Ararat Rural City Council has elected a fourth mayor in just two years.
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Councillor Peter Beales was elected as mayor for the next 12 months at a statutory meeting on Monday night.
He received four votes, ousting incumbent mayor Gwenda Allgood who received three.
Crs Jo Armstrong, Fay Hull and Bill Braithwaite voted for Cr Beales, voting for himself to take his count to four.
Crs David Pettman and Frank Deutsch voted for Cr Allgood who also voted for herself.
Cr Jo Armstrong will stay on as deputy mayor.
Cr Beales becomes the fourth mayor of Ararat since 2016, with Cr Allgood, Glenda McLean and Paul Hooper all serving since 2016.
It is the first time Cr Beales will serve as ARCC mayor, but he has previous experience having served four terms as mayor at Murrindindi Shire Council.
“Ararat is completely a different community, it is quite culturally diverse, which makes it particularly interesting,” he said.
Cr Beales replaces Cr Allgood, who took up the position earlier this year in sensational circumstances when then mayor Glenda McLean resigned following intense pressure and national media coverage over her proposal to carry out her duties on a fly-in, fly-out basis from north Queensland.
“At this time, can I, on behalf of the council, apologise to the community for our actions in the past,” Cr Beales said in his first address as mayor.
“I would like to thank all the councillors for their support, I’d like to particularly acknowledge the work of councillor Allgood during her time as mayor and for taking over during difficult circumstances.
“I hope to just get some confidence back in the community which is already happening. People not as hostile as they were but they want to see things changed.”
Despite being unanimously re-elected as deputy mayor, Cr Armstrong will take leave from council for the next four weeks as she joins the campaign trail for the Nationals, fighting for a seat in the Victorian upper house.
“I will resume councillor roles and responsibilities the day after the election. Determination of results for the upper house can take some time so I don’t expect results to be known the day after,” she said.
“I’ll be back on deck in my role as councillor from November 25.
“In electing Cr Beales as mayor we have someone with great leadership experience in local government and we have plenty of other very experienced councillors so everything is in pretty safe hands.”
More to come.