Toowoomba Regional Council's new CEO - what you don't know ...

It's time to end council secrecy

11 March 2008

If you wanted to highlight the failings of the current council you need look no further than the debacle of City of Mackay CEO's enormous redundancy package of two years' pay.

What is most astounding about the payout for Ken Gouldthorp who is on a package of about $270,000 a year is that councillors did not know the details of the redundancy clause in his contract.

When they voted on the CEO's package in December 2006, councillors were briefed on his salary and length of the contract but not on the redundancy clause entitling him to two years' pay.

The people of this region deserve better than that and when they go to the polls this Saturday to elect a new regional council, voters should elect those who believe in and will fight for open government.

The councillors are our elected representatives. What is the point in having them if they are not openly and actively given all the information they need to make decisions?

Yesterday, five councillors signed and circulated a document that accused other councillors of turning the redundancy payout into a "political stunt". Sorry, but the people of this region do not think the debate about the redundancy payout is a political stunt. The councillors who signed the document are: Greg Thomsen, Kevin Casey, Alison Jones, Joan Byers and Dave Perkins.

David Kidd signed the document but later withdrew his signature. All of them also voted in support of Mr Gouldthorp's redundancy last week. (Mr Thomsen is the one councillor who says he had been told earlier about the two-year redundancy deal.)

The three councillors they were accusing are Don Rolls, George Christensen and Troy Johnston.

What is disappointing about those who signed yesterday's document all of whom except Byers are standing for the new Mackay Regional Council is that they want to continue the sort of bickering that destroyed the previous council.

Instead of fighting for open government and a better flow of information, they want to continue a fight that the people of Mackay became sick of years ago.

Voters want a change to effective, constructive, open government. We deserve better than more of the same from Perkins, Thomsen, Casey and Jones.

See - Daily Mercury - CEO had hidden redundancy clause.

Here we go again ...