Leichhardt Council, once a strong advocate for going it alone, will consider a merger with neighbours Canada Bay and Ashfield as a fallback position when it meets on Tuesday night.
The Labor and Liberal councillors plan to move an urgency motion in support of the option, despite Leichhardt council passing a motion at its last meeting to go it alone. The majority of councillors are believed to have come to the view that Leichhardt needed a plan B in the face of the Baird Government's determination to push ahead with council amalgamations.
But the move has angered Greens mayor, Rochelle Porteous, who said Labor and Liberal councillors were betraying the community which had expressed a strong wish to stay separate. She said it was not on the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
Leichhardt's merger option falls short of the six-way cluster of Leichhardt, Marrickville, Ashfield, Burwood, Strathfield and Canada Bay proposed for the inner west by the government's Sansom report into council amalgamations.
It is also at odds with the proposal favoured by Canada Bay and Burwood, which involves a merger involving Canada Bay, Auburn and Burwood, raising questions about how the government will resolve compting proposals.
Burwood was due to consider this option on Monday night and Canada Bay will also put a similar motion on Tuesday night.
The Auburn, Burwood, Canada Bay proposal involves three Labor-controlled councils stretching westward. However, Sansom had recommended Auburn merge with Parramatta to enlarge that council. The proposal would also leave Strathfield, a small Liberal- controlled council, wedged between Burwood and Auburn. It is likely that the regulator would recommend it be included in the cluster if the proposal is accepted.
All councils are portraying the merger options as fallbacks and will ask their councils to choose between going it alone or merging. But with forced amalgamations looming, several councils are now jockeying for the merger that suits them best.
"We are fighting to stand alone as Leichhardt Council is in an excellent financial position," Labor councillor Darcy Byrne explained.
"Despite Leichhardt meeting all of the government's financial and infrastructure criteria, the Minister is clearly determined to ignore the evidence and force our council to merge.
"Given how disastrous the mega council would be for our ratepayers, we have to consider a fallback option that would not result in their rates going through the roof," he said.
Canada Bay says its merger option it proposes is superior for the council and its residents to the six-way merger.
"This option also offers the opportunity for some of the respective elected members and the general managers to be involved in the transition committees, therefore providing the opportunity to the critical smooth transition as well as ensuring that the needs of our respective residents are considered in the process."
Councils have until June 30 to finalise their submissions.
