LEETON Shire residents will go to the polls after all with the Minister for Local Government unable to exempt it from a by-election for a ninth councillor.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With only eight nominees for nine positions at this year's local government elections, council had approached the minister, Don Page, to allow it to function with the vacancy.
However, the minister has since replied that under the Local Government Act, he has no power to exempt council from the by-election.
Mr Page believes it is in the public interest to allow ratepayers to elect a representative to fill the vacancy.
One of the reasons councillors voted to approach the minister for an exemption was the cost of a shire-wide election for one person.
Council will hold an extraordinary meeting tomorrow evening to vote on a recommendation by general manager John Batchelor that the NSW Electoral Commissioner be appointed to conduct the by-election on December 8.
"Basically, it means a normal election," Mr Batchelor said. "We will try and rein in some of the costs.
"We are the only council in NSW that will be having a by-election at this time. The commission will be able to provide a bit of support.
"We are looking at ways of not having all the booths we would normally have, the cost of materials, staff, equipment. We are looking to reduce overheads in that way."
Council estimated the cost of an election in September would be about $85,000, with costs for a returning officer of about $25,000 to $30,000.
This effectively leaves about $55,000 to conduct a by-election and Mr Batchelor believes with the cost-saving measures that could be achieved.
While there is no timetable in place, once a returning officer has been appointed by council, the next step would be to call for nominations for the vacant position.
"Since the notification there were only eight nominations for nine council positions, I have had two or three people indicate they would be prepared to put their hand up for that ninth spot," Mr Batchelor said.
"I don't know what interest is out there, but I would be hopeful that we would have a small pool of ratepayer representatives."
The election would be called for December 8 as three months is the maximum time allowable after the elections in September to hold a by-election.
"Unfortunately we're getting into that Christmas time," Mr Batchelor said. "That's the latest we would have wanted it to be."