Melbourne newly elected City Council has acted quick to cut expense costs associated with Councillor expenses according to the Councillor Expense Statements published last week.
In a very cynical move the City Council has decided the best way to cut expenses is to not publish them.
Missing from the new published Councillor expense statements are costs associated with Interstate and Overseas Travel, Conferences and other junket revenue expenditure removed from the statements.
Councillor Carl "Jet set" Jetter is still charging the City Council in excess of $2,000 a quarter for local travel with over $1,000 in communication costs. Kevin Louey has over $1,400 (4.5 times the cost of the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor) in phone bills. Whilst Brian Shanahan has rung up close to $1,000 on Conferences and Training.
The Cost of the Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Limo expenses have been listed at $3,691 and $3,968 respectively. This does not include the full costs of the purchase, maintenance and chauffer which remain undisclosed. The City Council policy of non disclosure and deceit continues unabated.
Staff have not curbed their last for the Leather on Aeroplanes. They have rung up over 3 Months increases of $58,000 with Scott Chapman close to $24,000 for a 13 day world site seeing trip to Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, with a stopover in Auckland between the 20th of March to the 4th of April this year. This expense is on top of his six figure salary of course.
12 members of staff had their expenses picked op by an undisclosed source begging the question how much does the City Council fork out in kind.
