The mayor is promoting an argument about the permanency of a popularly elected mayor and warns that, if we ended up with a mayor who, in Mayor West's words "turns out to be a dud", we would be stuck with him or her for the full four years.

The mayor prefers the method that MidCoast Council was given by the merger proclamation in 2016, when our new council was set up, which is that the councillors alone elect the mayor every two years.

This is the default method given under section 227 of NSW Local Government Act for all councils until such time as the citizens decide otherwise by a councillor initiated constitutional referendum.

Interestingly, the mayor is silent about the fact that all councillors normally hold office for the full four year term and we cannot change that even if we are dissatisfied with them and this could include our dissatisfaction about denying us a democratic referendum and the error of a costly office centralisation project on Biripi Way in an era of decentralisation.

I may not be happy to be stuck with these councillors but I must be gracious in putting up with them out of respect for the relatively good democratic system under which we operate.