Susan Law is facing another attempt by councillors to terminate her contract as CEO at Armidale Regional Council.
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A closed council meeting held in March to vote on Mrs Law's position was shut down by the mayor, Simon Murray, on a technicality, then the matter was due to come up again at last week's April meeting of council, but was withdrawn from the agenda days before that meeting.
Now, six councillors have again contacted the mayor requesting an extraordinary meeting to terminate Mrs Law's contract.
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The mayor was sent the letter on Tuesday and under the act has two weeks to hold an extraordinary meeting.
The Armidale Express contacted several councillors who signed the letter only to be told they could not comment, that it was a confidential matter, or that we had to talk to the mayor.
The six councillors are Ian Tiley, Margaret O'Connor, Jon Galletly, Debra O'Brien, Dorothy Robinson and Andrew Murat.
But the only councillor who can comment is the mayor.
"All I can say is yes, there has been a request for an extraordinary meeting," Cr Murray told The Express, although he did later express some frustration that this matter has been raised again while the council is facing other challenges.
Asked if there had been a reason given for the loss of confidence with the CEO among the six councillors, Cr Murray said there hadn't.
"It was the same before, there was never any reason given as to why. So we're in the dark, so to speak," he said.
It sparked outrage among councillors leaving the closed meeting, with Cr O'Brien saying outside the chamber that they would be contacting the Office of Local Government.
Since the beginning of March, five of the six have consistently been in favour of removing the CEO, while the mayor confirmed Cr Andrew Murat's name was the other on the list.
"It's a group of five, plus Andrew, that do not want Susan there. There were no reasons given," he said.
"But when you look at all the issues we are facing, which are financial issues with the council, COVID-19, we're just coming out of the bushfires, and the drought has still not been declared over, to me this is very selfish.
"What do they hope to achieve? I'm buggered if I know," he said.
Some of the six did privately express frustration to The Express that they were not allowed to comment publicly to explain their decision.
The move means there will be two extraordinary meetings this month.
While the meeting concerning the CEO must be held by May 11 - which is two weeks after the request was sent to the mayor - another extraordinary meeting had already been called for May 13 to deal with matters postponed from the April council meeting.
Several items that were not considered normal council business were deferred to that extraordinary meeting.