The structure of councils are restricted by the state passed Local Government Acts. Some councils separate an elected Mayor (Executive) from the Council (Legislative) while others have the Mayor elected from within the Council. The Councils also have an interesting mix of multi-member electoral districts.

Councillor and Alderman are interchangable, the NSW Local Government Act in 1993 changed the name from Alderman to Councillor which is why the NSW Councils all have Councillors.

Blacktown City Council, NSW

Blacktown City Council has five wards each with three councillors being elected to represent them. The mayor is an elected councillor, but I cannot find how the mayor is chosen.

Darwin City Council, NSW

Darwin City Council has four wards with four Alderman elected in each ward. The Lord Mayor is elected separate from any Ward and is not an Alderman.

Geraldton Town Council, WA

Geraldton Town Council has twelve councillors and a mayor. The Mayor is directly elected from the electorate and the Deputy Mayor is elected from the Council. The Mayor has a four year term as do the Councillors with half the Council being up for election every second year.

Mount Gambier City Council, SA

City of Mount Gambier Council has five councillors elected in each ward. There are two wards in total. The Mayor is elected separately from the Councillors. The Council also has a flag .

Penrith City Council, NSW

Penrith City Council formed as the amalgamation of Penrith, St Marys, Mulgoa, Castlereagh and Nepean in 1948. There are fifteen councillors in the Penrith City Council elected from three wards with five councillors per ward. The council elects the Mayor each year from within their number.

CFC2

The challenge for writing a constitution in CFC2 for Local Government will be maintaining a sufficient level of separation of powers in what is a very small political unit that has the capability for high levels of communication and representation. It also appears that there is lots of room for innovative electoral arrangements which has been one of Australia's strong points anyway.

The Victorian Local Government Act has a pretty good set of objectives, roles and functions for a Local Council, far better than the NSW legislation.

The Victorian Local Government Act is pretty sparsely worded and better for it IMO. It requires that a Council not contain less than five councillors and no more than twelve. The Act also requires that they Councillors be elected.

Councillors are disqualified from the position if they are bankrupt or undergoing bankrupcy, they have not taken the oath three months after being elected. There are also various penal convictions that disqualify the person from becoming a Councillor for seven years after their sentence is served.

The Act also enforces a uniform election day on all Councils with the terms being four years. A local government constitution as part of the CFC2 need not deal with details like that which may be best done in subsidiary statutory acts rather than a constitutional act.

The Mayor appears to be uniformly elected from the Council under the Victorian Local Government Act;

71. Election of Mayor

(1) The Councillors must elect a Councillor to be the Mayor of the Council.

(3) The Mayor is to be elected-

(a) after the last Saturday in November but not later than 31 December in each year; or
(b) as soon as possible after any vacancy in the office of Mayor occurs.

(4) The election of a Mayor after the period specified in this section does not invalidate the election.

(6) The Mayor of a Shire Council may be titled the President.

(7) Any reference to "Mayor" includes a reference to "Lord Mayor" or "President" as the case may be.

In my opinion the best part of the Local Government Act is the section on the Council's Charter;

• Purpose
• Constituted
• Objectives
• Role
• Functions
• Power