In early March last year the Iemma government sacked the city's councillors, after ICAC's initial findings the council had suffered systemic corruption.

We won't go back over all the details, suffice to say that this newspaper agreed a clean sweep was required. Drastic action was needed in drastic times.

But this only ever should have been a temporary removal of democracy - until such time that adequate processes, particularly in the planning department, were established and running smoothly. And if that is not the case now, how long must we wait? Surely not another three years.

We wondered what residents thought about the prospect of being left without democratically elected representatives for such a long period. So we commissioned our own poll and found a majority of residents want the council reinstated - and sooner rather than later.

We were somewhat surprised. Administrators of local government areas often receive strong support because they get on with business, unencumbered by the usual procrastination, petty politics and grandstanding that can occur in council chambers.

However, there are frustrations within the council and wider community, particularly in the business sector, that the administrators are needlessly delaying developments and avoiding moving outside the status quo. The shorthand for these criticisms is that the administrators are being populist and taking a "do nothing" approach.

Our main contention for the return of councillors centres on a more philosophical argument. (Indeed, we are hardly excited by the prospect the Labor Party will probably just roll out its usual suspects come the council polls.)

We don't think it is acceptable that elections are not held in dictator-led regimes overseas. And it is unacceptable, in a country that cherishes and celebrates democracy, that residents in the City of Wollongong are denied the vote, certainly for any extended period.

If it is the intention of this State Government to continue to deny Wollongong residents the right to vote then it is incumbent on it to fully justify its position on a regular basis while the situation remains.

It would be hypocritical for the state to, on the one hand, demand local government be absolutely transparent in its processes, while itself failing to specify how and when it will return the council to the people.