Ratepayers in Division 4 will not get the chance to vote for a replacement councillor if sitting councillor Lance Hewlett wins the seat of Redlands at the next state election.
Cr Hewlett said he was seriously considering nominating for the state seat, held by his brother-in-law Peter Dowling.
Mr Dowling will step down from his position at the next state election, expected in March, after he was ousted in a brutal branch ballot last week following last year’s sexting scandal and claims he used Facebook to look at porn sites.
Under the Local Government Act 2009, by-elections are not necessary once a council has been in government for more than 30 months of its term.
This week marked that 30-month cut-off date for Redland Council allowing any councillor seat vacated between now and the next local government election in 2016 to be filled by a CEO-driven appointment.
If Cr Hewlett won the state seat, Redland chief executive Bill Lyon would call for nominations from anyone qualified to be a councillor within 14 days of the seat being declared vacant.
All candidates who ran for Division 4 at the last election would also be eligible to nominate.
Council would then make an appointment, by resolution, from that list of candidates.
Also under the Act, Cr Hewlett would be required to take leave without pay as a councillor while campaigning for the state seat but only after the state government calls the election.
A council spokesman said council was seeking further clarification as to when that period commenced.
If Cr Hewlett took leave without pay whilst campaigning, Redland council said it would “make appropriate arrangements” to ensure residents in that division were appropriately represented.
Cr Hewlett has to submit to party chiefs a curriculum vitae, prove a clean criminal record and references by November 5 at 12pm.
Then he would be subjected to a grilling interview with the party’s 28 executives, who voted 7-21 to allow Mr Dowling to proceed to the branch ballot, which he then lost 43-50 last weekend.
Cr Hewlett said he had not been through initial vetting stages with the LNP’s state executive in August.
Nominations for the seat close 12pm, on November 5 and it is understood Fiona Ward, an LNP staffer for Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, will nominate.