Cr Epov was the only councillor not to seek a place on one of the external committees at the council meeting on Wednesday, January 12. He confirmed he will seek a place on council committees to be determined in coming months.

"The first point I would like to make is that these are not council committees, but rather external committees, where council participates either as a member, and/or pays a fee (such as the Hunter Joint Organisation or Arts Mid North Coast), or where council is invited to nominate representatives (which could be a council officer or a councillor) to a committee, set up by some other body,'' Cr Epov said in a statement to the Times explaining his decision.

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"Participation in these external committees costs council a great deal of money and time. In my view council should cease its participation in at least six of those 15 external committees and a review has been foreshadowed.

"As an example, council contributes a membership fee of around $30,000 to Arts Mid North Coast, plus the cost of sending delegates to meetings. Our community would be far better off using this money (and adding a little more), to employ a full time dedicated arts officer.

"When the issue of the composition of these committees was first raised at the councillor workshop on January 5, I suggested the method to manage the process. My suggestion was that we should list all the external committees on the very large whiteboard in the committee room and then councillors could express their interest by writing down their names next to the committees of interest.

"This suggestion was universally accepted by the councillors present on that day.''

Cr Epov said he arrived at the councillors' pre-meeting briefing on January 12 at 9.20 for a 9.30 start.

"On entering the committee room I found it was occupied by the councillors who went on to vote for Cr Pontin as mayor and Cr Tickle as deputy mayor, and several staff members. The white board had been filled with names for most of the committees.

Cr Epov claims that one councillor had her name down for five committees, and another had his name listed for four.

"Not wishing to dampen anyone's enthusiasm and from the tenure of conversations, it appeared certain things had been settled, so I refrained from adding my name,'' he said.

He added that the council meeting minutes show that the appointments to all 15 committees were made through one single motion by Cr Katheryn Smith.

"As such, there was no structured pathway to actually stand for election,'' he said.

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"Council committees will most likely be appointed in the coming months. I intend to nominate and stand for election for those committees where I have the skill, experience, knowledge and the background to make the best possible contribution for the community. Those committees are the general manager's performance review committee; audit risk and improvement committee; economic development working group; Manning River estuary coastal management program reference group.

"I also intend to propose several other new committees to council at the appropriate time.''

In the previous council term Cr Epov chaired the flood plain management committee which managed to complete flood studies across many of our river catchments and to put forward a range of recommendations in relation to helping flood proof our vulnerable areas.

"This was all achieved during the COVID-19. I was also a member of the economic development working group which did not meet in the last two years of that term,'' Cr Epov added.

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