On 31 July, The Bugle and Kiama Community Radio hosted a debate on whether the voters of Kiama want to change from a councillor-elected to a directly elected mayor? It’s the referendum question that will be answered on 14 September.

Currently, the councillor-elected mayor serves a two-year term, whilst a directly elected mayor would serve a four-year term.

Around 70 locals gathered at the Kiama Leagues Club on Wednesday night to hear both sides of the argument. Former Kiama mayors (Brian Petschler, Neville Fredericks, Sandra McCarthy), current councillors (Stuart Larkins, Matt Brown, and Karen Renkema-Lang), local businessman (Mike Cains) and a directly elected Mayor (Chris Homer of Shellharbour) were the debaters.

Here is a summary of the for and against arguments, as presented by both teams:

Views of the FOR team:

Direct election supports democracy – ‘people rule’ – the decision is in your hands. Direct elections have worked well in other LGAs.

A directly elected Mayor is directly accountable to the community-at-large and all the thousands of voters, not just the (4-8) councillors. The power to choose is in the voters’ hands.

The direct election of the mayor does not propose wards for council or mean an extra councillor. If the proposal is successful, the community will still have an elected council body of nine members: eight councillors and one mayor.

An increasing number of councils have adopted direct mayoral elections: Wollongong, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla, and Bega. Smaller councils than Kiama have also done it, such as Uralla, Bellingen and Dungog with voting populations of 10,000 people (Kiama has 18,000) have directly elected mayors. Some councils without wards have directly elected mayors.

As a voter, you can check the candidates’ profiles on LinkedIn to ascertain their background and experience. You can talk to them prior to the election and ask them if they are willing to work full-time for the community? Or remain part-time. You are getting plenty of value for their time. 

It allows for someone ‘fresh’ to come in, rather than just the major political parties “locked and loaded” for the next 10 years – having done ‘backroom deals’ to take turns at the role of mayor.

There are examples of councils where the councillor-elected mayor has changed over far too often: i.e. Wollondilly, where over a 27-year period from 1993 – 2020, there were 21 mayors – with an average term of 15 months. Clearly a dysfunctional ‘revolving door.

A high turnover can result in decades of little planning, and little progress. By directly electing a mayor, Kiama LGA can avoid the turnover.

In those 27 years in Wollondilly of “everybody gets a prize,” you can imagine what endeavours occupied the time of councillors.... Councillor-elected Mayors would spend their two-year term looking over their shoulder shoring up support – their opponents, particularly the ones they had disposed of to get there in the first place. Their time would be spent, not in the service of the ratepayers, but sharpening their knives in readiness for another round of backstabbing and treachery. You can imagine the borderline corrupt horse-trading of councillors... The “you scratch my back, I scratch yours”-deal.

If only in the role for two years, the mayor might get more involved in short-term political decisions that favour their next mayoral electoral cycle – which is another one or two – instead of a four-year role where they would take a more long-term view.  

We have already seen animosities and petty squabbles; court cases and censures spill out onto the floor of Kiama’s chamber. To say that this couldn't happen to us is the height of optimism. The worst that can happen with a directly elected Mayor is that we get a dud mayor for four years. The worst-case scenario with our current system is unthinkable.

A directly elected Mayor takes these moral hazards out of play: focuses councillors on their jobs and sets us up for a future of delivery.

There is a small additional cost to the council election budget every four years of only $20-22,000. That’s only $1.20 per voter.

There is a way out if the elected mayor is not up for the job, as the Minister for Local Government can remove them, whether elected by councillors or directly elected, as happened in Canada Bay in December 2023. 

Kiama is the best place to raise a family and start a business. We can't risk future progress in an unstable democracy.

The debaters.

Views of AGAINST team:

There is no good reason to change. Speaking from experience (with three former mayors on this side): “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

The mayor needs to engage with the general manager, media and the public, as well as report on Council matters. So, the only change would be a four-year term, rather than a two-year term. 

With no easy way to replace an underperforming directly elected mayor, there are no benefits to having them locked into a four-year term. There may be risks though: Primarily if the elected mayor does not have majority support from councillors, they have a serious problem becoming a “paper tiger.”

The public may not be aware that without the support of the other councillors, it’s difficult to carry ideas forward. Then, there’s a risk of councils being sacked. The mayor needs to demonstrate leadership and if they are not backed, they become ineffective – practically - and the council is at risk of dysfunction.

The original adjustment to the act in the early 90’s was for the larger councils, such as Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. Later came Parramatta, Blacktown and Liverpool. In Wollongong, Lord Mayor Harrison was allegedly at odds with the general manager and the councillors. Different views lead to dysfunction and the minister had to act to dismiss that council and the mayor. Currently in Liverpool, the mayor has allegedly acted to dismiss the general manager. 

There is no good reason to change to this method just because other councils have done it.

Kiama is not ‘political’, although some are identified as political party members. Most councillors consider issues on their own merit.

Why would we want to pay more money for a system with a greater risk?

We don’t need to ‘Americanise’ our council, in terms of everything being related to the popular vote.

Over the last 30 years, all our mayors have served full terms.

Staying as we are means ‘getting more bang for your buck’ – getting more and costing less.

We have checks and balances every two years to choose whether or not to replace the mayor.

The Local Government Act aligns with the Federal and State parliament for protocol and meeting procedure. Australian citizens do not directly elect the Prime Minister and Premier, and the majority of councils in NSW do not directly elect their mayor.

Our current system encourages the mayor to be an inclusive leader, to understand the skills, strengths and weaknesses of the elected councillors and harness the combined knowledge and expertise as the governing body of the council and engaging with the community. It is a team approach.

It is a system that votes for ideas and policy first above popular people.

Mayors that are elected by the voters in an area serve a four-year term. These mayors are elected in addition to the elected councillors. A person elected as mayor cannot also be elected as a councillor in the same area.

It is possible to concurrently put yourself up for mayor or councillor, or both. A person can only hold one of those roles. If this referendum succeeds, then the number of councillors remains at eight in total, plus the mayor.

At the conclusion of the debate, including the Q&A, the attendees voted in favour of a directly elected mayor: 54.2 percent for to 45.8 percent against. Some attendees chose to abstain. 

This is quite a small sample, so it could go either way come 14 September when the Kiama LGA will decide in the referendum that accompanies the local government elections. 

Kiama Council has updated its FAQs page as there seemed to be some confusion at the end of the question time on the night. Here are the links.

https://www.kiama.nsw.gov.au/Council/Local-Government-Election-2024/Referendum-Electing-a-Mayor

https://www.kiama.nsw.gov.au/Council/News/Mayoral-referendum-and-elections-FAQs-update