Next year, at the 2020 council elections, the voters in Dungog Shire will directly vote for their mayor. Previously, their mayor was elected only by the councillors but at the last election its voters decided, by constitutional referendum, to change that.
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Dungog will now join the six others, in the Hunter Joint Organisation of local councils, which have a mayor directly elected by the voters - these being Cessnock City, Lake Macquarie City, Port Stephens, Maitland City, Newcastle City and Singleton. This means that over 80 per cent of the population in the Hunter grouping of councils will have a mayor popularly elected by the voters.
MidCoast remains the giant among the minority three councils in the Hunter grouping in which the councillors alone elect the mayor and a motion to initiate a constitutional referendum (under section 228 of the Local Government Act 1993) to give voters in our MidCoast Local Government Area a democratic opportunity to decide how to elect the mayor was defeated at the August 14, 2019 council meeting.
The motion, which was moved by Councillor Bell, seconded by Councillor Epov, and was valiantly supported by Councillor Christensen, seemed to attract opposition because some of the councillors were concerned that a referendum decision would favour a mayor directly elected by the voters.
