For the first time, councillors across NSW are being given the chance to decide how any casual vacancies which arise during the first 18 months of their term are filled.

Wagga councillors will have the choice between keeping the current by-election system in place or adopting a countback election.

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The countback election would use the preference data from the December 4 election to determine which candidate would have been elected if all votes for the resigning councillor were made ineligible.

The change would mean candidates who came close to being elected, such as Paul Funnell, Fiona Ziff, Robert Sinclair, Vanessa Keenan and Rory McKenzie, would be in line to replace any outgoing councillor.

Mr Funnell, who was just 528 votes away from being elected, said he would personally like to see the councillors adopt the new system due to the extra cost associated with holding a by-election.

"It should go to the next person due to be elected," he said. "People will say I'm only saying that because I'm the next person due to be elected but it's not and people can believe that or not it's fine."

"But from a cost factor and the organisation it would require, I think they should scrap the by-election especially considering it's a shorter term of council."

Mr Funnell did not confirm whether or not he would accept the call if a countback election was held.

"In the event of a countback would I be prepared to? Well I put my hat in the ring so I would want to honour that, but circumstances change," he said.

The former councillor resigned prematurely from his role as councillor in July last year due to his health conditions and said he would have to assess his health before considering re-election.

If councillors vote against the change any casual vacancies would continue to be filled through a by-election, which would likely cost more than $300,000 to hold.

Councillor Dallas Tout said he would be considering both options but would likely look to keep the current by-election system in place.

"It's a brand new thing and we'll only have the choice on the first meeting so we have to consider it," he said. "But I'm veering towards not supporting the countback and opting to stay with the by-election."

Cr Tout said he felt the by-election would ensure the community still has ownership of electing their councillors and residents could feel differently in 18 months compared to how they did during the December 4 election.

"They will have seen the makeup of the council and the community might be thinking differently to how they were during the election," the former deputy mayor said.

"So a different group of people may garner different votes and we should ensure the community has their say. But hopefully we won't have a casual vacancy and it won't come to the fore anyway."

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