The newly elected MidCoast Council got together for its first ordinary meeting at the Taree administration centre, Yalawanya Ganya, on Wednesday, January 12.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The first two items on the agenda was the election of the new mayor and deputy mayor, with Cr Claire Pontin being voted mayor and Cr Alan Tickle being voted deputy mayor.
The voting was done by show of hands (an open vote), which was the only way possible as Cr Peter Howard attended the meeting via Zoom.
Council had to pass a resolution to accept the open vote before it could go ahead.
However Peter Epov and Dheera Smith voted against an open vote, despite there being no other option; the resolution was passed with a majority vote.
Following the election, the meeting determined councillor representatives to various external committees for the following 12 months as follows:
- Hunter Joint Organisation - mayor Claire Pontin
- Mid North Weight of Loads Group - no councillor
- Arts Mid North Coast - Cr Jeremy Miller
- Bushfire Management Committee - Cr Alan Tickle/ alternate Cr Paul Sandilands
- NSW RFS District Liaison Committee - Cr Paul Sandilands/ alternate Cr Alan Tickle
- NSW Public Libraries Association - Cr David West/ alternate Cr Dheera Smith
- Hunter Regional Weeds Committee - Cr Dheera Smith/ alternate Cr Katheryn Smith
- Joint Regional Planning Panel - Cr David West and Cr Alan Tickle/ alternate Cr Kathryn Bell
- Local Traffic Committee - Cr Troy Fowler/ alternate Cr Peter Howard
- Manning Valley Liquor Consultative Committee - Cr Troy Fowler/ alternate Cr Jeremy Miller
- Stroud Heritage Conservation Inc - Cr Paul Sandilands
- Duralie Coal Mine Community Consultative Committee - Cr Katheryn Smith and Mayor Claire Pontin
- Stratford Coal Mine Community Consultative Committee - Cr Katheryn Smith/ alternate Mayor Claire Pontin
- Gloucester Exploration Project Community Consultative - Cr Katheryn Smith
- Association of Mining and Energy Related Councils - Cr Katheryn Smith
The meeting also confirmed councillors Pontin, Tickle, Miller, Sandilands and Dheera Smith would attend the Local Government NSW Special Conference, from February 28 to March 2.
Did you know? Great Lakes Advocate online subscribers not only have 24/7 access to local and national news, sport, what's on and entertainment - they also have access to our print edition in digital format, with all the advertisements and classifieds at their fingertips.