A number are openly hostile to mayor Rod Kendall and actively undermining his position.

Make no mistake, there is talent, experience and passion around the council table. But the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

A football team that can’t agree in the dressing shed can’t perform on the field, regardless of how bright its stars. And so it is with our councillors.

To this backdrop, the same group must elect a mayor for the forthcoming year later this month.

It’s a critical decision for the city’s future, too critical to be made on egos, agendas and Shakespearean cloak-and-dagger theatrics.

While many other NSW councils have dispensed of the archaic system of in-house mayoral elections, Wagga clings onto it, not even putting the popular vote to a referendum. It’s undemocratic and untenable. And it’s time Wagga residents had the chance to popularly elect their civic leader.

A popular vote provides stability, continuity and, most importantly, transparency. It gives mayors a four-year term, rather than exposing them to internal, undisclosed deals between individual councillors.

There’s a very real chance this month’s election will be a 5-5 deadlock, meaning the city’s next leader will be drawn out of a hat.

That’s not democracy; that’s luck.

Cr Kendall has been an effective mayor, championing the interests of Wagga in Canberra, Macquarie Street and beyond. But, for whatever reason, he has lost the faith of half his councillors.

If he were popularly elected, he would be given a thumping mandate to lead by the public. And that could only mean better government; a government closer to the people and not beholden to the whims of a few.

Our city is at a critical juncture in its history.

The next council will face challenges on many fronts – a changing retail sector, infrastructure pressures and an unprecedented fiscal squeeze in local government, to name just a few.

Those challenges require strong leadership and the community has a right to choose that leader.