GAWLER Mayor Karen Redman has received the backing of her council chamber to run for the Local Government Association (LGA) presidency.

As reported in The Bunyip last week, Gawler’s elected members held the future of Ms Redman’s candidacy for SA local government’s top job in their hands at council’s ordinary meeting on Tuesday night.

After the mayor left the meeting, they debated, and ultimately endorsed her as the council’s preferred candidate for the presidency.

Councillor Paul Koch said Ms Redman has been a “strong performer” since being elected to the role in 2014.

“I think it’s important we could have our mayor as the LGA president,” he said.

“The position of president is very important as the voice of local government in the state. Karen is certainly a very accomplished person who can quickly get across complicated issues and provide very clear and well-articulated responses.

“Coming from Gawler, which is a peri-urban area, there is a natural link between the urban and rural councils.”

Only councillors Ian Tooley – a vocal critic of Ms Redman in the chamber – and Jim Vallelonga voted against the mayor’s candidacy.

During debate, Cr Tooley said Ms Redman had presided over a “toxic council chamber”.

“I’ve been here six years, and this is the worst I’ve seen it,” he said.

“For five years we’ve experienced division in our council and I’ve written to our mayor a number of times to mediate this to bring about some reconciliation.

“If our mayor cannot lead this council, to be more harmonious; it (council division) comes from the top, from the mayor and CEO (Henry Inat).”

Cr Koch called two points of order against Cr Tooley during his speech, saying the outspoken elected member was being “disrespectful”.

In response, temporary meeting chair councillor Cody Davies said the decision to endorse Ms Redman required the “critiques about the mayor’s performance” to be listed.

Although he ultimately backed Ms Redman for the LGA presidency, councillor Paul Little said trying to take on both roles may leave the council, at times, without a leader.

He suggested reinstating the deputy mayor position if Ms Redman was elected LGA president.

“I think in this position, if she does it correctly, it could leave the council disadvantaged by not having the deputy mayor to fulfil certain roles when she’s not here,” he said.

“I like the concept of her being the LGA president, but I would not like to leave the council vulnerable to inaction because we don’t have a deputy mayor.”

Currently, Cr Little and Cr Davies form a council “leadership team” with Ms Redman, rather than an individual holding a deputy mayor title.