Southern Peninsula
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26 July 2016
Private sanctuary > Page 3
YOUR GUIDE TO WHAT’S ON THIS WEEKEND FOR PENINSULA FAMILIES
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5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au Expert touch: Karen McRae and hairdresser Anna Mosit, from Studio 9 in Rosebud, shave her daughter Kristy’s locks. Picture: Yanni
Pact gives Kristy a new look THE shock of finding out that her mother had cancer early this year prompted Rosebud’s Kristy McRae to make a pact: when it came time for mum Karen to have her head shaved for chemotherapy, Kristy would have her head shaved, too. Last week, Kristy fulfilled her end of the bargain with a very public haircut on the footpath in Point Nepean Rd – even though Karen was fortunate in being one of the few chemo patients not required to have her head shaved. Since her mother’s diagnosis, Kristy has raised $5500 for the Cancer Council – much of it through customers of the National Bank, Rosebud. “I’ve been blown away by their generosity,” she said. “Many have opened up to me and told me their own stories; it’s been wonderful.” The fundraising sentiment has caught on at home, too, with daughter Zali, 11, raising money from her classmates at Rosebud Primary School. Stephen Taylor
Extra time sought for expenses policy Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au FOLLOWING months of accusations and claims of accounting inaccuracies and overspending, Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors are struggling to agree on the definition of expenses. The expenses are separate to councillors’ $28,000 yearly remuneration; $85,000 for the mayor. Shire officers last Monday asked for an extra month to prepare a draft of the
councillor expenses policy by 31 August. Legal advice in March cast doubt on the validity of a previous policy which limited each councillor to spending up to $4000 a year on such things as conferences, seminars and courses, giving a total $16,000 over a four-year term. Included in the issues the new policy is attempting to clarify are the definition of “delegate expenditure”, “professional development” and “entertainment” (with no alcohol); setting “allowable expenditure”; and setting mileage payments (at the moment councillors can
claim $1.07 a kilometre for a six-cylinder vehicle but the Australian Taxation Office limit is 66 cents). Maddocks Lawyers advised that expenses approved by council were lawful, even if they exceeded $4000 in a year and $16,000 within four years and council could not force repayment. The shire has repeatedly refused requests by The News for up to date figures on spending by individual councillors, saying only that they will be available in the next annual report. Controversy around councillor ex-
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grams governed by examinations”. He said this type of spending was available to all councillors. However, some councillors disputed the accuracy of the figures. On 26 April Cr Hugh Fraser successfully moved a motion that “[shire] management requires Cr Celi to pay to council by 10 September 2016 any sum in excess of the sum of $19,500 on Cr Celi’s conferences and seminars account in the books of the council incurred over the current term of the council”. Continued Page 10
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penses came to a head earlier this year when councillors were given a table outlining their individual expenses up to the end of January. According to a table included in a councillor briefing, two councillors were over the $16,000 expenses entitlement: Cr Antonella Celi by $14,810 and Cr David Gibb, $3147 over. Chief financial officer Matt Hubbard said the extra expenses incurred by Crs Celi and Gibb had been approved by “council resolution” for them to attend “additional professional education pro-
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