The councillors unanimously voted for the more expensive option of using a by-election to fill any casual vacancies which occur in the first 18 months of the term, rather than using a countback election.

The countback would have used 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.

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Cr Dan Hayes moved the recommendation to keep the current by-election system in place, because he felt the community would prefer the chance to choose a councillor's replacement.

"This countback system probably has one positive which is cost ... the problem is I think the process may lead to a result I'm not convinced the community would actually want," he said.

"It's not necessarily the next in line of the election who gets in ... all the candidates are reviewed around eligibility, willingness to be on and then the votes are re-done.

"I just don't think there's great community confidence in a process that may pick out the 23^rd candidate to fill a void."

The recommendation was supported by Cr Tim Koschel, who pointed out some residents who did not participate in the December 4 election may want to put their name forward to fill a vacancy, which would not be possible in a countback.

"We could have new people that have moved into town that want to represent the community and we've also got a new group of people who have just turned 18 that will be able to run if there is a by-election," Cr Koschel said.

"Putting the vote back to the community is the right thing to do ... if we do have any casual vacancies in the next 18 months."

The recommendation to use a by-election to fill any casual vacancies was supported by all nine councillors.

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