THE balance of power in Newcastle council chambers for the next few weeks has been decided by a blue plastic bin and a randomly drawn piece of paper.
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Newcastle residents will head back to the poll booths again on November 15 to elect a new mayor following the resignation of Jeff McCloy.
But in a dramatic turn of events, councillors were also due to elect a new deputy mayor in-house, just weeks out from the public mayor vote.
Councillor Brad Luke has been acting in the mayor’s capacity since Mr McCloy stood down after giving evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption in August.
At this week’s council meeting, fellow Liberal councillor Lisa Tierney tried to muster support to keep Cr Luke as deputy mayor until after the mayor by-election.
However, general manager Ken Gouldthorp agreed with Labor councillor Nuatali Nelmes, who pointed out that the Local Government Act states that a vote must be made.
It took the council more than half an hour to elect a new deputy mayor.
Two nominations were accepted from the floor - Labor’s Stephnaie Posniak and Cr Luke.
Mr Gouldthorp declared Cr Posniak the winner after two separate votes, stating two of the votes were invalid in the first round.
With a 6-6 deadlock in the second vote, the winner was decided by drawing a name out of a bin.