A FORMER Hobsons Bay City councillor has called on the current council to investigate allegations of misuse of taxi expenses by former Mayor and current councillor Tony Briffa.
Altona Meadows resident Carl Marsich accused the councillor of excessive taxi use during his mayoral term last year, saying he racked up a bill of $3544 during his first six months on the council.
According to information obtained by Mr Marsich through Freedom of Information, Cr Briffa’s excessive taxi use is highly questionable.
“I call on councillor Briffa to provide further details to clarify whether his taxi use was for council business,” Mr Marsich said.
Cr Briffa told Star the matter was “nothing more than political nonsense and sour grapes” brought by a former councillor who unsuccessfully stood for election last year.
Mr Marsich raised the concerns about Cr Briffa late last year and said this followed a dramatic change in his taxi expenses that dropped by $3451 to $93 over his last four months.
The documents also revealed that the current councillor used a limousine taxi for a number of trips which, according to Mr Marsich, charged $15 to $25 dollars above the standard fee.
Cr Briffa responded to the concerns during last year’s September council meeting and said he had been transparent in his council taxi use and had nothing to hide.
However, Mr Marsich said some of the information obtained in the FOI documents does not state the purpose of all the meetings he attended and therefore it could not confirm its legitimacy.
For example, he said, on 28 February a document stated that Cr Briffa spent $70 on two return fares from Altona to Docklands to “catch up with an unknown person for one hour”.
Cr Briffa said he was “pleased” the council released information about his taxi expenses which he “incurred a part of his role as mayor and chair of various council advisory groups”.
He confirmed his expenses were “entirely in accordance with the council policy” as he did not take a council provided mayoral car.
Despite this Mr Marsich said the investigation should examine whether Cr Briffa’s taxi use met the requirements of the Local Government Act, regulations or compliance codes in relation to the appropriate use of Hobson’s Bay Council’s ratepayer dollar.
“I would suggest that the taxi usage of all the Hobsons Bay City councillors from 1996 to 2012 would not have exceeded councillor Briffa’s taxi use for the first six months of his mayoral term,” Mr Marsich said.
