Councillors call for mayor Simon Murray's resignation at extraordinary meeting

The only item on the agenda was a petition from seven councillors: Margaret O'Connor, Peter Bailey, Debra O'Brien, Dorothy Robinson, Ian Tiley, Jon Galletly and Andrew Murat.

They requested Mayor Simon Murray resign, which he did not.

Cr Murray compared the councillors calling for his resignation to mutineers on a ship.

About 30 people filled out the gallery - some perhaps hoping they would witness the splash as he was thrown overboard.

Former Guyra Shire Council mayor Hans Hietbrink was present; he described the meeting as disgusting. "If you have a problem with the mayor, you get together in a meeting room, and you sort the issue out. Don't bring it into the public domain," he said.

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Cr Murray has been mayor since the the first election of Armidale Regional Council in 2017 after the amalgamation of Armidale and Guyra councils.

In a speech to the council chamber, Cr Murray said the vote of no confidence would destroy any hope of the new council working effectively together.

"It is a vote that will forever set us apart, create distrust and puts personal agendas ahead of community needs," the mayor said.

"It is a vote that no rational person, committed to the further growth and development of this council, could or should make. I hope it is now clear that I have no intention of stepping down."

He said his intention was to continue to perform his duties to the best of his abilities for the remaining term of council, to ensure stable leadership and delivery on council's programs for the benefit of the whole community.

"What some obviously disgruntled and short-sighted members of our council are planning is as foolhardy as a ship crew mutineering and throwing the captain overboard, as he tries to steer the ship into home port."

Cr Margaret O'Connor unsuccessfully tried to truncate his delivery with a point of order, reminding him that he was well over time, but Cr Murray continued.

"This council is at the headlands of a safe harbour, and to let our passengers, our ratepayers, see a dysfunctional, irrational, divisive band of mutineers now will only create concern and panic," he said.

"Australia's political history in the past two decades has shown how white anting and attempts to depose a leader have undermined and weakened political parties, and how the voters have expressed their disappointment by walking away in droves.

"We cannot permit this to happen in the embryonic stages of this new council. We have much to achieve yet and we must set our resolve to do so."

Cr Murray said he was not going to step down, and moved that:

Both parts of the motion were voted on separately and both were passed, the second part unanimously.

The Notice of Motion calling on Cr Murray to step down as Mayor was also passed by council by six votes to four. (Cr Ian Tiley was absent.) The meeting ended at 9.42am.

Cr Jon Galletly described the meeting as another stepping stone, Cr Brad Widders said nothing was achieved, and Cr Andrew Murat said he felt very much like the man in the middle.

"I've got six councillors that the mayor will not interact with on one side, and three on the other. I talk to the mayor on a regular basis; we've got a pretty good personal contact," Cr Murat said.

"But on this occasion, I just feel that the majority of councillors have been disenfranchised, and I supported them this morning."

Cr Di Gray said she was struggling to understand the logic behind it all.

"I'm absolutely smashed by this. I work on boards, I understand governance, I feel the love of the community when we give, and when we pull together," she said.

"I've witnessed the great things that happen when people work as a team."

Cr Dorothy Robinson thought calling out problems was not disloyal.

"It's being loyal to our community to make sure that problems are fixed so we achieve the best possible results," she said.

"We didn't want a public meeting, but it was the only option to address the many problems that have been raised but so far been ignored."

Deputy mayor Libby Martin said she supported the mayor and his leadership of the council. She described the motion of no confidence as shallow and self-serving.

"I was totally against the motion, even though it was worthy of a Gold Logie nomination for its melodramatic, time-wasting content."

Cr Peter Bailey said he thought the message that a lot of councillors were unhappy had been sent to the mayor, and he hoped he had listened.

"We've tried to do this behind closed doors, and it hasn't worked. We've now aired our concerns in public. Hopefully he has listened to our concerns and will try to be more supportive towards his councillors," he said.

"We've been talking to him for over 12 months. I voted to return him as mayor because he said he would change. We've made our points, now we've got to move on. "

Cr O'Connor said it was important for councillors to respond when they received a flood of complaints from the community.

"We really did want to keep this behind closed doors. We really did want to keep this an internal, private matter and say nothing," she said.

"The leadership issue is all this meeting today was all about. It's pretty simple ... leader steps aside.

"Now the community knows where seven of their councillors are standing. We want a new leader, the leader is digging in. Simple as that."

Hans Hietbrink thought it was terrible that councillors had brought this issue to the public.

"What this has done is brought out the fact that this council is going to be perceived as dysfunctional, and it did not need to occur."

Mr Hietbrink said if Armidale councillors had tried to resolve their problems with the mayor privately, and were unsuccessful, then they had not tried hard enough.

"The real issue is ratepayers will vote for people because they like them, not necessarily because they think they will do a good job on council," he said.

"What you need on a council is people who are going to represent the community.

"What we've got on this council is some people who've got egos that are huge, with their knickers in a twist because they weren't elected as mayor, they didn't get elected as deputy-mayor - and all they're doing is creating an undercurrent of discontent."

Mr Hietbrink said councillors needed to get on with the job of managing the council and managing the region.