After a very sour council meeting last week for the City of Gosnells, council transparency was a hot topic after councillor Serena Williamson passed a motion relating to elected members’ allowances, expenses, gift and meeting attendances.
Ms Williamson’s motion was supported with a few wording amendments from councillor Ron Mitchell.
“I am very pleased the motion was supported as the creation of the councillor disclosures website will now clearly report to ratepayers and residents the amount paid to elected members, the training and travel costs incurred as well as the gifts that are being accepted which will all improve transparency,” she said.
City of Gosnells Mayor Glenn Dewhurst said he supported the intent of the motion but he believed it did not go far enough.
“I was disappointed an amendment to the motion to self-report what councillors do for their $35,000 allowance was defeated,” he said.
“I maintain there is not enough transparency in local government and if I am returned as mayor after elections I will be pushing for so much more in transparency that involves residents in decision making processes in their patch of their city.”
According to Ms Williamson councillors performed several duties on a daily basis.
“It would have represented an onerous task for each councillor to prepare a diary of activities,” she said.
“I was glad that the mayor’s amendment did not receive support as it proposed largely unverifiable information.”
Mr Mitchell said he had one main issue with Ms Williamson’s motion as he considered the public could get confused with the close relationship of the heading ‘councillor workshop’ and ‘councillor briefings’ when it came to disclosing the attendance records on the councilor disclosures website.
Mr Mitchell said recording attendance at the ordinary council meeting briefings was not needed to show accountability.
“If a councillor feels they are informed sufficiently enough to vote on the agenda items there is no need to attend,” he said.
“So with all that I believe openness and accountability is fine as long as the information supplied is a true reflection of councillors actions and conduct and does not unduly eat into staff’s time by supplying unimportant information.
“We are a council of eleven at the moment, not one.”
