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Shire Budget – 28 pc pay rises appropriate: CEO

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Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

Most councillors received a 28 per cent increase in payment in the 2022-2023 Shire of Denmark budget brought down last month.

Shire president Ceinwen Gearon’s payment rose 32 per cent while deputy shire president Kingsley Gibson’s 42 per cent.

Cr Gearon’s and Cr Gibson’s payments take into account a hike in allowances, in Cr Gearon’s case from $23,957 allocated in the 2021-2022 budget to $32,199 this budget.

All up, Cr Gearon receives $50,634 (85 per cent of band for tier 3,) 15 per cent less than other neighbouring local governments pay their shire presidents.

The Plantagenet shire president receives $58,173 (100 per cent of band for tier 3) and the Albany Mayor $140,701 (tier 1). In Cr Gibson’s case, his allowance rose from $4242 to $8050 in the same period.

All councilors, including Cr Gearon and Cr Gibson will receive the same attendance fee, $14,260, a 34 per cent increase from 2021-2022 when councillors were each allocated $10,639.

Each councillor receives a communications allowance of $2975, up $420, and each a travel allowance of $850, except for Cr Gearon who gets $1200.

The travel allowances remain the same as in last budget. Shire chief executive David Schober said meeting attendance fees had been increased in line with neighbouring local governments of the same size.

The Shire believed this was appropriate given the workload and demands presented by the community. The Denmark elected members’ meeting fee was the same as the Shire of Plantagenet’s at $14,260.

An average councillor would spend between 40-70 hours a month on council related-business. This included public meetings, briefings, council meetings, back-ground reading and other council-related activity.

At the budget meeting on August 2 the Denmark Shire Council voted to deal with the elected members fees as a separate item.

Councillor Nigel Devenport’s motion to reduce the shire president’s and councillors’ annual attendance fee to $10,639 lapsed for want of a seconder.

Councillors’ pay rise

Cr Devenport’s motion noted that the reduction in expenditure be accounted for by increasing the transfer to the Infrastructure Reserve by $32,589 to achieve a balanced budget.

In successfully passing the payment increase, Cr Donald Clarke asked that his comments be recorded that no sitting councillor had taken on their role for personal gain.

He said the council was likely the most diverse Denmark had had, and that diversity was important for representation.

Cr Clarke had supported increasing the member sitting fees to 85 per cent of the allowable fee band to reduce any financial impost that would discourage potential candidates.

Though this was not the most opportune time to review fees, the increase only added less than 0.5 per cent to the rate increase.

Delaying an increase would make for a “bigger leap” next year to meet this benchmark.

Mr Schober said that due to the need to attract a quality and diverse candidate base at local government elections in future, a long-standing issue was being addressed in providing more appropriate remuneration for the time commitment and other demands in what in was often a thankless job.

Denmark Bulletin 18 August 2022

The article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 18 August 2022.

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