By BELINDA PARKES
THERE will be no pay rise this year for the mayor or councilors, after they voted not to accept the one on offer.
Four of the seven councillors, three of whom were only voted in for the first time in September, voted down the recommended pay offering of 2.5 per cent, saying they felt uncomfortable setting their own incomes.
But there is still time for them to change their mind after they forgot to give themselves any income at all. They will have to vote on the issue again before July 1.
Councillor Carolyn Byrne was the first to speak against taking any more money, saying it felt ‘morally incorrect’ to expect councillors to decide their own pay.
Deputy mayor Michael Armstrong also felt ‘discomfort’ at being asked to vote for a pay rise, even a small one, when councillors were trying to limit the costs within their departments and expecting staff to take on extra work without extra funds.
The increase, as recommended by the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal whose job it is to set maximum and minimum pay rates, would have given councillors an extra $430 a year from July 1 and lifted their annual salary to $17,490. The mayor’s would have gone up $930 to $38,160.
Councillor Phil Youngblutt called on those who felt overpaid to not accept the extra money but, when councillors Byrne, Armstrong, Katie Milne and Gary Bagnall called his bluff and voted down the proposed pay rise it meant Cr Youngblutt, Cr Warren Polglase and Mayor Barry Longland would not get it either.
The council’s acting director of Corporate Services Michael Chorlton reminded councillors the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal had determined what was reasonable for a council of this size.
He also suggested the decision not to accept the pay rise contradicted the way they had voted on another report the same night which urged the Local Government Review Panel to provide better remuneration to local government representatives.
“It is a feeling right across the NSW sector and your counterparts over the border get paid many times what you get paid,” he said.
