The council meeting turned into a farce when Mayor Stephen Jones was denied the opportunity to talk to an agenda item on the city's drainage system. As a plumber, he no doubt felt he had an opinion worth hearing.

But he was effectively shut down by his fellow councillors when the report was passed by them without discussion.

The move, by all accounts, wasn't orchestrated, but was in keeping with the flow of the meeting up to that point.

Mayor Jones, it seems, took it personally and retaliated by using his position as chair of the meeting to stop other councillors speaking to agenda items or introducing new ones.

Effectively, he stifled open debate and his actions infuriated those around the council table.

There have been murmurings from within and without the council about Mayor Jones' relationship with his fellow councillors since he was elected to the position late last this year.

Certainly Wednesday night's actions did nothing to show those rumblings are untrue. The reaction was not one the community would expect of a civic leader.

The mayoral role is a position of leadership and responsibility. As chairman of council meetings, it is Mayor Jones' job to ensure relevant views are heard and that decisions are not made before due consideration is given to those viewpoints.

That is how our community expects our council to operate. That is how we expect democracy to operate.

What we saw on Wednesday night could well have given the impression that the role of the elected council is nothing more than a "rubber stamping" one.

It is far more than that. Being elected to a council is a privilege, as some of our incumbents will likely be reminded when November elections roll around.

Already, we have had six candidates publicly declare their intention to stand. Spurred on by dissappointing performances, more are certain to nominate before November.

If the potential for a strong field of candidates isn't enough to prompt sitting councillors to think about their behaviour, then for the rest of us, November won't arrive soon enough.