At the statutory meeting councillors re-elected Cr Weston for a fourth term and elected Cr Vicki Neele as deputy mayor, both for another year, until the next council elections in 2020.
“I thank my fellow councillors for allowing me to lead this council for another year, the last year of this council’s four-year term,” Cr Weston said after officially taking the chair.
“I look forward to the year ahead, delivering many community projects as funded through our budget, continuing to deliver our services on a day to day basis, and progressing a number of key projects.
“Service and asset planning are top of this project list. Service planning will ensure that the services we provide meet the changing needs and expectations of our community while remaining cost effective and financially affordable, both now and into the future.”
“Service planning also supports reviewing our assets. By better understanding our community’s service needs we are able to better plan for the assets needed to deliver those services.”
At the meeting council also set monthly meeting dates and made councillor committee appointments. Meetings will continue to be held on the third Tuesday of the month, starting at 5pm in Echuca, with dates for 2020 being: January 28, February 18, March 17, April 21, May 19, June 23, July 21, August 18, September 15, October 20, November 17 and December 8.
Councillor committee appointments were approved to a variety of external industry forums, advisory committees and boards of management.
Two Memorandums of Understanding were signed at the meeting. One between the mayor and chief executive and the other between the councillors on the adopted values.
Both outline working relationships to support ongoing good governance.