Cr Jon Galletly has said he would be pleased to attend a meeting with Armidale Regional Council Mayor Simon Murray with an independent mediator if it helped improve relationships with councillors and did not cost the ratepayers a fortune.
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His comments follow Cr Murray's announcement that he was committed to mending relationships within council, and had requested the chief executive officer to identify an independent mediator to assist.
"It will need to be someone who is experienced in local government, understands governance and is a very skilled facilitator, dealing with diverse personalities and agendas," Cr Murray said.
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His announcement followed Friday's extraordinary council meeting when a Notice of Motion signed by seven councillors expressed no confidence in the mayor and urged him to step down. It was carried six to four.
Cr Galletly said he was quite willing to attend such a meeting.
"As long as the ratepayer's money isn't wasted the way that it was the last time he got someone to come in here, and he just shelved it and threw it to one side," he said.
"It was a pretty extensive report that Glen Inglis gave us and I just don't want him wasting any more of our money.
"To be honest, I haven't seen the report for a while. I read through and there was another councilor who didn't have one so I gave it to them, and I haven't received one since. It was a few months ago, but I would love to actually have a look at it again and see what actually was stated."
Cr Murray said that previous attempts at mediation to address personality issues, improve the understanding of the role of councillors and to create a more cohesive council failed in 2019.
"But we need to find some common ground and put our differences aside for the good of the region. I am certainly not giving up on getting this council to work together.
"I am confident that all councillors will work towards our common goal of putting our community first.
"We have some hard decisions to make in the forthcoming months, and it would be irresponsible of us to fight among ourselves rather than focus on the community leadership necessary to make the right decisions."
Cr Galletly said he he would like the mayor to listen to what the councillors were saying to him.
"That's all that I want. All that I want is for the mayor to listen to the councillors because I know that i've never been able to get through to him, and I have tried and tried.
"And i know from speaking to some of the other councillors that they can't get through to him too.
"He doesn't appear to be a very good listener to me."
There were also another two motions passed at the extraordinary meeting which were put forward by the mayor.
The first acknowledged programs and outcomes successfully achieved as a result of economies of scale, unity of purpose, teamwork, good leadership and more effective use of pooled resources from the creation of Armidale Regional Council.
The second was councillors were fully committed to working together for the benefit of the whole region, to continue to deliver much needed projects, even though the drought will have a major impact on council's financial position this year.
"I was very heartened that by unanimously agreeing to work together last Friday, councillors really meant it and will participate in the intervention," Cr Murray said.
"For this process to succeed, all parties must participate and concede that compromises must be made."
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