Mayor Yesil set for pay

By Melissa Meehan
MAYOR Pinar Yesil has threatened to block councillor pay increases if any aspects of her plans to improve councillors’ performance standards are eliminated.
The decision to ratify the pay increase is scheduled for next month and Cr Yesil says she will use her vote to oppose the pay rise.
“The fact that councillors are refusing to be accessible, transparent and accountable is morally reprehensible.”
“It is simply unethical to take the significant increase in our allowance and not give something extra back to the community,” Cr Yesil said.
However, last week councillor Peter Brown asked council officers to investigate whether the charter was lawful, and councillor Maria Sampey maintains that the reforms are “dictatorial”.
Cr Yesil’s Accountability, Transparency and Accessibility (ATA) Reform Charter has met with stiff resistance but a motion for an officers’ report into the plan when it was first proposed on Monday 23 March was approved.
The planned changes would introduce one of the state’s toughest performance standards for City of Dandenong councillors.
While Cr Yesil said she expected to face opposition from councillors “set in their ways”, the changes were “designed to shake the place up”. She also maintained she would not be intimidated into dropping the reforms.
“I am seeking consensus from my fellow councillors on only a couple of my initiatives.”