Will Councillors vote themselves a 2% fee increase

At tommorrow's Council meeting Councillors will be asked to vote to award themselves a maximum mayoral and councillor fee increase of 2% for the 2021-22 financial year, with effect from 1 July 2021. Based on past annual rises Eurobodalla Councillors have voted Yes every time* while their counterparts in Bega have rejected the increases four years in a row with then Mayor, Kristy McBain saying "councillors should not vote on their own pay, and said she had taken the issue up with the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal". * Editor correction: The exception being 2020 the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal determined that there was to be no increase in mayoral and councillor fees for the 2020-21 financial year. Thanks to Clr McGinlay for the clarification The proposed increase comes at a time when Eurobodalla Council are also recommending increasing rates in 2021-22 by 2%. Proposed changes for 2021-22 include: • The general rate increases by 2%, the rate peg amount for 2021-22. • The environmental levy rate increases by 2%. • The waste collection charge increases by 2% for the typical household. • The water access charge increases by 2.9% to $350 (20mm connection access charge) and the usage charge increases by 1.3% to $3.80 per kilolitre. Water charges are determined taking account of the NSW Best Practice Pricing Guidelines. • The sewer access charge increases by 2% to $1,010 (20mm connection access charge) and the usage charge increases by 2% to $2.00 per kilolitre. Of significance are the observations and rumblings across the ether that the Mayor appears to be more and more absent from briefings, Public Forum sessions, Public Access sessions, and most recently the regular Mayoral radio interviews that are now being met by past and present Deputy Mayors. It is also noted that she no longer does the post Council meeting updates on social media as she did for some time as a mechanism to inform the community of the meeting and outcomes. Should this absence continue for the next 3 months in the leadup to the next election there will come a point where the Deputy Mayor might suggest that he is spending enough time in the acting role to justify additional remuneration and even access to the Mayoral car. In relation to annual fees, it should be noted that councils may only pay a deputy mayor part of the mayor’s annual fee where a deputy mayor demonstrably acts in the role of the mayor. Such payment must only be done at the direction of the council and any amount paid to the deputy mayor must be deducted from the mayor's annual fee (section 249 of the Local Government Act). The community has come to expect the Mayor to be absent from these ancillary functions as attendance is not mandatory however she has made her appearance at the Council meetings that follow. The rules state that if a councillor is absent without leave for three consecutive ordinary council meetings their office is automatically declared vacant and a by-election must be held. Councillors are expected to attend all council meetings and all meetings of any committee of which they are a member, unless leave is sought and approved. This raises the issue of apologies at Council meetings that are offered with no explanation. It has become the norm that apologies for absent councillors are offered without explanation and when Councillors are asked outside of council if they know the reason they mostly respond that they have "not been informed and have not been offered any justifiable reason". Yet they still politely vote to accept the apology.