The state government cut the mayoral and councillors’ allowances because the council had been downgraded under a formula/points system that takes into account the number of residents in the shire and council’s recurrent revenue.

The outcome is the mayoral allowance has been cut from $79,612 to $61,651 and councillors’ allowances trimmed from $25,730 to $20,636 a year. The council was only told by the state government of its downgrade on December 24, after the shire offices had closed for the Christmas break.

The council’s chief executive officer Andrew Mason expressed concern to Local Government Victoria about the lack of consultation and mayor Neil Trotter expressed similar disappointment to Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek.

Mr Mason said the sudden pay cut by the state government without any forewarning gave councillors no opportunity to financially prepare for the drop in their allowances.

The change in allowances will save the council more than $48,000 a year.

Cr Trotter said he was disgusted with the way the state government delivered the news of the pay cut – by email on Christmas Eve.

He believed the news of the pay cut was delivered then to avoid any “kick back in the media” about the move. It showed “sheer contempt” for the council and was indicative of how the state government was “dismissive” of local government, he said.

Cr Simon Illingworth said he understood the cut in allowances was because the shire’s population had dropped by about 50 people.

He said that reasoning did not take into account the many millions of visitors who came to the shire.

He said it did not take into account that many councillors worked through the Christmas/New Year break, attending to such issues as overflowing rubbish bins caused by the big number of visitors or continuing to lobby for better roads and better power infrastructure.

– Warrnambool Standard