It may not be until December that the mayor of Wodonga for the next year or two is cemented

A vote for mayor is slated to occur at the next council meeting on November 21.

However, the resignation last week of Cr Watson, due to a cancer diagnosis, means the seven-member council will not have a full line-up until his replacement is decided by the Victorian Electoral Commission.

That means there is a strong likelihood a mayoral vote this month will result in a 3-all deadlock based on council blocs.

Mayor Kevin Poulton has won both his mayoral votes, in 2020 and 2021, 4-3 over councillor Ron Mildren with the support of Cr Watson.

The Victorian Local Government Act states that "if an absolute majority of the councillors cannot be obtained at the meeting, the council may resolve to conduct a new election at a later specified time and date".

The electoral commission is due to hold an online countback to decide Cr Watson's replacement at 10am on December 6.

The next scheduled council meeting is December 19.

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Cr Poulton would not say on Tuesday if he would seek re-election as mayor.

"I don't know, I haven't given it another thought because at the moment I'm trying to make sure a hospital gets built in an appropriate location," Cr Poulton said referring to last week's decision on the fate of Border health hubs.

Cr Mildren was similarly non-committal about whether he would have a third tilt at being mayor.

"At this stage I don't know, but we'll see what happens," Cr Mildren said.

Deputy mayor Graeme Simpfendorfer did not respond to The Border Mail's questions about his mayoral plans.

Cr Poulton said councillors had discussed bringing forward the mayoral vote from November 21 and having a special meeting to determine the issue.

"It was just something that was spitballed," he said.

As to the hospital decision fallout, Cr Poulton said the matter would definitely be talked about at this month's council meeting.

At the corresponding meeting last year, Cr Simpfendorfer secured 5-2 support for his motion to push to have former Wodonga railway land be "the potential site for a new regional hospital".

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