IT’S RAINING CASH, PAY RISES FOR ALL COUNCILLORS – CESSNOCK COUNCIL

Cessnock Council to fork out more than $60,000 in extra allowances per year for Councillors and the Mayor, after voting to increase their allowance by the maximum rate, but where will this money come from? You, the rate payer of course. And I won’t be surprised one bit if you see a rate rise in the not too distant future.

The better question is what will you, the rate payer, get out of the pay rise; and if it’s more of the same, it’s totally not worth the pay rise. However, with an election around the corner, it might be an incentive enough for others to put their hand up for public office and could bring positive changes to Cessnock.

Cessnock councillors voted to give themselves the maximum pay rise possible as the city was reclassified as a Regional Centre in 2020.

Mayor Bob Pynsent is set to receive a whopping $16,000 more per year, taking his total take home pay to $61,280 per year, whilst Councillors will receive a 20% increase in their allowances bringing their total take home allowance to $24,810 a massive increase of $4,010 per year.

Councillors voted nine to one with only outspoken Ian Olsen voted against, saying its an absolute joke.

“A 20 percent increase for councillors and a 30 percent increase for the mayor is an absolute joke in this time and age, when the state government is recommending that the maximum wage rise anyone shojuld get is 1.5 percent,” he said.”

DI Fitzgibbon voted for the pay rise, stating that it’s not just 1 meeting a month we have to attend and would allow councillors to reduce work hours and spend more time with council.

“The amount of time that you have to put in to do a good job requires a lot of meetings, briefing and training days – it’s not just one meeting a month.” She said.

Whilst I don’t think the current lot of councillors deserve a pay rise, I do believe a pay rise might be enough to encourage better councillors in the future who can most certainly do much better than the ones we currently have. As the old saying goes, if you pay peanuts, you attract monkeys and that’s exactly what we have now.

Can Cessnock afford the extra allowances, if you quickly glance over the budget and believe the spin by Mayor Pynsent and General Manager Stephen Glen then yes they can, the Budget is in surplus.

is the surplus just smoke and mirrors? The budget was heading for a $1 million deficit before some creative accounting, moving wages from expenses to assets and with the help of some covid grants, presto budget surplus, but what happens when the grants run dry or projects can’t be completed on time, the budget might not look so good.