Fears for allowances ‘slush fund’

By Rebecca Fraser
ATTEMPTS to allow Casey councillors to spend their unused training and education allowance within their own wards has failed to attract majority support.
Instead, some councillors have claimed the move would have created a $5000 slush fund for each councillor come election time and this could have promoted greed in council.
At last Tuesday’s council meeting Balla Balla Ward councillor Colin Butler moved that those deciding not to use the training and education allowance, which allows councillors to attend conferences, seminars and courses of study relevant to their council role, be allowed to redistribute the funds in their wards.
He moved that the disused money be allocated to community groups nominated by the councillor and eligible according to the council’s Community Grants Program.
Cr Butler said the decision of where to relocate the money would be made before the budget and well before election time and would therefore not become a slush fund.
“The allowance was given to myself and my ward and if I choose not to use that then I should be able to direct it to someone else within my ward.
“It is a fair and equitable way to do it,” he said.
However the move failed to attract strong support and in contrast Cr Lorraine Wreford argued that councillors should be encouraged to use the allowance to improve their skills and knowledge.
Cr Mick Morland agreed and said the allowance gave councillors the opportunity to enhance their abilities.
He said Cr Butler’s proposal would lead to double dipping as councillors already had ward funds they could allocate as they wished.
A council report tabled last week suggested that if councillors did not want to be allocated the full training and education budgeted amount then the councillor could notify the CEO in writing of the amount not needed so the funds could be allocated to the Community Grants Program.
However, this option also failed to attract support and instead Cr Wreford successfully moved that the report be simply noted.