Many agreed a change in the way local governments were run set the citys’ top bureaucrats up for failure, by removing formal training requirements and putting an emphasis on change for the sake of it.

The Daily Advertiser asked a former mayor, deputy mayor and general manager about Wagga’s revolving door of leadership to find out why there was so little stability at the top.

After long-serving general manager Brian Andrews retired in 2001, the city has struggled to keep anyone in the role.

Phillip Perram was appointed in 2004, but was sacked three-and-a-half years later amid claims of conflict with councillors.

The official resolution that saw Mr Perram dismissed stated “council no longer has trust and confidence in the general manager”.

Lyn Russell replaced Mr Perram as Wagga’s general manager in 2008, but she only stayed in the job for 18 months before taking up the top job at Cairns Regional Council. She was sacked a few years later.

The city’s longest-serving general manager since Mr Andrews, Phil Pinyon, served two years before having his contract extended for an additional five years.

However, the Douglas Aerospace debacle saw councillors unanimously vote to stand Mr Pinyon aside in September, 2015.

He resigned three days later.

“I can’t believe these people could be so bad that they needed to be thrown out.”

Former mayor Wayne Geale wondered whether there needed to be an independent body appointing general managers.

“The system it obviously broke, you couldn’t run a business like this,” Mr Geale said.

“Something needs to be done to fix it. The city needs to find a general manager it believes in and stick with it.”

“The city needs some stability.”

Mrs Kidson believed the problems went back to 1993, when the Local Government Act changed. Town clerks became general managers and were no longer required to have formal qualifications in government, despite being given far more power. This created an unrealistic relationship between the elected council and the organisation, which had been “very detrimental”.

“In the days of (former town clerks) Bill Ellis and Brian Andrews, council was truly a team,” Mrs Kidson said.

“That’s not to say there weren’t political differences, but those people belonged to the city, embraced the identity and wanted it to be a great place to live.

“I think the state government needs to take another look at the act, require some training in local government and give councillors a more decisive role.”

“The changes have not been good for the city, in my opinion.”

Wagga’s last town clerk – he became general manager when the system changed in 1993 – Brian Andrews spent 18 years running council. All told, he spent 45 years in local government, and happily pointed out that there was 62 years of leadership between him and his two predecessors.

“When I was there, things went pretty well,” Mr Andrews said.

“The budget was balanced, the city made a profit and we got on with what the people wanted.

“I had to hold qualifications in local government – as did the blokes before me – and I always felt that we worked at council because we loved the city, we took the salary they gave us and achieved a lot with the respect of the staff.”