But a last minute manoeuvre from Mayor Marianne Saliba will ensure councillors meet at least once more before the NSW government can proclaim its planned Wollongong and Shellharbour merger.

The next meeting was to be held on June 7, days after the council’s scheduled hearing dates in the Land and Environment Court.

To guarantee councillors could meet again, and raise any last minute business before the council was dissolved, Cr Saliba moved that the meeting should instead be held on May 31.

A majority of councillors said they were happy to be able to meet one last time to do their jobs as Shellharbour’s representatives.

But councillor Peter Moran said the move was “just bringing forward a meeting for the sake of it”.

“We might as well accept now that if the merger happens, it is all going to be out of our hands,” he said.

He also worried that moving the meeting indicated the council did not expect its legal action to be successful, as it looked like councillors did not expect to have jobs by the June 7 meeting.

Cr Saliba also launched a successful bid to beef up legal action against the merger, which will allow the council’s lawyers to pursue action against the merger “to the fullest extent”.

On April 26, councillors voted to seek an injunction against the merger until legal proceedings from Woollahra council were resolved. This was successful last week, stopping the government’s merger announcement at the eleventh hour.

Cr Saliba said the council now needed to “do everything we can to maintain our independence.” 

General manager Carey McIntyre said the council’s solicitors and senior counsel were now “working to develop the case” to be put before the court. He said he would keep councillors confidentially  informed about the case “as more is known about the intricacies of it”.

Kellie Marsh welcomed Cr Saliba’s move, saying the council needed to “fight this to the bitter end”.