Dubbo mayor: Stephen Lawrence replaces Ben Shields

A former Labor state election candidate has been elected unopposed to lead a divided council in the state’s central west.

Councillor Stephen Lawrence has been elected unopposed to lead Dubbo Regional Council after Ben Shields resigned from the top job.

Cr Lawrence was previously deputy mayor and led calls for Cr Shields to resign because of growing complaints about his performance in the role.

Dubbo mayor Stephen Lawrence and deputy mayor Anne Jones. Picture: Ryan Young

At an extraordinary council meeting on Thursday Cr Lawrence, a former Labor state election candidate, was nominated for the top job by Cr Kevin Parker.

Wellington-based Cr Anne Jones was elected unopposed as his deputy.

Cr Jones previously served as deputy mayor until Cr Lawrence teamed up with Cr Shields and his supporters to dump her in 2019.

Cr Lawrence said the move to dump Cr Jones was a mistake.

“She was a very good deputy mayor and I’ve had conversations with her about those events and I’ve explained why I did what I did,” Cr Lawrence said.

“I do regret it. The reason I did it was valid … the way that it happened … I seriously regret.”

Cr Jones said Cr Lawrence apologised to her and the pair looked forward to working together again.

“When he was elected deputy mayor and I was no longer deputy mayor I was very annoyed, quite concerned in fact and quite hurt,” Cr Jones said.

“Mayor Lawrence has explained the situation to me, which he didn’t do before, and he has apologised and I accept his apology.

“I’m looking forward to working with him in partnership to rebuild that confidence and trust that previously the community had in both previous councils.”

Cr Jones, a former mayor of Wellington Shire Council, said it was important for her town to have representation at a senior level on the Dubbo Regional Council.

“The Wellington community really wanted to see someone from Wellington to be either the mayor or the deputy.

“It’s all about and was and still is about trying to integrate the two communities. Wellington still feels as if it’s the poor cousin and we’ve been trying really hard to explain that’s not the case.”

Cr Lawrence said despite a series of scandals and allegations of wrongdoing which have plagued the council for the past two months, “the time for controversy and drama is over”.

“The time for public attacks and criticism is over,” he said.

“Our job until then is to provide stable and community focused leadership.”

Dubbo Regional Council has been plagued by controversy. Picture: Ryan Young

The former mayor had achieved positive results for the community, Cr Lawrence said.

“It’s very easy in circumstances that we’ve had for the last two months to get very polarised into different camps and really start to obscure things that have happened in the past.

“But the past is the past … a lot of positive things happened in the past in terms of this council’s achievements.”

Cr Lawrence said new general manager Murray Wood would take over running of the council from June 11.

He said council would also work with the state government to address concerns about its performance after Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock announced she would impose a performance improvement order.