New councillor Danny Chamberlain supported Cr Mildren, ensuring he had four votes to defeat previous incumbent Kev Poulton 4-3.

In an unusual step, councillor Danny Lowe nominated Cr Mildren for the role and then raised the political ties of him, Cr Chamberlain and councillors Libby Hall and Olga Quilty.

"There's no point in trying to dupe the community," Cr Lowe said after noting it did not take Sherlock Holmes to work out how Monday night's election would unfold.

He said "my concerns are not so much that you're all Liberal Party aligned" before adding he feared Cr Mildren would not be able to separate his political interests from the community's if he became mayor.

Councillor Graeme Simpfendorfer said that Cr Mildren's party ties caused him "great concern".

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He asked Cr Mildren how he could act as mayor "without political bias either consciously or unconsciously?"

Cr Mildren replied he was not a councillor under the Liberal Party banner.

"Every single thing that I do is independent of the Liberal Party because I'm not an endorsed member and I have no beholding whatsoever to carry out any actions as an endorsed member," he said.

Cr Poulton asked Cr Mildren how he would work with the recently re-elected Victorian Labor government.

Cr Mildren said political allegiances would make "no difference", arguing "it's not about party politics when it comes to actually working" beyond elections.

In pitching to be mayor, Kev Poulton expressed dismay at the debate, saying he brought an "apolitical approach" to leading the city.

"I thought we were better than this, than what's been displayed tonight to be honest," he said.

Cr Poulton said he took an attitude that you should be frustrated with all politicians, rather than be friends, and pointed to his response to the decision to build a new Border hospital in Albury rather than Wodonga as exemplifying his approach.

"I knew the hospital announcement....was not going to fly with almost 100 per cent of the population so I acted on that before anyone else did and yes I'm off a couple of Christmas card lists this year because of that," he said.

"Cr Mildren will soon learn there's no room for friendships, there's no room for being aligned with anybody, you truly have to be apolitical."

Cr Poulton said he did not believe the time was right to have a new mayor, but he revealed he had conversations with former councillor Kat Bennett about her leading.

He said the city's momentum would change with a new mayor and it was "almost sou-destroying" watching what occurred after Cr Simpfendorfer became acting mayor in November after a 3-3 mayoral vote deadlock.

Cr Simpfendorfer said while stopgap leader he not one phone call from councillors Mildren, Quilty and Hall asking about his welfare.

Cr Mildren's argument to be mayor centred on genuine engagement with the community rather than "disingenuous media spin".

After winning the job, Cr Mildren said it was an honour and enormously humbling.

Cr Poulton, the first Albury resident to lead Wodonga, thanked the community for "daring to think differently and more regionally when it comes to who best represents their interests".

Cr Hall was elected deputy mayor without a contest.

Cr Poulton nominated Cr Lowe, but he declined it, saying it would speed up the meeting if there was no vote, hinting at a bloc being against him based on the mayoral poll.

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