Toowoomba Regional Council's Councillor Pay Rise PR disaster ...

What a difference a month or so makes:

12 December 2009:

Earlier this week, the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal announced its decision to recommend an increase in pay levels of local representatives from January 1, 2010.

Councillors Joe Ramia, Ros Scotney, Bill Cahill, Mike Williams and Mayor Peter Taylor said they would vote against accepting the pay rise.

See - The Chronicle - Councillors don't want pay rises.

27 January 2010:

Councillors Joe Ramia, Ros Scotney, Mike Williams and Mayor Peter Taylor: Show us the money - hell yes we want a pay rise.

Councillor Bill Cahill - No, I still don't want a pay rise.

And then the poorly conceived cover up:

Deputy Mayor Antonio and Councillor Marks - 2 + 2 really equals 1 - It was a pay cut.

And: Please feel sorry for us - We're actually taking a pay cut and The Chronicle is really nasty to us.

The facts (courtesy of The Chronicle):

"These are the remuneration numbers for councillors (which include amalgamation loading in brackets):

2008

Mayor … $137,600

Deputy … $96,935

Councillors … $87,560

2009

Mayor … $156,894 ($11,350)

Deputy … $106,115 ($8035)

Councillors … $95,790 ($7200)

2010

Mayor … $158,230 ($8110)

Deputy … $106,910 ($5740)

Councillors … $96,525 ($5145)

Forget about the BlackBerrys or mobile phones, company cars or fuel allowances, laptop or desktop computers and their long list of travel accommodation and meal expenses, councillors appear to be doing very nicely."

Apparently, in the minds of some Councillors, $96,525 is actually less than $95,790.

If it looks like a pay rise and sounds like a pay rise, it probably is a pay rise.

To quote The Chronicle:

"No-one I know gets to tie their wage or salary to CPI or inflation.

To factor them into remuneration to show a “pay cut” is mischievous manipulation of figures."

Useless to try to deny it - just digging a bigger hole for themselves.

PR disaster from start to finish.

Politics, even local government politics, is all about perception. These Councillors seem to have forgotten who pays their salaries ...