General News
3 March, 2023
Councillor expenses unveiled
By Rosalea Ryan Horsham Rural City councillors spent $35,794 on representative duties in the first half of the 2022-23 financial year. Council heard at its meeting on Monday that eight councillors – including Cr Di Bell, who had resigned in August...
By Rosalea Ryan
Horsham Rural City councillors spent $35,794 on representative duties in the first half of the 2022-23 financial year.
Council heard at its meeting on Monday that eight councillors – including Cr Di Bell, who had resigned in August but had a final expense of $8.37 still outstanding – had claimed reimbursement totalling $28,449 in the October-December quarter.
This followed a combined total of $7345 in July-September.
The biggest individual claim in the October-December period, of $6493, was made by Cr Claudia Haenel, CEO Sunil Bhalla told council in his quarterly performance report.
Cr Haenel represented Horsham Rural City Council (HRCC) at the Municipal Association of Victoria’s state council conference in inner Melbourne in mid-October.
She was also one of the most active councillors throughout the three months, engaging with HRCC residents through community events including her own weekly "Coffee with Cr Claudia" conversation session.
Cr Ian Ross had expenses of $4362.
Cr Haenel and Cr Ross were the only two of eight councillors to have lodged car mileage claims.
With the exception of Cr Bell, the remaining councillors had expenses in the range of $3382 to $3536.
According to Mr Bhalla’s report to council, Cr Haenel’s $6493 comprised $810 in car mileage, $167 in communication tools, $5364 in meetings, seminars, conferences and training fees, $417 in travel and $183 in “other” non-specified costs.
However, the actual sum of these five figures is $6943 – exactly $450 more than shown in the table presented, where it appears that the digits “4” and “9” have accidentally been transposed in a clerical error.
Across the financial quarter, the seven incumbent councillors completed core training at just over $3214 each.
The Local Government Act 2020 requires municipalities to reimburse councillors for expenses incurred while discharging their duties and to provide appropriate resources, facilities and other support to all elected representatives.