Toowoomba Regional Council at odds with each other over paid board positions at council-controlled entities

Councillors were in two minds about the idea of paying directors who served on the boards of council-owned entities such as Empire Theatres.

LIGHT IT UP: Toowoomba's Empire Theatre was awash with lights and special graphics for Light Unite, an entertainment industry initiative to help thank the country's health workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The prospect of paid board positions at council-controlled entities such as Empire Theatres has reared its head.

Councillors were in two minds about the idea of paying directors who served on the boards of council-owned entities like the Empire Theatres, Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise and Jondaryan Woolshed as they discussed a new policy to assist the council in helping beneficial enterprises and controlled entities at Wednesday’s committee meeting.

Councillor Rebecca Vonhoff said she believed the board members should be paid “because it’s a very serious position, these board spots, and they have a lot of responsibility”.

Noting that they managed “considerable risk in some instances”, Ms Vonhoff queried how the salaries for directors would be quantified.

The council’s manager of governance and legal services, Grant Wilson, said the Empire Theatres directors had done some comparative studies as to what similar not-for-profit entities were paying their directors.

“I haven’t seen that material yet, so we’ll have to get that material, see how comprehensive it is, and then council may wish to undertake some further analysis or simply accept what we’re given,” Mr Wilson said.

Councillor Bill Cahill said he struggled with remunerating the directors of controlled entities, given his volunteer role on the board of another not-for-profit.

“And I don’t think I’d like to be paid because I choose to be involved in this entity out of personal interest and wanting to contribute,” he said.

“And that’s what I hear and have heard for numbers of years around why people get involved in these council third party entities.”

Councillor Carol Taylor said “times had changed” and there were “more stringent requirements on everyone”.

“My point of view would be that an honorarium would be appropriate, perhaps, in light of the value that council and the community put on the work conducted by those people,” she said. “I don’t know what sort of sum we’re talking about, but they are running and trying to conduct a business in our community and on our behalf.”

Mayor Paul Antonio said the people he’d spoken to on the board of the Empire Theatre got their reward by “knowing they are managing one of the most successful regional theatres in Australia”.

“And I don’t think in my view that these people are doing it for much other than the reward they get that I just mentioned,” he said.

Mr Antonio said the previous council had refused a request for the Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise chairman to be remunerated for his “significant work”.

In 45 minutes of debating the policy, councillors also raised concerns and questions about the provision of council observers on boards, reporting on the acquittal of funds and the transparency of the entities.

Councillors ultimately agreed to defer consideration of the policy until after a workshop.