But that will mean nothing if those same councillors are only putting off for a few more months making what they fear will be an unpopular decision.

Instead, councillors owe it the people who voted them in to approach this process with an open mind and a willingness to listen to the views of the community.

The push for a referendum on a popularly-elected mayor has been doing the rounds in Bathurst for a decade now, without ever getting past square one.

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There has always been opposition to the idea of a popularly-elected mayor among a majority of the councillors, and there are legitimate concerns with the concept.

First is the possibility that the mayor elected by the people may be unable to work effectively with the councillors sitting around the table. That is is less of a concern if it is the councillors themselves who elect the mayor.

And the fact a popularly-elected mayor would be in the job for four years - with no easy way of removing them if they were performing poorly - also has some worried.

On the flipside, though, there are certainly benefits.

An election for a popularly-elected mayor would force candidates to explain to voters their vision for the city, something we simply don't see in mayoral elections currently.

And a four-year term would bring increased stability to the role and avoid the jockeying for votes that has already started ahead of the next mayoral election due to be held in September.

But the key issue here is that councillors are not being asked whether or not they support the concept of a popularly-elected mayor. Rather, they are being asked whether the question should be put to the people in the form of a referendum at the 2020 council elections.

Or, put another way, our councillors are being asked whether they believe the people of Bathurst - the same people whose judgment elected them to council - can be trusted to properly consider the pros and cons of an important matter like this before making a mature, informed and intelligent decision.

The people of Bathurst might decide they want a popularly-elected mayor or they may decide they don't.

But they deserve, at least, to be asked.