GAWLER mayor Karen Redman has backed reforms that could give her the power to expel elected members from meetings.

Ms Redman said council will discuss new powers that could be given to mayors, as part of local government reforms being pursued by the State Government, at its ordinary meeting next Tuesday.

Amongst these proposed changes, a new clause could give a mayor the power to eject a councillor from a meeting for unruly behaviour.

Ms Redman said although the chamber hadn’t had the chance to discuss the State Government’s proposals, she would support such a move.

“The key role of the mayor is to run a meeting, and anybody who runs a meeting needs to have the capacity to be able to do that,” she said.

“While council doesn’t have a formal position, I think that most people would agree that a chair of the meeting needs to be able to run the meeting.

“If there needs to be measures put in place to maintain order, and to maintain the smooth running of a meeting, then that has to be put through.”

Ms Redman used her power as mayor to suspend the council’s August meeting for 30 minutes, after a heated exchange between herself and councillor Ian Tooley.

Adelaide Plains Council (APC), which has gone through its past two ordinary meetings with every motion passing unanimously, will also consider the reforms at a future meeting.

APC mayor Mark Wasley said he didn’t see him needing the power to remove Adelaide Plains councillors from their meetings.

“We don’t seem to have a problem with it (councillor behaviour),” he said.

“These are just suggestions as far as I’m aware, and I’m sure not all of these proposals will get through.

“It’s giving us some discussion points because it would appear to me that some councils have had experiences where they’ve had to ask how to deal with this (bad behaviour).”