group was the North Sydney Civic Group, which came to prominence in the late-1970s amid dissatisfaction with the North Sydney Council. The Council's plans for the demolition of the historic Council Chambers following a fire in 1976, led to further tensions and resulted in the council being turned out at the 1980 elections, replaced by a North Sydney Civic Group-aligned council and Ted Mack elected mayor. Mack's term as mayor, was marked by a single-minded and innovative approach to the local governance issues facing North Sydney at the time. Mack began his term as mayor by selling the mayoral car to help buy community buses. During his term as mayor, North Sydney Council introduced the "open government policy" which honoured a promise of openness and transparency of council decisions, and established a precinct committee system, which allowed for greater citizen input in council issues. The pioneering North Sydney Heritage Study was released in 1982 and in 1989 the new Local Environmental Plan was gazetted. With an increase in council revenues, Mack reinvested the funds in a public works program into several new and renovated parks, car parks, childcare facilities, community and sports centres, and major extensions and renovations to the Stanton Library and North Sydney Oval. Infrastructure also took on a distinct local identity, with Council investment on new street signs, bus shelters, colour schemes of public buildings, paving and street furniture. In 1982, council voted to popularly elect the mayor, with Mack being directly elected twice to the position in 1983 and 1987 before retiring in 1988. With the passing of the Local Government Act, 1993, the Municipality of North Sydney was legally renamed as North Sydney Council and aldermen were renamed councillors. 2016–17 amalgamation proposals A 2015 review of local government boundaries by the NSW Government Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal recommended that the North Sydney Council merge with adjoining councils. The government considered two proposals. The first proposed a merger of the North Sydney and Willoughby Councils to form a new council with an area of and support a population of approximately 145,000. The alternative, proposed by Warringah Council on 23 February 2016, was for an amalgamation of the Pittwater, Manly and Warringah councils. As a consequence of Warringah's proposal, the New South Wales Minister for Local Government Paul Toole proposed that the North Sydney, Willoughby and Mosman Councils merge. In July 2017, the Berejiklian government decided