After news of a citywide referendum broke last week, the community has responded with thoughts.
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Bill Lancaster, himself a former councillor, was in favour of reducing the council numbers.
"In the last six months, I did the figures. 94 per cent of decisions were made unanimously - you're still going to get the same decisions," he said.
He added that there was one drawback to having fewer councillors, which is that council meetings must have a majority of the council present.
With fewer councillors, the chances that meetings must be postponed or cancelled increase.
Brian Sainty said that that was a risk worth taking.
"So be it. Doesn't matter how many you have, that might happen," he said.
"I've had a lot of experience in NSW and Victoria dealing with councils relating to vineyards and horse stud infrastructure, the most efficient negotiations were dealing with Melton Shire who had an administrator and a general manager, and that was it," Mr Sainty said.
"I'm not suggesting that we have that here, but it makes you realise you don't need to have twelve."
Mr Sainty continued and said that having less councillors might incite the council to be more involved rather than counting on sheer numbers to get things done.
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Mr Lancaster ultimately came down on the side that fewer councillors would be more beneficial than costly.
"There's so many reasons a smaller, more concise group is better ... The decision was made in 2004 at a referendum to reduce the number. the money that would have been saved if it was accepted at that time would be a million, easily," he explained.
"There's not just what they're paid there's also the costs of running it. it's about 100 grand a year for councillor expenses."
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