I was surprised after our friendly discussions about changes to the Finance and Council-controlled Organisations Committee I had chaired for the past three years when she suddenly demoted me from Chair of Finance in the weekend with a text.

Mayor Barker denying her most experienced and second-highest polling Councillor from this Chair position or any of her seven new Portfolio Lead positions is the ugly politics of Mayoral exclusion power at play.

Why not accept a demotion to a deputy?

I was the deputy Chair of Infrastructure many years ago for 3 years and remember it as being a do-nothing position that excluded me from Chairs’ meetings and other positions made available to Chairs.

Also surprising was already announced Deputy Mayor Lucas willingness to take the Finance Chair position as well as being awarded Chair of Hearings, Deputy Chair of Policy and Planning Committee, Audit and Risk Committee, and CEO Performance Committee when the Mayor had said what a big job the Deputy Mayor position was and awarded her an unprecedented $145,008 per year salary.

All this makes a mockery of Mayor Barker’s claims to distribute workload and remuneration equally and allow experienced Councillors to lead the way for newer Councillors.

This was the text message – “Deputy Chair of Finance as discussed” is untrue.