Armidale's mayor has called for an independent mediator to help mend relationships following a vote of no confidence.
Cr Simon Murray said he remains committed to improving relationships with councillors and has requested the CEO find an independent mediator to assist in mending relationships to ensure the community has confidence in council.
The announcement is in response to a Notice of Motion signed by seven councillors expressing no confidence in the Mayor and urging him to resign.
An Extraordinary Meeting was held on Friday, and the motion was carried six to four in favour of the motion, but the mayor will not step down.
"Previous attempts of mediation in 2019 to address personality issues, improve the understanding of the role of councillors and to create a more cohesive council have failed,” said Cr Murray.
“I am certainly not giving up on getting this council to work together.
We need to find some common ground and put our differences aside for the good of the region.
"As I said, we have some hard decisions to make in the forthcoming months and it would be irresponsible of us to fight amongst ourselves rather than focussing on the leadership of the community that is going to be necessary to make the right decisions."
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Cr Murray said he was confident that all councillors will work towards the common goal of putting our community first.
“For this process to succeed all parties must participate and concede that compromises must be made," he said.
Last week's meeting also passed two motions put by the mayor to the council:
We acknowledge the programs and outcomes that have been successfully achieved as a result of economies of scale, unity of purpose, teamwork, good leadership and more effective use of pooled resources flowing from the creation of Armidale Regional Council.
We as a Council are fully committed to working together, for the benefit of the whole region, to continue to deliver much-needed projects to the community, even though the drought will have a major impact on our financial position this year.
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