Logan mayor borrows from son for OS trip while councillors skimp on community engagement budget
A southeast Queensland mayor, who waged war against councillors taking overseas trips, borrowed money from his YouTuber son to upgrade flights to the US this year while his councillors have skimped on spending money on community engagement events.
Logan
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A southside mayor, who has waged a long-running war on councillors travelling overseas, has borrowed money from his celebrity son to pay for upgrades to flights when he travelled to the US this year.
Logan mayor Darren Power borrowed an undisclosed sum of money from his YouTuber star son Lachlan Power, with the transaction recorded on his public councillor register of interest.
The money was to upgrade Mr Power’s paid-for economy class tickets when he travelled on an 11-day trip to the US and Canada in February.
The tour was part of a $120,000 Olympic fact finding mission organised and paid for by the SEQ Council of Mayors.
Mr Power, who took a hard line stance on overseas trips and councillors overspending travel allowances in 2016 and during his 2020 election campaign, backflipped on his foreign flights policy to join the tour.
During the past year, Mr Power spent $2629.99 on travel, blowing out Logan council’s annual budget allocation for councillor travel of $700.
He also spent $2272.73 on conferences and seminars, exceeding the council annual allocation of $500.
Along with travel expenses recorded, Mr Power spent $3389.25 on “divisional expenses”, which was the largest chunk of his allocated annual councillor expense budget of $30,250.
With just over a month before the end of the financial year, the underspending mayor had $21,958 of his councillor expense budget remaining in the kitty.
Logan’s 12 councillors are each allocated an annual expense budget of $21,750, with a $500 cap on conferences and seminars; $550 on professional memberships; $3500 on training and development; $700 on travel and $16,500 on divisional expenses in their electorates.
However, only one Logan councillor, Jacob Heremaia, used the entire divisional expenses budget, spending $17,640.79 in his electorate on community engagement events.
The state’s youngest councillor, Mr Heremaia, 23, who started in office aged 20, has spent $20,216.98 of the annual $21,750, leaving him $1533.02 left for the remainder of the financial year.
Mr Heremaia said he had spent the money prudently and had used personal finances to pay for an electorate office, now closed.
Mr Heremaia held more than six community engagement events with some held in convention rooms at the council’s Logan Metro Sports and Events Centre at Crestmead, in his electorate.
More than 100 people attended some of his events which included guest speakers from local businesses and charities including Assorted Grains Inc and Park Ridge Connect.
“Divisional expenses were used to help host community engagement events in my division to hear from residents,” he said.
“I’ve hosted a significant number of community engagement events including community meetings and mobile offices.
“I believe that it’s important for councillors to be active and engaging with residents and that means that this spending was not only prudent but I believe essential.”
All councillors were asked to reveal how they spent their $16,500 budget in their electorates.
Councillor Scott Bannan, whose electorate covers the rural suburbs including Cedar Grove, Jimboomba, Mundoolun, Veresdale Scrub, Chambers Flat, Logan Village, Munruben, South Maclean and Tamborine, spent $454.46 over the year, the least amount from a divisional budget.
“If I have to do anything, I just pay for it myself,” he said.
“My division, being mainly rural, is a lot different to the others.
“I’m not sure if I do it the right way or not. I guess I’ll know come election time.”
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