Councillors agree to take pay cut

City of Albany councillors will take a 20 per cent pay cut over the next six months in a bid to counter an estimated $7.3 million drop in revenue in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Dennis Wellington and 12 councillors voted unanimously at a special council meeting on Thursday last week to slash allowances in a bid to balance the books.

The allowances cut represents a loss of about $9200 for Mayor Dennis Wellington over the next six months.

In the 2018-2019 financial year, Mr Wellington received $92,364 in allowances and $47,046 in fees.

Deputy Mayor Greg Stocks received $31,364 in allowances and $25,716 in fees.

All remaining councillors received $39,150 in allowances between them.

The council endorsed a number of measures to support local ratepayers and business owners recovering from the financial blow of COVID-19, including a zero per cent rate increase over the next year, and a reduction in capital works spending and other operating expenditure.

Mr Wellington said the City would use reserve funding to look at new grant and borrowing options to further support the community.

“Local businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs, it’s just had an immense impact,” Mr Wellington said.