Guyra's Simon Murray has been elected mayor of Armidale Regional Council.
It was a two-horse race between former administrator Ian Tiley and Mr Murray, the former deputy of Guyra Shire, who won the vote seven to four.
Cr Murray said he had been confident going into the meeting.
"I had the support of six others [councillors] and we've had a number of meetings and talked about it," he said.
"They decided yesterday afternoon to fully support me."
Cr Murray said he was offered a deal by Cr Tiley to run as deputy, but he did not take it.
The Greens' Dorothy Robinson won the deputy role over fellow councillors Margaret O'Connor and Peter Bailey.
Working as a team
The new mayor said there were a number of projects that had already started that the new council would have to finish.
"The big thing we need to do is make sure we work as a team," Cr Murray said.
"I'm just one individual. I might be the chair but the team itself is one that will move forward."
That team will include Cr Tiley, who has more than 50 years of experience in local government.
"Ian is part of that team. I respect his knowledge and I hope he will contribute in a very good way," Cr Murray said.
As to moving forward, he said the new council would need to familiarise itself with projects and budgets.
"I don't know the council's financial position at the moment. That's one of the things we are going to have a workshop on," he said.
The election of a Guyra resident to the mayoral position has gone some way to placate opponents of the forced amalgamation between Guyra and Armidale City Councils.
Guyra Amalgamation No Thank You (ANTY) member Robert Gordon said Mr Murray would be well respected as mayor.
"He's now reasonably well known in Armidale as well as in Guyra," he said.
"He's respected as a person, likely to be a good team leader, so I think we should all be extremely grateful that he's been prepared to take on this job."
New council has gender balance
For Cr Robinson, the newly elected council has a promising future, including a better gender balance.
Five of the 11 councillors are women.
"This time we've got a really good balance of the sexes," she said.
"We've also got a wide range of experiences, from agriculture, change management, education, local government, law and most importantly business and economics."
The new deputy said she was looking forward to her two-year term.
"I think there's an awful lot of exciting things to do, and I just wanted to be part of it," Cr Robinson said.
She said she was excited about moving forward on issues such as sustainability, energy efficiency and combating climate change.
"This is such a great time to put these ideas into practice because of the amount of money you can save," she said.
"It's a win-win situation for everybody."
