An Upper Hunter Shire councillor will challenge an "unreasonable" decision to sack her after missing three meetings in a row.
Elizabeth Flaherty is the second councillor in the region to be stood down in recent times, after Lake Macquarie councillor Nick Jones was sacked for missing three consecutive meetings at the end of 2023.
Ms Flaherty missed three council meetings in February, March and April without a leave of absence, triggering state government legislation that states the position must be vacated.
Upper Hunter Shire Council (UHSC) has called an extraordinary meeting for Monday, where it will vote on whether to make an application to the Local Government Minister to dispense with the need for a by-election to fill the casual vacancy, citing a cost of $125,000 and the upcoming election in September.
Ms Flaherty offered an apology before each meeting, which she missed due to illness and work, and plans to challenge the ruling through the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Ms Flaherty has been highly critical of the council and often served as the voice of dissent on several decisions, including the upgrades to Scone airport and livestock sale yards, which are running at a loss, and beginning the process to apply for a 30 per cent rate rise.
In January, the Newcastle Herald revealed UHSC will operate with a deficit until 2032 and will consider the special rate variation to manage its $32-million debt.
Ms Flaherty has previously raised concerns that the council had "proactively prevented me from performing my elected duties", including preventing her from attending briefings, meetings or accessing documents.
The former independent councillor said her requests to join corporate services meetings via video conference while juggling work and study were regularly voted down by other councillors.
"Such behaviour I believe is unreasonable and an abuse of power, like so many decisions made by this council, so hardly surprising," she said. "I have previously appealed decisions by council, which council have fought using ratepayer money, and I've been successful in each of them.
"Council has a long and sordid record of making poor decisions, which cost ratepayers money, this is just the latest one. I do hope council will not spend more time and ratepayer money defending council's latest decision."
A council spokesperson emphasised that general manager Greg McDonald did not make the decision to make Ms Flaherty's position vacant and the action was "governed strictly by statutory regulations".
"The vacancy in the council position formerly held by councillor Flaherty was triggered automatically due to non-attendance at three consecutive council meetings, without seeking a leave of absence," the spokesperson said.
"The records pertaining to council attendance are publicly available, and the Office of Local Government enforces these legislative provisions.
"The general manager's role in this process is solely as a notifier of legislative requirements, not as a decision-maker regarding the tenure of councillors."
Council documents lodged for the extraordinary meeting say "the Code of Meeting Practice is clear that an apology does not constitute a leave of absence".
"After seeking confirmation from the Office of Local Government, council was advised that neither council nor the Office of Local Government have the discretion to overturn this part of the legislation and was required to advise Cr Flaherty that her role as councillor has become vacant," council documents state.
The legislation is the same one that forced Mr Jones to vacate his position on Lake Macquarie City Council for missing three consecutive meetings without an explanation.
Earlier this year, a petition signed by more than 1200 people - including Ms Flaherty - was handed to the NSW government, calling for the Local Government Minister to intervene in the council's management, after its debt ballooned to nearly three times its annual ratepayer base of $11 million.
Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig says he is "aware there have been some concerns raised" but he is reluctant to intervene.
In his response to the petition, Mr Hoenig said the Office of Local Government had been monitoring the council's financial position and he was "satisfied that council is receiving appropriate attention".
