Shellharbour and Wollongong councillors could face the sack next year as the NSW government rolls out its proposed amalgamations.
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While uncertainty still surrounds the proposed mergers, Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the possibility of administrators was raised during an online meeting with the Local Government Minister last Friday.
“There was talk about appointing administrators at some stage,” he said.
“Now whether that involves dismissing the councils or the administrators coming in and working with the merging councils, I’m not quite sure.”
Cr Bradbery said he was concerned about the Illawarra’s “civic representation”.
I was a legitimately elected mayor and this council has done no wrong, it has ticked the boxes and yet there’s the possibility of administrators.
- Gordon Bradbery
“I was a legitimately elected mayor and this council has done no wrong, it has ticked the boxes and yet at the same time there’s the possibility of administrators,” he said.
This sentiment was reflected by Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba, who said she expected merging councils to be dismissed.
“There are two options, you either have two lots of councils working together as one council which would be a fairly onerous task to have 13 from Wollongong and seven from Shellharbour coming together,” he said.
“Or you can have administrators put in, and that would be a much easier task to have them put the new councils together.”
She said the administration option had been used during council mergers in Queensland and Victoria.
“For me it just shows complete and utter disregard for the democratic rights of people of the Illawarra,” she said.
“They spent some time in limbo without an elected council, and both councils – Wollongong and Shellharbour – have worked very hard to ensure the current councils have acted appropriately and yet we still find us in this position.”
Despite these concerns, Mr Toole’s office said it would be “business as usual for councils until any new councils are created”.
A spokeswoman said “mayors and councillors will continue to serve their terms through to when new councils are created”.
Meantime in Kiama, more than 1000 residents have already signed a no merger petition, which will be lodged at Kiama MP Gareth Ward’s office on Tuesday morning.
