May precede a spoken test by municipal council leader (7)

I believe the answer is:

mayoral

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'council leader' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'may precede a spoken test' is the wordplay.
'precede' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a spoken test' becomes 'oral' (I've seen this before).
'may'+'oral'='MAYORAL'

'by municipal' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mayoral that I've seen before include "Relating to city leader" , "Relating to town's elected head" , "for chief councillor?" , "council leader" , "Dignitary's" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sydney Morning Herald.

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