No work for nine months, but Luke Smith, Stacey McIntosh stand to get 2.1% pay rises

Two councillors, who have not worked for nine months after being suspended from an embattled southeast council, stand to soon receive a 2.1 per cent pay rise.

TWO suspended Logan City councillors stand to get 2.1 per cent pay rises on July 1.

Mayor Luke Smith, suspended in May after he was charged with fraud, stands to gain an additional $4706 a year bringing his take-home pay to $228,521, up from $223,821 in 2018.

Logan Mayor Luke Smith.

Cr Stacey McIntosh, also suspended in May, stands to gain an additional $2854 bringing her annual take-home pay to $138,745.

Logan City Div 6 councillor Stacey McIntosh stands to gain an extra $2854.

A review of pay packets for mayors, deputy mayors and councillors of 76 of the state’s 77 councils is conducted every four years in the December before local government elections.

The now-defunct independent Local Government Remuneration and Discipline Tribunal decided on the pay rise for all state councils except Brisbane in November, when it informed Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe.

This year, Logan remained in category 7, with Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast regional councils.

The tribunal said the rise followed a 1.7 per cent increase in the Brisbane consumer price index in the year to June 30, 2018 and a 2 per cent rise for Brisbane councillors.

Similar bodies awarded councils in New South Wales a 2.5 per cent pay rise and in Victoria 2 per cent.

The anticipated pay rise was slammed by former Logan City Council mayor John Freeman who is running for mayor at the next election.

“Ratepayers don’t think that this is a joke that all councillors and the mayor — including the two who are suspended — will get a 2.1 per cent pay increase from July,” he said.

“It’s not funny.”

Duties of the tribunal were split in December with two new bodies set up to take on roles of remuneration and discipline.