He compared his colleagues to mutineers on a ship, but the captain of Armidale region's councillors has refused to succumb to the attack.
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About 30 people filled out the gallery - some perhaps hoping they would witness the splash as mayor Simon Murray was thrown overboard - at today's extraordinary meeting of Armidale Regional Council (ARC).
But despite a 6-4 vote asking him to step down, Cr Murray has reiterated his intention to keep steering the ship.
Cr Murray, who has been ARC mayor since the first election in 2017 after the Armidale-Guyra council amalgamation, said the incident destroyed any hope of working effectively together.
"It is a vote that will forever set us apart, create distrust and puts personal agendas ahead of community needs," he said.
"It is a vote that no rational person, committed to the further growth and development of this council, could or should make. I hope it is now clear that I have no intention of stepping down."
The only item on the meeting agenda this morning was a petition from seven councillors - Margaret O'Connor, Peter Bailey, Debra O'Brien, Dorothy Robinson, Ian Tiley, Jon Galletly and Andrew Murat - asking Cr Murray to resign.
Only six voted "aye" in the notice of motion, Cr Tiley being absent.
'Disgruntled and short-sighted'
However, Cr Murray moved a motion - passed unanimously - that the council be "fully committed to working together for the benefit of the whole region".
He said he intended to keep performing his duties to the best of his ability for the remaining term of council, to ensure stable leadership and delivery on council's programs.
"What some obviously disgruntled and short-sighted members of our council are planning is as foolhardy as a ship crew mutineering and throwing the captain overboard, as he tries to steer the ship into home port."
Cr O'Connor unsuccessfully tried to truncate his delivery with a point of order, reminding him he was well over time, but Cr Murray continued.
"This council is at the headlands of a safe harbour and to let our passengers, our ratepayers, see a dysfunctional, irrational, divisive band of mutineers now will only create concern and panic," he said.
"Australia's political history in the past two decades has shown how white-anting and attempts to depose a leader, have undermined and weakened political parties and how the voters have expressed their disappointment by walking away in droves.
"We cannot permit this to happen in the embryonic stages of this new council. We have much to achieve yet and we must set our resolve to do so."
Cr Murray said he was not going to step down and moved that:
- Council acknowledge the programs and outcomes that have been successfully achieved as a result of economies of scale, unity of purpose, team work, good leadership and more effective use of pooled resources flowing from the creation of Armidale Regional Council.
- We as a council are fully committed to working together, for the benefit of the whole region, to continue to deliver much needed projects to the community, even though the drought will have a major impact on our financial position this year.
Both parts of the motion were voted on separately and both were passed, the second unanimously.
The fallout and what they said
Cr Galletly described the meeting as another stepping stone, Cr Brad Widders said nothing was achieved, and Cr Murat said he felt very much like the man in the middle.
"I've got six councillors that the mayor will not interact with on one side, and three on the other, and I talk to the mayor on a regular basis; we've got a pretty good personal contact," Cr Murat said.
"But on this occasion, I just feel that the majority of councillors have been disenfranchised and I supported them this morning."
Cr Di Gray said she was struggling to understand the logic behind it all.
"I'm absolutely smashed by this. I work on boards, I understand governance, I feel the love of the community when we give and when we pull together," she said.
"I've witnessed the great things that happen when people work as a team."
Cr Robinson said calling out problems was not disloyal.
"It's being loyal to our community to make sure that problems are fixed so we achieve the best possible results," she said.
"We didn't want a public meeting, but it was the only option to address the many problems that have been raised but so far been ignored."
Deputy mayor Libby Martin said she supported the mayor and his leadership. She described the motion of no confidence as shallow and self-serving.
"I was totally against the motion, even though it was worthy of a Gold Logie nomination for its melodramatic, time-wasting content."
Cr Bailey said he thought the mayor had got the message that a lot of councillors were unhappy, and hoped he listened.
"We've tried to do this behind closed doors and it hasn't worked. We've now aired our concerns in public; hopefully he has listened to our concerns and will try to be more supportive towards his councillors," he said.
"We've been talking to him for over 12 months. I voted to return him as mayor because he said he would change. We've made our points, now we've got to move on. "
Cr O'Connor said it was important for councillors to respond if they received a flood of complaints from residents.
"We really did want to keep this behind closed doors. We really did want to keep this an internal, private matter and say nothing," she said.
"The leadership issue is all this meeting today was all about. It's pretty simple ... leader steps aside.
"Now the community knows where seven of their councillors are standing. We want a new leader, the leader is digging in, simple as that."
Guyra Shire Council's last mayor, Hans Heitbrink, described the meeting as disgusting.
"I think it is terrible that they bring this issue to the public. If you have a problem with the mayor, you get together in a meeting room and you sort the issue out. Don't bring it into the public domain," he said.
"What this has done is brought on the fact that this council is going to be perceived as dysfunctional, and it did not need to occur."
