The Free Clarion received a tip off from a reader, and a council spokesperson confirmed that Mr Arthur, the former Maryborough City Council Water Officer, is currently on two years leave, just under two years left to run, and that he had private use of his council vehicle. The spokesperson said it was probably part of his contract and confirmed that his vehicle was not at the Council's Maryborough office for use by staff.
The tip off said there was a shortage of council vehicles available for staff to use when they needed one to undertake council work. It was hardly fair that Mr Arthur was allowed to get away with taking one home for his personal use for such an extended period of time.
As part of the pay package for Councillors, Cr Arthur also has the use of a council vehicle. Why should ratepayers be paying for the supply of two vehicles to this couple? He is, after all, not using his ratepayer funded vehicle for council work and I am sure Cr Arthur would not mind giving him a lift in hers should he need one.
The Free Clarion earlier this month exposed Cr Arthur's possible conflict of interest in accepting the role of the council Chairperson of the Water & Sewerage Infrastructure portfolio because of her husband's council position. See Portfolio Chair may constitute a conflict of interest.
6 comments:
Perhaps the Clarion could clarify what the true pay is for councillors. A previous story quoted a councillor as "Perhaps I should do what a lot of the others do, just take my $70,000 and sit back and do nothing". From what I have read they are paying themselves $75,000 per year. BUT and this is the big BUT: What about the extras? Is it true they are paying themselves a 10% bonus for the first 4 years? Is it true they have given themselves all new cars? Was this part of the salary package or extra? Value about $7500 per year. What about superannuation? Is it true they get $2 from council for ever one they contribute? That is an extra $20,000 if they put in $10,000 of their own. Lets not mention all the junkets [oops sorry important conferences and research trips] they are going to take. Aren't we really talking about $100,000 PLUS? And that is for the lowest paid councillor. What does the deputy mayor actually do for her extra $10,000 above that?
You refer to a quote of direct speech when the councillor concerned was complaining. Maybe she was using the after tax figure!
However, you are correct, councillors voted to pay themselves $75,940 per year, the mayor $120,230 and the deputy mayor $85,430. As far as I can ascertain superannuation is extra to the figures quoted above.
There is an additional 10 per cent paid to all councillors for the extra work associated with amalgamation, reducing progressively over the four year term.
In addition expenses incurred by a councillor are reimbursed and councillors have the use of a council-owned vehicle. The vehicle can also be used for private use but councillors reimburse the council for any private use. This is done via a log book and at a per kilometer rate set by the ATO.
I hope that clarifies the situation.
Thankyou Editor.
That clarifies most of the queries. I still wonder what Belinda McNevin does extra as Deputy Mayor to justify the extra $10,000 but I doubt whether anyone could answer that question.
Interesting story, marred by a superfluous apostrophe in the heading. It must have migrated from "two years leave", where it is required.
Thank you, those damned apostrophes get everywhere. I wouldn't mind but inappropriate use of apostrophes is a particular hate of mine too and here I am guilty of that exact same sin. However, I don't believe it should have migrated to "two years leave". Two being plural requires years, not year, and in this instance it is not possessive of leave.
Punctuation can be very important can't it? This reminds me of the following story...
An English professor wrote the words, “Woman without her man is nothing” on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.
The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing.”
The women wrote: “Woman: Without her, man is nothing.”
Post a Comment