Ratepayers may be left with a host of issues if Greater Bendigo is forced to overhaul the way councillors represent their wards, mayor Andrea Metcalf has warned.
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She has told an independent panel exploring the potential overhaul that the council is seeking answers on a number of questions.
"What happens if a councillor is unwell, on leave or, Heaven forbid, unmotivated to do the job they have been elected to do?" Cr Metcalf said.
Bendigo's council believes the current system helps ease some of those risks.
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The council also has questions about how well councillors could service larger wards and safety of representatives if working alone.
The panel is currently considering three models to bring Greater Bendigo in line with recent law changes.
All would carve Bendigo into nine wards, each represented by a single councillor.
It is part of a statewide overhaul that advocates say would foster closer relationships between councillors and communities, bolstering accountability and grassroots democracy.
'Don't need to fix it': Cr Greg Penna
Greater Bendigo's council hoped to at least talk about other models' merits, including its current three-member wards.
"What we would say is that we don't believe one model works for all regional cities. There is no perfect structure," Cr Metcalf told the panel.
Cr Greg Penna wrote his own submission in support of multi-member wards.
"At the moment the three ward and three councillors structure works and fits well for Bendigo," he wrote.
"There is a common adage, 'If it ain't broke, don't need to fix it'. I think this fits the bill here."
It was unclear if the council could get anywhere with its multi-member ward wish.
The Victorian Electoral Commission did not see scope for them under recent law changes.
"Under the Local Government Act 2020, all metropolitan, interface and regional city councils must have single-councillor ward electoral structures," a commission spokesperson said.
The council believed there was latitude for multi-member wards under that act.
It will ultimately be up to the state's local government minister to make decisions on ward structures, after the panel has handed in its final recommendations.
Don't split us: Heathcote advocates
If the council is forced to go to single-member wards, it wants to make sure neighbourhoods are not split up.
So does progress group Advance Heathcote.
It has told the panel it does not want its community split into two wards, with Heathcote on one side and Costerfield, Moormbool West, Knowsley, Ladys Pass, Mount Camel and Redcastle on the other.
"From a small-town rural community perspective, this split does not make sense and complicates community representation and communication," the group said in a submission to the panel.
The wider Heathcote community should be able to speak to the council "with one voice" to get best outcomes for neighbourhoods with links dating back to the 1850s Gold Rush, Advance Heathcote has told the panel.
The work of the panel continues.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
