MILDURA businessman and councillor of 12 months Liam Wood has been elevated to the city's top civic job.
Cr Wood won a tight challenge to become the next mayor of Mildura, ousting Jason Modica, who has held the position for the past year.
The pair were the only two councillors to be nominated for the position, Cr Wood prevailing five votes to four.
Another first term councillor, Cyndi Power, was elected to be Cr Wood's deputy, successfully challenging sitting deputy mayor Cr Helen Healy for the role.
Cr Wood, who is sole director of Mildura Settlers, Secret Garden restaurant and Rumours nightclub, thanked the outgoing mayor for his "huge effort" throughout the pandemic year and said he looked forward to the ensuing 12 months.
"I'm honoured to take on the position as mayor of a region and community that I grew up in," Cr Wood said.
"I feel great pride in being able to represent a town that has given me so much," he said.
"I plan to lower the eyes and work collaboratively with community members on the immediate needs of our region.
"I look forward to leading a unified council and working productively with my colleagues and the administration, because that's what our region and our ratepayers deserve.
"The work starts now."
Cr Modica was gracious in defeat.
"I would really like to congratulate Cr Wood on being elected this evening," he said.
"It's an absolute honour to be elected as a representative of your community.
"We have been in and out of COVID ... really, I would like to get a message out to the community on how resilient they have been, on how responsive they have been on the back of so many rule changes and some curious leadership from both state and federal governments. It has left local governments doing a hell of a lot of the work.
"I would hope that with the new election of the mayor, the full support of the council ... we can represent our community as best we can."
Cr Wood was nominated by Cr Power, seconded by Cr Glenn Milne and supported by councillors Ian Arney and Stefano de Pieri, while councillors Modica, Healy, Mark Eckel and Jodi Reynolds backed the outgoing mayor.
Cr Power was nominated for the deputy mayor's role by Cr Milne and backed by the same councillors who voted Cr Wood into the mayoral office.
Cr Modica staved off a challenge by seasoned councillor and seven-time city mayor Cr Milne at the 2020 mayoral election when he was voted in to the top post by a margin of seven to two.
A bid to become mayor 12 months earlier failed when he was was narrowly defeated by former Victoria Police inspector Simon Clemence, again five votes to four.
Cr Wood's first bid for a position on council failed in 2016, despite receiving more first preference votes than Cr Modica and Anthony Cirillo who were eighth and ninth elected respectively.
In 2020, however, he was third elected, just ahead of Cr Modica, as his number of first preference votes surged to almost double that of his previous election campaign.
Cr Modica contested the 2019 federal election as an independent, while Cr Healy, who also ran in the 2016 federal election for the Greens, has previously made public her wish for a female to fill at least one of the two leadership positions on council.

The next meeting of council under the new leadership team will be held at 5.30pm on Wednesday, November 24.​ ​