12:00a.m. 6th December 2007

| By Kathy Sundstrom

The new Sunshine Coast Regional Council will run like a “board of directors”, with highly paid councillors expected to take on a strategic role and not cater to the everyday needs of ratepayers.

The suggestion came from the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal in its report this week.

The tribunal argued that councillors should move away from a “community service” role and adopt a “board of directors approach”, leaving the dealing of problems like “barking dogs and potholes” to council officers.

Coast councillors will not need formal qualifications for the new executive role, which will land them on a starting salary of up to $132,260 a year, and our mayor up to $220,000. The tribunal also said it would consider financial rewards for councillors who attained extra qualifications.

“The tribunal may, in the future, consider determining a certain remuneration structure for councillors who attain a local government or company director qualification,” the report said.

The tribunal believed the role of councillor “seems to be evolving from what was once seen as a ‘community service’ type role to a more strategic one”.

“The tribunal is of the opinion that councillors will be required to move local government and community expectations away from the traditional role of councillors dealing with minor community issues such as potholes and barking dogs to a more strategic level, where councillors operate like a board of directors,” the report said.

Salary packages for directors on the Coast varied from about $60,000 to nearly $600,000, depending on whether they had an executive or non-executive role.

Buderim Ginger Chairman John Ruscoe earned $65,400 last year, and the managing director, Gerard O’Brien, took home $307,714. Oaks Group chief executive Brett Pointon had a package of about $582,000, FKP managing director PR Brown earned $532,400, and the chairman, BW MacDonald, took home $176,000.

Industry expert Duncan Schultz, of Pacific Governance, did not believe the salaries for the mayor or councillors were too high. “Non-executive directors in public companies earn between $50,000 and $100,000, while executives earn hundreds of thousands – councillors would fall between the two,” he said.

But the high salary package was a “surprise” to Caboolture mayor Joy Leishman who – if she becomes mayor for the Moreton Bay Regional Council – will earn as much as the Coast mayor.

“I was somewhat surprised at the pay level,” she said. “When I stood down as councillor in 1991 I strongly held the view (that) if the pay range was a living wage, we would do better in the representation stakes.

“Now we are very well paid, but I didn’t think we’ve seen much change and my belief of the mid-80s was incorrect.

“People come in for different reasons, making high pay is not one of those.”

Ms Leishman also believed there should be debate on what type of role the community expected councillors to perform.

“There should be a debate on whether we should have a corporate model based on a board of people being here five days a week, like I am,” she said.