Council: Gold Coast councillor spent nearly $60k on sending letters to constituents in a single year

A Gold Coast councillor spent more than the city’s mean annual wage on postage to their constituents in the past financial year, new data reveals.

A GOLD Coast councillor slugged ratepayers almost $60,000 to post letters to her constituents last financial year.

Council data reveals five councillors spent $81,304 on mail outs through City Hall’s print room in the 12 months to June 30. Labrador’s Kristyn Boulton was easily the highest, spending $57,683.24. This equates to around $1109 a week or $4806 a month, and, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, exceeds the Gold Coast’s mean annual wage of $56,022.

Gold Coast City Councillor Kristyn Boulton (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

Despite multiple requests for comment yesterday, Councillor Boulton did not respond to Bulletin emails and texts.

Four other councillors spent ratepayer money on mailouts through the print shop. They were: Mudgeeraba’s Glenn Tozer ($18,341), Robina’s Hermann Vorster ($3823), Nerang’s Peter Young ($1182) and Carrara’s Bob La Castra ($358).

The amount councillors spent on bulk mail is not open to the public. However, councillors at a full council meeting last night voted to change that, and from now on the data will be included in future annual reports to allow for greater transparency.

Cr Cameron Caldwell said city leaders “needed to have a level of accountability” to the public.

Cr Cameron Caldwell. Picture: Richard Gosling

“To have a single councillor in just one 12-month period spend $57,000 in postage in circumstances when we have only 27,000 electors in each particular division, we need to have a level of accountability to the general public and not have this (data) be unable to be seen by them so they can make an informed decision,” he said.

However, Cr Vorster said ratepayers should take the figures “with a grain of salt”.

“Relying on the information provided about five councillors in no way properly characterises the nature of the expenditure, nor does it capture the expenditure that other councillors outside of those five may have incurred in the discharge of their duties,” he told the meeting.

Cr Hermann Vorster. Picture Glenn Hampson

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“These figures in my view are unreliable … I think there is a danger in the figures which have been released without context.”

In one instance, he said some of his spend had been directed by council staff rather than by himself.

Cr Tozer said he expected the figure to be “a bit higher”.

“We have 250,000 ratepayers represented by 14 councillors and the idea we might post them a letter once a year at $1 a letter, because that is what a stamp costs these days, is expected,” he said.

Cr Glenn Tozer. Photograph: Jason O'Brien

“It is expected by the public that divisional councillors might write once a year to our constituents.

“It would be interesting to see how this would be captured to see if we are communicating effectively.”

The high spend is unlikely to be able to occur again, with new rules requiring the office of council CEO Dale Dickson to approve all future mailouts. It came into effect on July 1.