Rates of payment

ON BEHALF of the ratepayers of the City of Casey, we have raised three questions with the council:
1. How much of ratepayers’ money was paid for the out-of-court settlement regards the sexual harassment case against the CEO of the City of Casey Mike Tyler?
2. How much of ratepayers’ money was paid to Ben Price (Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator)?
3. How much of ratepayers’ money was paid to Guy Sebastian for the naming and opening ceremony of the Casey Cultural Precinct?
A reply from the excutive assistant to Mr Tyler, Sue Jolly, asked us to contact the director of Corporate Services Sally Curtain who stated that, unfortunately, each of the questions above related to the matter to which commercial confidentiality apply and it was, therefore, inappropriate to comment further.
Ms Curtain once again referred us to Rob Pedder (Ombudsman-Casey Council) who once again declined to comment on these issues.
This beating about the bush was annoying, so we emailed the Local Government Investigation and Compliance Inspectorate for answers.
Melissa Haddon from the inspectorate replied stating that these matters do not fall under the jurisdiction of the inspectorate as they do not breach the Local Government Act.
We ratepayers have a right to know why council is hiding behind commercial confidentiality.
They must understand that ratepayers are paying their fat salaries and as such we have a distinct right to know how the council spends million and millions of dollars of our money
We do not need a council that is not straightforward in all its dealings and cannot answer to the community that it is elected to serve.
Come on all ratepayers, stand up and be counted. This is our right as ratepayers.
It is our hard-earned money that the council misuses and hides under the guide of commercial confidentiality.
We want an answer to these three questions from the City of Casey council.
All in all, councils are a drain on all ratepayers across the country.
Dunstand Girton and Louis Kotsiras,
Hampton Park.