‘At times like this it would be easy to shrug it off and say ‘we don’t need this money’, but we do need to encourage people to come here and look after our civic affairs,’ Mayor Kevin Morgan said.
Last month’s Salaries and Allowances Tribunal review placed councils in four tiers from the largest to smallest, increasing annual payments at the tier three Cottesloe to $7500-15,000 for councillors and $10,000-$35,000 for a mayor.
The Tribunal said the increases, to take affect this week, were to attract ‘capable and committed elected council members to provide leadership, expertise and good government at a community level’,
At last week’s council meeting, Cottesloe decided to increase Mr Morgan’s previous pay of about $12,000 to $33,000, comprising an $18,000 attendance fee and $15,000 mayoral allowance.
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READ NOWDeputy Mayor Jack Walsh received a $3750 allowance and councillors will get $9000 attendance fees on top of $2000 telecommunications allowances.
Cr Peter Jeanes was the only councillor to vote against the rises after he suggested it required discussion and a workshop so they did not affect the budget.
‘If we’ve got to spend all that time working through the tribunal’s recommendations and do a workshop, then we should probably go straight to the maximum amount as we would have bloody well earnt it,’ Cr Walsh said.