Embattled mayor Karen Williams holds on to LGAQ role which delivered long list of perks
Tickets to Ed Sheeran, dinner for two at a winery and flights across the country were some of the perks that embattled southside mayor Karen Williams picked up while a director for the state’s peak local government body.
Redlands Coast
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Embattled southside mayor Karen Williams will not be asked to step aside from a lucrative post she holds with the state’s peak local government body, in which she has received complimentary tickets to dinners, pop concerts, and sporting events including the State of Origin.
Cr Williams, the mayor of Redland City, will remain as a director and a policy executive of the Local Government Association of Queensland while awaiting a court hearing on a high-range drink-driving charge.
She was one of three directors on the LGAQ board who collectively earned $104,757 in 2020/21.
She also holds one of three fiercely contested policy executive posts covering the 10 council areas of Scenic Rim, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Lockyer, Logan, Moreton Bay, Redland, Somerset, Sunshine Coast and Noosa.
Under the LGAQ charter, elected directors cannot be removed midterm despite competition for her executive policy position from seven other councils, including the Gold Coast.
“Redland Mayor Karen Williams was elected to the LGAQ policy executive by LGAQ members in 2016 and also in 2020,” an LGAQ statement said.
“Policy executive members elected her to the LGAQ board in 2020.”
Cr Williams was contacted for this story.
Along with being paid for her executive position, Cr William’s register of interest, dated June 14, 2022, also showed she received a long list of perks from LGAQ including two tickets to the Brisbane Tennis Tournament, two tickets for dinner and show with Ahn Doh, two tickets to Ed Sheeran, two tickets to the Brisbane International, two tickets to the Broncos v Raiders game at Suncorp Stadium; and dinner and accommodation to the 2017 State of Origin.
Also on the list, Cr Williams registered hotels in Toowoomba, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Albany, Canberra, Palm Island, Alice Springs, Thursday Island and Adelaide.
Her local winery, Sirromet, also was on the list for offering two dinners for two for the Commonwealth Games Cycling finals and the Commonwealth Games Swimming finals.
The register also reveals part of Cr Williams’s residential property, which she jointly owns with her husband Peter, at Mount Cotton, has a peppercorn lease over an 8 hectare easement “with Redland City Council to formalise a pre-existing trail access”.
Cr Williams is also a director of Local Government Mutual Services and treasurer of the South East Queensland Council of Mayors.
She stepped down from a prestigious role on the 2032 Olympic organising committee in June after she admitted to driving after drinking alcohol and crashing her luxury council-owned car following a zoom meeting in which she was speaking to families of those who had died at the hands of drink drivers.
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