MAITLAND Mayor Philip Penfold's decision to have a warning sign installed at the entry of artist Osvaldo Budet's exhibition focusing on the history of the High Street hitching post is being closely examined.
The mechanics behind that decision - what authority the mayor did, or didn't have, and who was and wasn't informed, will be debated at the council's meeting on Tuesday.
Councillor Amelia Atkinson has asked, ahead of that meeting, if section 226(d) of the Local Government Act 1993 was relied on, what circumstances were considered to constitute a "case of necessity" requiring action before the next scheduled council meeting.
General manager Jeff Smith says "community concerns" prompted the mayor to act, but has not said what the nature of those concerns were, who they came from, or through what channels.
Councillor Penfold and the general manager have been criticised for the installation of the sign which says Budet's art work may "cause offence to members of the Maitland community who have long valued and admired the iconic hitching post statue".
"While council recognises and shares those views, council also respects freedom of expression and the artist's right to present this exhibition on this occasion," the sign says.
Since then, the mayor has declared on social media that "Jocko shall remain", referencing the hitching post about which there are several stories, including a narrative often that it is a statue of 12-year-old African American slave named 'Jocko Graves'.
That character is fictitious, the story is made up, and the hitching post is intrinsically racist, Budet says through his artwork, Monuments, which is part of Maitland Regional Art Gallery's Upriver Downriver exhibition.
It is informed by Budet's experiences growing up in Puerto Rico, a US territory with a history impacted by slavery, racism and colonialism.
Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council has spoken out about the signage and the mayor's stance during the controversy, which began when the sign was installed a few days after the exhibition's opening in July.
"What saddens us most is that even after Aboriginal people and others of colour have spoken openly about hurt, trauma and the impact this object and the rhetoric surrounding it has had on our communities, some of our local civic leaders continue to choose division," a Mindaribba statement published online says.
"There was an opportunity here for leadership. An opportunity to listen. An opportunity to say, 'We may not have understood this before, but we hear you now'."
And now there are questions about how decisions were made, it says, on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
Tensions are also building in the broader community with reports that plastic bags have been draped over the hitching post, and later removed, with some coming to its defence and others offering to "rip it out" themselves.
The artist himself has put a series of questions to the council, which it has indicated it would answer in 28 days.
As well as the signage, Budet has questions about the removal of a 60-page council-commissioned heritage report, titled Hitching Post, Maitland, from his exhibition without his permission or knowledge.
It was removed, and later replaced, Budet says, after a 15-minute phone call with a council director.
Budet says the report, which cost $20,000, was removed because it highlights the true history of the hitching post.
The mayor and general manager have denied having any involvement in its removal.
Under the leadership of the previous mayor and council, the report's removal would have been outside the council's reach with a 2019 gallery policy prohibiting interference with art exhibitions at the Maitland Regional Art Gallery.
That policy was dumped in 2025, and later a different policy relating to the gallery was adopted.
