Councillors Brian Kelson, Peter Hulin and Peter Sycopoulis voted against Cr Neoh’s re-election but were out-gunned by their three fellow councillors, meaning that Cr Neoh had to use his casting vote to get himself across the line.

Cr Neoh is not universally popular and has come under heavy criticism from Cr Hulin in particular, who believes that he does not do nearly enough to unite what is essentially a divided council chamber. 

Cr Hulin, who also wants to be Warrnambool’s mayor, has openly derided Cr Neoh for what he believes are his fellow councillor’s numerous leadership failures.

While no love is lost between Cr Neoh and Cr Hulin, to his credit Cr Neoh has, for the most part, maintained a professional and dignified approach under fire while getting on with the job.

Cr Neoh’s critics say that he is nothing more than a puppet of council CEO Bruce Anson and believe that he is incapable of acting unilaterally.

Undoubtedly, the relationship between Mr Anson and Cr Neoh is a strong one, but that is not a bad thing for the city. Better that than an unworkable relationship.

Cr Neoh is no Darren Lyons, the flamboyantly coiffured former paparazzi photographer who is now the mayor of Geelong, but he unquestionably has Warrnambool’s best interests at heart.

He has grown steadily into the role of mayor over the past few years and it will be business as usual for the city council under his stewardship.

This is good news and bad news: good in that Cr Neoh will continue to fill the role adequately, bad in that he will inevitably fail to build the council chamber into the cohesive and united team it needs to be. 

Although not entirely his fault, this will still prove to be a bitter pill to swallow for Cr Neoh — and the ratepayers of Warrnambool.