even more delay before all positions at the table are filled.

Whenever a member of state or federal parliament resigns before the end of their term and triggers a by-election there is always a call for the departing member or his party to cover the costs of electing a replacement.  Nobody cares if the reasons for the departure are valid, but when the reasons are perceptions of a conflict of interest or criminal activity then a reasonable argument can be made for sending someone a bill.

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