Central Coast’s re-categorisation as a Major Strategic Area results in a pay rise

After a long debate, Central Coast Councillors voted to give themselves a pay rise, which came about from a re-classification of the region by the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal, from a regional area to a major strategic area.

The vote was close after Cr Greg Best opened debate saying councillors should refuse to accept the new rate that came from the Tribunal after moving Central Coast into a new category with a higher pay scale.

He was supported by Liberal councillors Rebecca Gale, Jilly Pilon, Chris Burke, independent Bruce McLachlan and Labor Councillor, Doug Vincent.

However, Councillors Jane Smith, Chris Holstein, Jeff Sundstrom, Richard Mehrtens, Jillian Hogan, Louise Greenaway and Mayor Lisa Matthews voted for the pay rise.

Cr Greenaway asked if councillors could individually decide to accept or reject the pay rise but was told by a staff member that the council as a whole had to decide and what councillors then did with the rise was an individual matter.

Mayor Lisa Matthews said that in the past, when she had not agreed with an increase when she was a Wyong councilor, she had donated her increase to a charity for the entire term, three years.

This time, however, she voted for the increase.

Cr Vincent voted against the increase, saying it amounted to about six percent for a councillor and 10 percent for the mayor, and at a time when ratepayers were struggling, it was not a good look.

He mentioned that it was a base rate, with the councillors able to get extra payments for mileage and childcare for example.

“As leaders we shouldn’t be having this debate,” he said.

Cr Best said the Mayor received the mayoral allowance minus 10 percent for the deputy mayor, plus the councillor allowance, bringing her income to about $120,000 plus a car and the deputy got about $40,000.

He said it was a tokenistic but important gesture to not accept the increase for councillor remuneration.

He spoke about the council being in deficit, losing about $1M a week last year and mentioned that residents were going to be asked to pay for something that would be unveiled shortly and that a pay increase was a bridge too far.

Cr McLachlan said ordinarily he had no problem with a pay increase because councillors were not well paid, but not this time.

Cr Holstein defended the increase.

“This remuneration argument has been going on for 30 years and remuneration for councillors is woeful,” he said.

“One reason council can’t attract a wide range of councillors is because the pay is woeful.

“This is a reclassification of the work we do. It works out about $30 a week.

“It is the sixth largest council in Australia and one of the biggest financially in Australia.’’

He suggested it was quite easy to see from attendance records that some councillors found it hard to get to all meetings because of other commitments.

He said his diary showed that in one year, he had attended more than 130 meetings, more than 80 events and more than 60 zoom meetings.

The Chronicle contacted the councillors who voted against the pay rise to ask how they were going to deal with the increase: accept it or donate it.

Cr Doug Vincent said he would donate his increase to charities that supported the most needy people in the community and these would include soup kitchens, suicide prevention, particularly youth suicide and those supporting domestic violence victims.

He said he had done the same in the past when he was a Wyong Shire councillor and had disagreed with increases.

Cr Greg Best said he was developing a suitable rescission motion for the next council meeting in discussion with his colleagues.

“This will give all concerned another opportunity to reconsider this totally out of touch, self-awarded pay rise,” Cr Best said.

Previously the remuneration to a Central Coast councillor was $30,410 per year.

That has now risen to $32,040.

The Mayoral fee moves from $88,600 to $99,800.

The full increase means an adjustment to the council budget of an additional $35,650.

The staff recommended that councillors accept the maximum increase, arguing that It was considered appropriate for a Council the size of the Central Coast to remunerate councillors at the higher level.

“While this represents an increase, this needs to be considered in the light of the fact that Council has long held that it should be in a different category,” the report said.

“Had the Tribunal agreed with this position on a previous occasion, the fees payable to councillors would likely have been at the level that is recommended.

“At every opportunity, Council has made submissions to the Tribunal and now that the Tribunal has recognised the validity of Council’s submission, it is considered appropriate to apply the increase available.”

Council argued that it was of such size, scale and capacity, that it should be more appropriately categorised with the largest and most populated Councils in NSW servicing a regional area such as Wollongong and Newcastle.

The submission noted that Central Coast Council has the largest budget of all councils in NSW.

Council had sought to be re-categorised as a Regional City, saying its characteristics were substantially different to Lake Macquarie which it had been categorised with as a Regional Strategic Area.

“The Tribunal, in its 2020 determination, concurred that the characteristics of the two Councils (Central Coast and Lake Macquarie) allocated to the Regional Strategic Area category were sufficiently different to warrant further differentiation,” the report said.

“However, the Tribunal did not agree with Council’s submission that Central Coast Council meets the broader criteria applicable to other councils in the category of Major Regional City, being Newcastle and Wollongong.

“As a result, the Tribunal determined to introduce a new category – Major Strategic Area.

“This category was created to recognise the scale and unique position of Central Coast Council to both the Sydney and Hunter regions.

“The remuneration span for this category is the same as for a Major Regional City.”

Categories are reconsidered every three years.

The tribunal also addressed the non payment of superannuation to councillors.

It ruled that councillors are not employed by council and the fee paid is not a salary.

The tribunal noted that the Australian Taxation Office had made a definitive ruling that allowed councillors to redirect their fees into superannuation on a pre-tax basis.

Reporter: Merilyn Vale