Councillor Mark Dal Bon did not want a pay rise. Photo: Griffith City Council.
Griffith’s mayor and eight other councillors will receive a 3 per cent pay rise, despite Cr Mark Dal Bon arguing it was not justified.
Local government councillors are paid an allowance, rather than a full-time salary. A three per cent increase will see the annual remuneration for each councillor rise by $633 to $21,733 and the total extra allowance paid to the mayor rise by $1,380 to $47,420.
The increase was proposed by Cr Jenny Ellis at the council’s recent fortnightly meeting.
“The last two years we’ve kept the remuneration at a steady level without any increase even though it was recommended to increase it, and that was a wonderful thing to do for those two years,” she said.
“However, I think that is not a good pattern to continue. Different people want to put up their hands to be councillors … for some to forgo that small increase is OK, but for others it makes a big difference to whether they will even put their hand up to be on council.
“When we look at our mayor’s remuneration … they work incredibly hard; you’re not doing it for the money, but I think our rates should be put up like we do with the employees.”
Councillor Jenny Ellis talks to resident Sue Fordham at a Community Opinion Group meeting. Photo: Griffith City Council.
Cr Dal Bon disagreed.
“No councillor is forced to go out there and become a councillor, they do it on their own initiative,” he said.
“We went to put rates up for ratepayers; I don’t think it’s justified to have a pay increase so I will be voting totally against it.”
In 2023, the previous council applied for a special rate variation (SRV), which allowed the local government body to raise rates by much more than what the NSW Government usually allows. Cr Dal Bon argued that for this reason, his colleagues should not receive an allowance increase.
However, all other councillors supported Cr Ellis’ motion for the raise, so it passed by a vote of eight to one.
The 3 per cent increase was recommended by the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal, which sets the benchmarks and parameters for pay rates for councillors.
In determining this figure, the tribunal considered the rate of inflation, public sector and state MP pay rises and other related factors.
