Narrandera Shire Council has re-elected its Mayor Neville Kschenka but elected a new deputy to replace Cr Cameron Lander at its meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

Mayor Kschenka was the only candidate for the mayor’s position so was elected unopposed.

There were two candidates for the deputy mayor position, Crs Jenny Clarke (a former mayor) and Cr Sue Ruffles.

A ballot was conducted for the deputy mayor and resulted in a tie 4-all so the hat was brought out and Cr Ruffles was declared the successful candidate.

Cr Clarke expressed her disappointment that when she had previously asked the mayor to support her candidature for the deputy’s position he had refused, and left it at that.

Mayor Kschenka responded that he had already agreed to support another candidate when Cr Clarke had made the request.

Speaking after the meeting Mayor Kschenka said he was very privileged to be re-elected but was fully aware of the challenges ahead and felt very fortunate that he had a good team of councillors to work with.

“I have been mayor for seven years now, we face challenges but you deal with each one as they come, as long as you know you’re doing the right thing, you shouldn’t have any worries,” he said.

“I’ve been in Narrandera for 60 years this year, I came here as a teenager and I’ve seen many things happening in the town and had a lot of experiences myself so it really is a privilege to be mayor of Narrandera.

“I also want to thank the senior staff that we work with every day – they have certainly assisted me in providing the information that helps us make the decisions that we make, we’re lucky to have such a good team.

“I’d also like to congratulate Cr Ruffles on becoming Deputy Mayor. It’s her first time as deputy and as I said I am very lucky to have a good team of councillors to work through the coming challenges, particularly the proposed special rate variation which will be a topic of conversation over time,” he said.

Mayor Kschenka was referring to the Council’s decision later in the meeting to endorse the undertaking of community consultation on a potential application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal for a proposed permanent Special Variation (SV) of either a one year SV of 41.5 per cent in 2024-25 (including the forecasted rate peg of 3.5 per cent) or a two year SV of 25.5 per cent in 2024-25 (including the forecasted rate peg of 3.5 per cent) and 18.0 per cent in 2025-26 (including the forecasted rate peg of 2.5 per cent).

This represents a cumulative Special Variation of 48.1 per cent over two years, as detailed in a report to the meeting.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 21 September 2023.

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