In the first meeting of the newly elected Ballina Council lineup, the conservative majority yesterday used its numbers to fill key positions for the next term.
The names nominated for deputy mayor were Crs Eva Ramsey, Damian Loone and Simon Chate.
Despite his complete lack of council experience, Mayor Cadwallader’s team-member and former police detective Cr Loone was elected deputy mayor.
After the revelation that $45,000 of Ballina Council’s budget was spent on code of conduct disputes with misbehaving councillors in the previous short term (mostly relating to a certain councillor who did not stand for re-election), the next vote related to who would be representing Ballina at Rous County Council for the next term.
Rous County Council
Made up of representatives from all Northern Rivers councils, Rous is responsible for crucial decisions about water management and weeds across the region.
There were four nominations for two positions; Crs Kiri Dicker, Phil Meehan, Eva Ramsey and Cadwallader. In an unsurprising decision, Cr Cadwallader was returned. She will be joined at Rous County Council by Lennox Head’s Eva Ramsey, replacing former Cr Rod Bruem.
The mayor and deputy mayor were then approved as delegates to the Northern Regional Planning Panel.
Crs Simon Chate and Therese Crollick will be the new Ballina Council delegates to the Richmond Tweed Regional Library Committee, with the mayor and respective ward representatives appointed as council delegates to the chambers of commerce for each region.
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The agenda for Thursday's meeting includes six notices of motion from four councillors, with issues including missing persons, volunteer recognition, and arts funding. Construction on a $4.35 million flood-resilience upgrade of Ross Lane at Lennox Head is due to begin today, ahead of a nine-week closure of the busy road later this month. With Ballina Shire Council General Manager Paul Hickey deciding to retire after almost twenty years in the role, and even longer as a staff member, the task of finding a replacement has begun. Cr Damien Loone was also returned as Deputy Mayor after Cr Simon Chate withdrew his nomination. September's meeting opened with a minute's silence for much-loved community member and Lennox Head restaurant owner Blake Rogers, who lost his life last week. Fresh from winning pre-selection as the Nationals candidate for the state seat of Ballina, the 'independent' first-term Ballina councillor Michelle Bailey has put forward a notice of motion asking Council to scrap its fixed 2030 net-zero target in favour of what she describes as a 'flexible sustainability strategy'.
Big meeting for Ballina Council this week
Ross Lane flood-resilience works begin ahead of nine-week closure
Ballina Council will be getting a new general manager
Ballina debates dog parks and net zero
Michelle Bailey targets net zero in Ballina
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