Democratic elections for a new Shellharbour City Council should take place as soon as possible, according to the Local Government Association of New South Wales and the Shires Association.
 
Shellharbour City Council was sacked yesterday by the State Government amid claims of incompetence and chronic infighting between councillors.

Former Bega Valley Shire Council general manager David Jesson was appointed as administrator until the next council election in 2012.

But the Local Government and Shires Associations of New South Wales (LGSA) believes elections should take place before then.

“We won’t make any comment apart from that democratic elections should take place as soon as possible,” a spokesman for LGSA told Government News.

Mayor of Shellharbour City Council David Hamilton said: “Given everything that’s happened, I don’t think they can hold elections in September, but maybe two years down the track. But not at the moment in this current climate.”

Hamilton said he expected the inquiry to sack the council, and added that his sympathies lie with Shellharbour’s residents. “Well if people are to be honest, it was to be expected. We’ve been dismissed, that’s it.

“The decisions been made, it’s final. I just feel sorry for the residents and the ratepayers. They could end up being the losers in all of this. Any comments I make aren’t going to change anything.”

Shellharbour’s fate follows the sacking of neighbouring councillors in Wollongong after the sex-for-development scandal. The council joins a rogues gallery of NSW councils to have been sacked by the State Government, including Liverpool, Warringah, Port Macquarie, Hastings, Tweed, Broken Hill and Walgett.

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