Cr Tammy Greenhalgh is the new deputy mayor of Orange City Council.
ELECTION: Mayor Tony Mileto congratulates newly-elected Deputy Mayor Cr Tammy Greenhalgh during last night"s meeting.
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In short: First Council meeting of the new term held last night.
A new deputy mayor is chosen: Cr Tammy Greenhalgh
What's next: The Council will continue to meet twice each month
Cr Greenhalgh was elected Deputy Mayor at last night's Council meeting, the first of the new term since the September 14 local government election.
Cr Greenhalgh is serving in her 2nd term of Council after being first elected at the 2021 poll.
Cr Greenhalgh was nominated along with Cr Kevin Duffy and Cr Steve Peterson.
After a ballot. (Cr Greenhalgh – 6 votes, Cr Duffy - 3 votes & Cr Peterson – 3 votes) Cr Duffy and Cr Peterson withdrew their nominations and Cr Greenhalgh was declared elected.
Former deputy mayor Cr Gerald Power did not stand for re-election.
In a short agenda, last night's meeting also voted on a number of arrangements for the Council's next four year term.
The meeting began with each of the 12 recently-elected councillors taking the oath or affirmation of office.
Fortnightly meetings to stay
Council meetings will continue to be held twice a month during the next term.
The Council considered a report which floated a proposal for meetings to be held once a month.
According to the report 73% of the NSW's 128 Council hold meetings once a month, and 51 or about 40% of Councils start their meetings during the day - anywhere from 8.45am - 4pm.
The new Council decided to continue to meet twice each month and to start their meetings at 6.30pm.
Vote countback to choose casual vacancies
Last night's meeting decided on the method to be used to fill any vacancies on Council that emerge during the next 18 months.
Instead of holding a by-election to fill a vacancy, the meeting decided that a countback of votes at the 14 September election would be used to fill the vacancy. The person to fill the vacancy would be the next person who would have been elected at thar election.
Audit committee members appointed
Last night's meeting appointed the members of the Council's Audit, Risk and Audit, Risk & Improvement Committee (ARIC) for the next term.
The ARIC committee is 'an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve the Council's operations. It helps Council accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.'
The meeting appointed Mr Robert Lagaida, Mr Lewis von Stieglitz and Mr Bill Gillooly as independent member of the ARIC and chose Cr Peterson and Cr Kinghorne as the non-voting Council members of the committee.
Mining committee rep
Cr Kevin Duffy will represent Orange City Council on the Mining and Energy Related Councils Committee (MERC).
MERC is a NSW body which 'resources and advocates on behalf of local councils impacted by mining and energy production'.
