By Cam Lucadou-Wells
DOES Casey’s mayor deserve a bigger pay-packet than their $83,343.27 allowance – plus travel, study and communications expenses?
Four Oaks Ward candidates revealed their thoughts at a Narre Warren North Association council election forum on 3 October.
Former mayor Shar Balmes said the 80-hour-a-week workload was demanding, and felt she and her family deserved the $80,000 salary at the time.
“I earned every cent and my family earned it as well.”
Ms Balmes said she’d like the mayor to earn a six-figure salary given the task of representing the council and community.
Councillor Rosalie Crestani said the mayor was busy with at least four commitments to attend to a day, as well as balancing family needs, but was not in favour of a pay rise.
A $95,000 package including the recompensed expenses was “more than enough”.
Cr Crestani said the package dwarfed the $30,000 received by other Casey councillors who also “do a lot of the work”.
She believed the mayor should be directly elected by the community, not colleagues.
Another candidate Barry Erlenwein said he didn’t realise councillors were paid, and was in favour of sacking mayors if they “weren’t doing a good job”.
Richard Barrow said he wasn’t in favour of extending mayoral terms to two years – as proposed in a current state review into local government.
He said it was good to turn over the mayoral role every year for “fresh leadership”.
In response to another question, Brian Oates, a former councillor, said Casey’s municipality had got too big and should be split into two.
Mr Oates said he’d prefer boundaries to represent a “sense of belonging” to villages and communities such as Harkaway and Narre Warren, not just being part of Casey.
