Both Greg Conkey and returning deputy mayor Dallas Tout were installed unopposed on Monday night. 

The bloodless coup was executed on Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning Cr Conkey had the numbers sewn up. 

The former journalist turned spin doctor claimed he and Rod Kendall “had a very friendly discussion” on Monday, in which he delivered the bad news.

“I have his full support and I really appreciate that,” Cr Conkey said.

In the course of frenzied negotiations on Sunday and Monday, Cr Conkey demanded Charles Sturt University finance manager Dallas Tout be reinstated as deputy mayor. 

“I told them Dallas Tout as deputy was not negotiable,” Cr Conkey said. 

Cr Conkey said he accepted the top job with “feelings of excitement, trepidation and if I’m really honest a little bit of fear”.

The new mayor’s top priority is to fix the city’s pothole-plagued roads and he will meet Wagga MP Darly Maguire and Riverina MP Michael McCormack to appeal for emergency funding. 

The change in leadership will buoy proponents of a controversial drug rehabilitation centre in the heart of the city, as Cr Conkey was one of only two councillors to vote in favour of the Riverina Recovery House earlier this month and formerly served on the Base Hospital drug and alcohol advisory committee. 

Cr Conkey claimed he kept his nose clean during negotiations.

“There was no horse trading and no deals done whatsoever,” he said.

Deputy mayor Dallas Tout, who endured a nervous week-long wait to be re-elected on the strength of preference votes in the council election, embarks on his fifth term of local government.

“I have a fair amount of experience; three terms in Gundagai now I’m into my second term in Wagga,” Cr Tout said.

Cr Tout intends to pick up where he left off, with particular focus on inking a deal with a commercial partner to set the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics (RIFL) Hub in train.

"My goal is to finish off a lot of the foundations built last term,” he said.

“This will be a once in a generation thing, these next four years, with all the changes happening.”