WODONGA'S mayor says the city needs an economic development plan so it can readily cover job losses, such as those looming at Seeley International and Symbion.
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Ron Mildren was commenting after the council at this month's meeting opted to have a draft economic development plan reviewed and revised.
He said it was "critical" to be able to respond to employment blows and a plan allowed for such instances to be better tackled.
"It's not the individual losses (such as Seeley and Symbion).....we're going to get them from time to time as the economy changes, as all sorts of things change," Cr Mildren said.
"The critically important thing is to be able to work at a high strategic level to get replacement structural change and to accommodate the things that are moving in our economy.
"If we can't do that we're not really keeping our community renewed, keeping things happening that have to happen.
"If somebody finds themselves out of business or out of a job the likelihood is because we've got all the high level strategic business attracting happening, there'll be another job there for them to go to."
Cr Mildren hopes the revised economic development plan can be adopted before the council election in November, even though there is no date set for it to be distributed for public comment.
"I think it would be appropriate to have it back before the election but that depends on a whole range of other priorities and timing," he said.
"It's disappointing we haven't been able to wrap this up in a sharper way, but it's also good process that we've gone through all these issues, if we can understand all of the different criteria that people place on economic development and different people have different views on what constitutes economic development then it's probably a good thing we're getting to go through all this stuff."
The council split 4-3 in voting to revisit the blueprint with councillors Kev Poulton, Graeme Simpfendorfer and Danny Lowe opposing the decision.
"I'll be keen to see what the community does says about what this next draft may look like and what that can realistically deliver on," Cr Simpfendorfer said.
He said there was an intersection with other plans that covered the revitalisation of the Wodonga CBD, the Murray River, Two Cities, One Community and tourism.
Revisiting the plan has been linked with job cuts at the council, with councillor Libby Hall defending that action in light of a "$2.8 million budget hole".
"It's about streamlining and cost efficiencies, so some departments have been combined together, some things have been doubled up," Cr Hall said.
"It might not be the bee's knees but I think it will provide what we need as a community in the next five years."
