He will be joined by his son-in-law, Cr Simon Landow, who will also step down from the Deputy Mayor position.

Both men said it was simply time to move on, confirming they will not recontest their positions.

Councillors Col Mitchell and Robert Khan have shown interest in the mayor's job and Crs Benn Banasik and Shane Read will

contest the deputy position.

It's also been suggested that Cr Judy Hannan will join the race but the former mayor kept her cards close to her chest last week and told the Advertiser she had ``been too busy to think about it''.

Cr Mitchell said he would challenge the mayoral position but still needed to seek support from fellow councillors.

``If I miss out on that I will most probably run for deputy mayor again,'' he said.

``But if I do get the mayor's job I would support Benn [Banasik] as the deputy mayor.''

Last week, Cr Landow gave his blessing to his brother-in-law, Cr Benn Banasik.

``I'm taking a year off to give someone else a turn,'' Cr Landow said. ``If they want the jobs I'd be happy to support Col and Benn.

``I would like to be the deputy or even the mayor sometime in the future but I don't want to hog it.''

Cr Banasik jnr said he would love to run for mayor but could not at this stage.

``Due to work commitments I don't think I could give 100 per cent to the mayor's job,'' he said.

``But I can definitely be an active deputy mayor and will ask for the other councillors' support in the next few weeks.''

Cr Robert Khan said he would like to be mayor but it would depend how much time he could put into the job.

Cr Shane Read said if Cr Hannan ran for the mayor's job he would support her and consider putting up his hand for the deputy position.

Crs Cassandra Twarloh and Michael Beshara said they were not sure who they would vote for but looked forward to meeting with interested councillors.