COUNCILLOR Ian Smith was elected as the new mayor of the Moyne Shire for a term of one year at Tuesday’s special council meeting, while Councillor Daniel Meade was elected as deputy mayor.

It was the third time councillors had placed their nominations and votes for their preferred candidates with two of those coming at the first meeting.

An intentional exit from Councillor Jim Doukas at last week’s meeting left it at three votes apiece between Councillor Jordan Lockett and Councillor Damian Gleeson, which resulted in a deadlock.

Cr Smith said it was an honour to be recognised and was determined to get on with the job quickly, despite the drawn-out election process.

 He said he and his fellow councillors were keen to ensure Moyne was in a position to recover strongly as the state opened up and things returned to normal after lockdowns and restrictions.

“We have already taken a very active approach to supporting our communities - our Love Local campaign was a call to arms to remind the community to support our small business,” Cr Smith said

“That support will be vital again as we recover and welcome people back to see what our fantastic shire has to offer.

“There are a number of programs ready to launch that will again encourage people to experience everything Moyne has to offer.

“We also have our largest ever capital works program which has a particular focus on improving the condition of our local road network.”

Cr Smith paid tribute to outgoing mayor, Cr Meade and commended his efforts during a challenging period – this came after Cr Meade did not seek re-election after two terms in the role.

“Daniel led the council brilliantly though the pandemic and the lockdowns,” Cr Smith said.

“He was a strong advocate for Moyne right throughout and remained engaged with and supported the community, despite not being able to attend events because of lockdowns.”

Prior to the nominations for mayor, Cr Doukas sought clarification around which actions he was able to take during the official voting.

“If I don’t wish to vote for a particular candidate, how do I go about that?” he asked.

Moyne Shire chief executive officer, Bill Millard responded saying he was within his rights to not vote in the mayoral election.

“If you are in the meeting, then that would be registered as a vote against but in an election process, it is about how many votes for,” Mr Millard said.

Councillor Karen Foster was first to nominate a candidate selecting Cr Lockett who accepted the nomination.

In a change from last week’s election, previous candidate Cr Gleeson nominated Cr Smith who also accepted.

Cr Doukas had said during the week that he was going to nominate Cr James Purcell as he thought he was the “best candidate”.

This is exactly what happened, however Cr Purcell again declined the nomination and decided not to run for mayor.

“I thank Cr Doukas for the nomination, but I won’t accept as there will already be a contest,” he said.

Nominations concluded and it was voting time as Cr Lockett and Cr Smith were the two candidates left to battle it out for mayor.

Cr Lockett received three votes, while Cr Smith received the remaining four votes with support from Cr Doukas who voted for the new candidate. Cr Smith received an absolute majority of the votes with four and was elected as the mayor of the Moyne Shire.