At 1pm, the councillors sat around a table to begin their first meeting as a group, led by chief executive Fiona Le Gassick.
The first item on the agenda was to decide whether the mayoral period should increase to two years or remain at one year.
There was a mixed reaction to the motion; however, it was passed, with five councillors in favour and four against.
After carrying a motion explaining the role of mayor, Ms Le Gassick called for nominations for mayor, with only one name put forward — Anthony Brophy nominated Shane Sali.
“It’s an absolute honour and privilege,” Cr Sali said.
“My priority is to offer a really good sounding board to the new councillors, to support them in things that they want to achieve.”
Cr Sali said the next few months were going to be busy for the council, with mandatory training for all nine of them; however, he said they would be ready to make headway on important issues in the new year.
“We’ll regroup the back end of January. We’ll be dealing with budget, GV link, we’ll be dealing with Princess Park, we’ll be dealing with our sports and events stadium,” he said.
“These are major projects that are being carried over.”
Following the election of Cr Sali, he called for nominations for deputy mayor, a more hotly contested position.
Rod Schubert nominated Anthony Brophy, Paul Wickham nominated himself and former deputy mayor Sam Spinks nominated Fern Summer.
Cr Brophy came out on top, receiving a majority of votes, securing him the deputy mayor role for one year.
“I’m so honoured that I got the numbers at the end of the day, but it’s really about what we can do going forward,” he said.
“I can hit the ground running because I’ve done it before.
“As deputy, I’ll be looking at across all of Greater Shepparton, it’s not just about my ward.”
This is the second time Cr Sali and Cr Brophy have worked together as mayor and deputy mayor, an opportunity they are both excited by.
“We’ve been on public display the last four years and as mayor and deputy mayor before, which is vitally important,” Cr Sali said.
“The important thing is that we get to the end of next year, and we can reconsider a leadership role from a deputy mayor perspective and allow someone else to think about putting their hand up as well.”
Cr Brophy seconded Cr Sali’s comments, saying that although different in nature, they worked well together.
“We understand each other, we are very different, we’ve got different networks, we’ve got different priorities and things like that,” he said.
“But collectively, we work so well together because I understand what he wants so that if I have to chair a meeting that he’s not at, I know what his expectation would be at that meeting.”
A recording of the meeting can be watched on council’s Facebook page.
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