Bayside councillors approve four per cent pay rise

Residents will be slugged with a 2.5 per cent rate increase while Bayside councillors have given themselves a four per cent pay rise at Wednesday night’s council meeting.

Bayside councillors have given themselves a four per cent pay rise at Wednesday night’s council meeting, just days after they successfully applied to hike up rates for residents.

On Monday, residents learnt they were likely to be slugged with a permanent increase in their rates of 2.5 per cent, which is 0.9 per cent above the rate peg.

Last year councillors forewent their annual pay increase of two per cent, however this year voted to increase their salary by a maximum four per cent rise to make up the shortfall.

Councillor and mayoral payment is determined by the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal, which sets the maximum and minimum amount of fees to be paid annually.

The tribunal recently handed down its determination for 2022/2023 being a two per cent increase over the fees set last year, and set the minimum and maximum range for each category of councils.

Councillors decided not to increase the fees for the mayor and councillor in the 2021/22 year due to the pandemic.

However, on Wednesday night the majority of councillors, except three, voted to take up the full entitlement of four per cent, meaning two per cent for the 2021/22 and another two per cent for 22/23 year.

The council report recommended the councillors and mayor, Dr Christina Curry, to agree to give themselves a four per cent pay increase.

The maximum remuneration for councillors will be $31,640 for the year, compared to the minimum $19,180.

The mayor will receive the councillor payment plus a maximum additional payment of $92,180, compared to the minimum amount of $40,740.

Alternatively, the councillors could vote to only increase their fees by two per cent or retain their current wages - which are $30,410 for councillors and $88,600 for the mayor.

During the council meeting, Cr Liz Barlow urged her colleagues to not vote for the pay rise but rather keep their current salary.

“A four per cent increase is higher than our poor bloody nurses and teachers are getting,” she said.

“Option three gives us the opportunity to leave the pay the same for another 12 months.

“We are not on council for the money, we are here for the community and the money is a bonus.

“If you do the work some councillors then you should get five times the amount.

“Taking the four per cent option is not the way to go.”

The discussion at council came only two days after Bayside Council successfully applied for a rate hike.

The independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal approved Bayside Council’s application for a permanent 2.5 per cent additional special variation in 2022-23, which includes the rate peg of 1.6 per cent.

The decision means the council can increase its general income by 2.5 per cent in 2022-23 and permanently keep this additional income in its rate base.

“Our decision means the council can increase income by 0.9% above the rate peg,” the IPART decision said.

“We estimate this to be around $0.87 million in additional income in 2022-23 which it can keep in its rate base going forward.

“This allows the council an extra $4.6 million over the next five years.”

IPART approved applications by 86 NSW councils, including Sutherland, to increase their rates above the level of the annual rate peg.

During the council meeting, Cr Heidi Lee Douglas said she supported keeping the wage the same for at least the next year until the council could clearly communicate to residents the need to increase rates.

She said she did not believe residents understood the need for the rate hike and there had been backlash.

Cr Scott Morrissey said the rates increase and councillor wage were “separate”.

He noted the wage increase was necessary to make local government enticing to other people who may want to become a councillor.

He said if the councillors didn’t vote to increase the amount in full than the wage “gap will get wider and wider”.

He also noted the $1230 per year was not a large amount.

Meanwhile, Cr Michael Nagi said if councillors did not want the increase then they could donate however much they wanted to charity, although did note “everyone is doing it tough” and the four per cent increase did not equate to much more each month.

Councillors also voted to increase the deputy mayor’s wage.