Pay rise for councillors

Pay rises to councillors have been criticised by a Baw Baw Shire councillor who said allowances should not increase any more than the 1.75 per cent rate cap being imposed on ratepayers.
Cr Danny Goss said the new allowances adopted by council last week failed to "meet the pub test."
The most significant increase will be the deputy mayor's allowance which will increase 67 per cent to $48,235.
The mayoral allowance will increase 8.1 per cent to $96,470 and councillor allowances will increase four per cent to $30,024. All allowances include 10 per cent superannuation.
But a number of councillors said the increased allowances would help attract community members, particularly women, to the roles.
The allowances are set by the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal for municipalities across the state according to different category levels.
The tribunal's determination sets base allowances for mayors and councillors and for the first time has set a base allowance for deputy mayors.
The tribunal also set a remote area travel allowance for councillors. The eligibility for the remote travel allowance states the councillor resides more than 50 kilometres from the location of ordinary and special council meetings or municipal functions.
If the criteria is met, the councillor is entitled to be paid an allowance of $44 for each day they are required to attend functions, to a maximum of $5500 annually.
The mayor and councillors also are entitled to be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket expenses incurred while performing their duties. These allowances and expenses are published in council's annual report each year.
A report to council said an independent tribunal setting the allowances meant council was no longer "in the awkward position of setting and approving its own allowances."
"It recognises the role of mayor as a full time commitment, the role of deputy mayor as growing in importance and that for councillors an average week's time commitment has been estimated at around 23 hours which heavily reduces their ability to participate in other work," the report said.
Cr Goss said the increased allowances would not be well supported in the community. "I don't think this passes the pub test."
"It is not the right signal to the community - why can't councillors take a 1.75 per cent increase like the rate cap. We are leaders in the community and we should lead by example
"I don't see any reason to increase the mayoral allowance 8.1 per cent, that could've been more moderate. But I really have a problem with the deputy mayor receiving a 67 per cent pay rise.
"I don't see the justification for such large pay rises and I am confident the majority of ratepayers wouldn't support that," he said.
Supporting the increased allowances, Cr Annemarie McCabe said a councillor's role was no longer rates, rubbish and roads - "councillors have to be more like directors."
She said councillors were expected to do 10 to 20 hours per week, meaning the allowance roughly worked out to be about $27 an hour.
Cr McCabe said the allowance reflected that a councillor's role was essentially a part time community role.
She said feedback to the tribunal indicated the allowance needed to be at a level so that people were not precluded from being a council representative
She said current allowances were a disincentive for people who may have to reduce their working hours to take on a council role and favoured people who were retired or independently wealthy.
"It won't have a big impact on our budget but it may have an impact on encouraging more young people, more women, and more First Nations people to nominate and become councillors in the future," she said.
Cr Joe Gauci said part of the tribunal's review was to achieve greater gender equity on council and encourage more young people and women into local government.
"We want diversity so if you can't make it worthwhile and they are going to lose money to go on council then it won't happen," he said.
Cr Gauci said the increase meant councillors received an extra $22 a week and the mayor would receive about $39 extra a week. He said the increased allowance for deputy mayors was an acknowledgement of the role they played and the scenario they had to step into a mayoral role if the mayor was unable to continue their duties.
Cr Darren Wallace said he also would be happy for council allowances to increase in line with the rate cap each year "so we have parity."
"This is forcing us to spend more than we even collect, I don't think it is fair," he said.
The new allowances adopted by council will be backdated to December 18 last year. The allowances will be reviewed in 2025.
Cr Goss called for a division on the vote. Supporting the pay increases were Crs McCabe, Gauci, tricia Jones, Peter Kostos and Michael Leaney. Crs Goss and wallace voted against the recommendation.