Former Maclean and Clarence Valley mayor, Dr Ian Tiley, was the first candidate elected to the Armidale Regional Council last Saturday September 9. Doctor Tiley served as the amalgamated council’s administrator prior to Saturday’s election. He said he would be nominating for the mayoral role. “The poll probably won’t be declared until Friday,” he said. “It’s set to go down to the wire on preferences. “It will be up to the other 10 councillors if they would like me to be leader: I certainly will be putting my hand up.” Doctor Tiley said there “was a lot more to be done in the Armidale region, in terms of strategic development”. He said there was work to do, too, in the wider electorate. “We need to build and nurture a new team of councillors and win trust of people who elected us,” he said, “and move away from the bad old days of the past – I think that’s the message that came through from the electors.” Statistically, this is the seventh council on which Dr Tiley has served and, during his 54 years of working in local government or for government entities, he has benefitted from nine ministerial appointments to various roles – by five Labor governments and four Coalition governments. Doctor Tiley rejected assertions made by NSW shadow local government minister Peter Primrose, who said: “How can voters expect there to be a level playing field when after nearly 18 months of government sponsored largesse, administrators can then seek to get elected?” “I was challenged by a person from Armidale,” Dr Tiley said. “It went to the NSW administrative appeals tribunal on the matter of my eligibility, on September 6, and was thrown out.”