MAYOR and councillor sitting fees, allowances and declarations of interests could feature on a dedicated City of Melville webpage, if a proposal by councillor Tim Barling finds support.
Cr Barling planned to use the City’s last council meeting to call for Melville chief executive Shayne Silcox to bring his vision for a dedicated “governance and accountability” page to life.
His hope was that the page would include mayoral and councillor sitting fees, allowances and meeting attendance records, as well as financial, proximity and impartiality interests.
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The online gift and contribution-to-travel register, which already exists, would be moved to the new page as well.
He said he considered other council pages including Cockburn, Stirling, Vincent and Bassendean before developing the notice of motion.
But he decided to pull to the item from consideration saying there was concern over how it was worded and that precise interpretation would mean information that can currently only be sighted by appointment would have been made public.
“After meeting with City officers to hear and address their concerns I am hoping to resubmit the motion for the May (ordinary council meeting),” he said.
Prior to pulling the motion, Cr Barling was set to argue that most of the information he was requesting for the page was already published in council minutes and on the City’s website.
He said it was all about being honest and transparent.
“There are also a number of other Perth metropolitan councils that have portals publishing similar information and I am hoping that this and similar actions will help improve the community’s confidence in the City of Melville and, with more widespread adoption, local government in general,” he said.
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