Councillors vote themselves host of perks

12:00a.m. 8th May 2008

SUNSHINE Coast councillors will be given a car, fuel, a laptop and meals and accommodation while away on business as part of a range of entitlements agreed upon yesterday.

While it isn’t exactly a French champagne and caviar lifestyle, councillors will receive a raft of perks under the proposed reimbursement policy.

Meeting in Nambour, councillors voted to send off the policy to the local government department for approval as soon as possible.

Under the policy, all 12 councillors and the mayor will receive a company car, fuel, laptop or personal computer, printer, fax, internet access, home office, and meals and accommodation while on business. They also each receive a phone or palm pilot, for which they only pay 5% of the bill.

Outside of official engagements, councillors and the mayor will share in a collective $12,000 a year “hospitality allowance”.

The councillors can spend a maximum of $500, while mayor Bob Abbot will have $6000 to assist in “entertaining dignitaries”, which equates to $115 a week.

Councillors can also claim a course designed to increase their skills to a limit of up to $5000 per term.

All mandatory training is paid for, as well as cab charges to attend official council functions, and up to $20 a day to cover incidental costs of staying away from home.

Councillors must stay in the accomodation provided for them unless prior consent is given, and must choose the most cost-effective travel option.

When travelling, they can spend $19.60 on breakfast, $20.05 on lunch and $34.55 on dinner before having to incur the cost.

Once the policy has state approval, the council will vote on it and it will be advertised through the newspaper.

Recent Comments

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Posted by diddleedee from London/Wimbledon

on 8 May, 2008 at 8:28 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

These expenses seem very reasonable, necessary and not at all extravagant.

Posted by jboast from Buderim

on 8 May, 2008 at 8:45 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

No drama with giving people the tools to do their job as long as they are accountable. The only thing I ask is they give up any other outside job or businesses and give us 100%.
Actually, some of the allowances may be a little on the light side but as long as they are happy they can do the job, fine.

Posted by atapro from Noosaville

on 8 May, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

I completely agree with JBoast. The pay and perks are reasonable as long as we all clearly understand the job description for a Councillor. And, on the proviso that this is a FULL-TIME job where they are required to represent their own Division as well as the Region.

If they are still going to be regarded as part-time, and can continue to run personal businesses, I don't believe that it is at all reasonable.

There has been a bit of discussion about the new Regional Councillors acting simply as "company directors" where they would only really be required to attend council and special committee meetings. The question is...what about their divisional representation duties.

The Local Government Act and the Dept of Local Government's guidelines state that:

"The need for councillors to effectively consult and liaise with their constituents is reinforced by their statutory role in the Local Government Act 1993. The Act states that councillors must :"
"represent the overall public interest of the local government's area and, if the councillor is a councillor for a division of the area, also represent the public interest of the division"

There does not appear to be any discussion anywhere in the Act, or in the Government's guidelines about the issue of full-time vs part-time. I believe that it is important for the Council to clarify the Job Description of Councillors before they progress any further on the issues of their pay and Perks.

Posted by Eugene from Doonan

on 8 May, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

Ed

Not too impressed by the Tag at the top of the article. "Councillors vote themselves host of perks"

More like "Coucillors come into 21st Century"

or "New conditions for tougher job".

Jane penned (or should I say Keyed) quite a good article, however it was blemished by the title.

It's clear to all that the new requirements have become mountainous, attributable to Beattie's so called "making Councils more sustainable".

The new council has stepped up to the plate (pardon the cliche) and they will now require all the support they can muster in whatever form it takes.

As for the entertainment allowance I don't see any problem in the occasional bottle of Grange to soothe their frayed equilibrium.

Purely for medicinal purposes of course. ;-P

Posted by Andy_walker from Bli Bli

on 8 May, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

They do seem reasonable, however I wonder, why do they need a company car?

To my knowledge the each have a vehicle already, and if fuel is covered, wouldn't it just be cheaper to have fuel and maintenance of their existing vehicles covered?

Posted by LJ_Turner from Marcoola

on 8 May, 2008 at 12:55 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Andy,
you might want to add insurance, break-down service, depreciation etc costs. Also, under ATO rules, if we give them an allowance / costs, they can only claim up yo 5,000km per year.

Coupled with the fact of the expanded distances they have to cover and the frequency I have seen Councillors out-of-business hours at different events listening and talking with rate payers, I think it is reasonable that they get a car.

Maybe we could suggest they get a 4 cyclinder and these days most 4s are great and comfortable? VW and other diesels have extremely good fuel economies. I hesitate to suggest hybrids because they cost on average $10k more to purchase or the corresponding increase in leasing costs.

Posted by Eugene from Doonan

on 8 May, 2008 at 1:56 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Yup, I can just see it now,

Big Bob in a bubble car.

Would that constitute a SCRC Biosphere ?

Could attract a state grant for that one.

Posted by savetherange from Mapleton

on 8 May, 2008 at 6:57 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

Remember the messerschmitts? Pretty economical and very easy to park.

Posted by Coalface from Harrison

on 9 May, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. ( Suggest removal )

A car is entirely reasonable, given the sheer volume of driving required in the job.

Of greater import and not mentioned is whether they will get adequate secretarial support.

To give people an idea:

In my day we had two staff between 12 councillors, and of course their time was dominated by the luddites who feigned being unable to type or use email.

Keeping up with the inflow of emails and letters was impossible, and I regret to this day how I was utterly unable to respond to many people in a timely manner.

Then there was the work I created myself - my main way of working was every few months to drive/ride or walk up and down every street in one area of my electorate dictating maintenance issue into a recorder (no MPEG recorders then) and then transcribe them into 20-40 emails to the Service Centre for action - hours of work every time. But it ensured that the council kept on top of maintenance issues for my area.

And when we started, the bureaucracy would dump a solid 20cm thick worth of agenda papers on us almost every Friday arvo for consumption by the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

And then there were community meetings and functions some 4 nights every week, inc weekends.

I worked between 80 and 100 hours every week.

Therefore I think it would be quite reasonable for one EA per councillor. It would be value for money for the residents.

Posted by Eugene from Doonan

on 9 May, 2008 at 3:55 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

"All articles that coruscate with resplendence
are not truly auriferous"

Be careful what you wish for !

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