Councillor Davis defeated Cr Scott Munro in a secret ballot, while Cr Chris Gryllis will continue as deputy mayor after fending off challenges from Cr Munro and Cr Kevin Duffy for the position.

It will be the third straight year Cr Davis and Cr Gryllis have been at the helm of Orange City Council.

Cr Davis, who first took on the mayoral role when elected to council in 2004, is Orange’s longest-serving mayor.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” he said.

“I’m going to continue to work very hard along with my fellow councillors for the betterment of Orange in the next 12 months.

“I’d like to thank my family because of the pressure of being on council puts on them and also my fellow councillors as we look forward to working on another year of major projects.”

Before Tuesday night’s vote, Cr Davis had already completed 10 years in the top job.

He also previously served as Blayney mayor for 10 years.

Four other Orange mayors served for eight years  - Walter Matthews (first elected 1936),  Ron Thomas (first elected 1969), Dick Niven (first elected 1981) and Tim Sullivan (first elected 1983).

Cr Munro wanted Tuesday night’s vote to be recorded by a show of hands, but that was defeated in favour of a secret ballot.

The vote's mayoral positions will be the last decided by councillors, with a popularly-elected mayor to be determined next year. However, it’s possible the NSW government’s proposal for council amalgamations might impact that change.

The results of the mayoral election are in contrast to the Central Western Daily’s online poll, which put Cr Munro ahead with 34.9 per cent, Cr Davis behind him on 27.3 per cent, followed by Cr Duffy on 16.2 per cent, other on 12.4 per cent and Cr Whitton on 9.3 per cent.

Cr Neil Jones won the online poll for deputy mayor with 24.6 per cent of the vote, followed by Cr Jason Hamling on 23 per cent, Cr Munro on 17.2 per cent, Cr Duffy on 15.2 per cent, Cr Gryllis on 11.5 per cent and other on 8.6 per cent.

The meeting also elected the six chairs of the council’s key policy committees.

They are:  

Infrastructure committee: Cr Glenn Taylor.

employment and economic development committee: Cr Jeff Whitton.

Sport and recreation committee: Cr Jason Hamling.

Environmental sustainability committee: Cr Neil Jones.

Services committee: Cr Ron Gander.

Planning and development committee: Cr Russell Turner

Finance committee: Cr Kevin Duffy.