Review to check council costs

By Alison Noonan and Rebecca Fraser
CASEY councillors will scrutinise council spending through a new expenditure review committee.
Councillors voted to establish the board at Tuesday night’s council meeting in a bid to cut costs to ratepayers.
The move followed last week’s reports by the News of skyrocketing living costs threatening rate rises in Casey.
The expenditure review committee will consist of councillors Steve Beardon, Michael Farley, Paul Richardson and Rob Wilson and be chaired by the serving mayor.
Mayfield Ward councillor Steve Beardon called for council to ‘open the books’ and allow councillors the authority to investigate expenditure in all departmental budgets.
He said he was keen to find savings in the capital works program to put toward vital infrastructure projects.
“I am accountable to my electorate. I am the bottom line,” Cr Beardon said.
“We can look to see if there is any extra money that could help get roads and footpaths a lot quicker for residents.”
Cr Wilson said he was happy to support the motion that would enable councillors to examine a ‘whole spectrum’ of council expenditure.
“We do need to be accountable to our ratepayers and this is one way to do it,” he said.
Mayor Kevin Bradford said councillors should not have any reason to fear the establishment of a ‘waste watch’ committee.
“This is not implying a distrust of officers. I agree with Cr Beardon that we owe it to residents to go the extra yard,” he said.
However, Edrington Ward councillors Mick Morland and Brian Hetherton claimed the move was a waste of council time.
“We have several hundred qualified staff and experts in their own field who make sure reports are lean and mean and that they get the best possible surplus for ratepayers,” he said.
Cr Hetherton said: “The values put up in this motion are already inherent in us being a councillor. I suggest that if councillors have concerns about expenditure maybe they should look at talking to the internal auditors.”
In a further motion, Cr Beardon called for an in-camera report detailing all vacant land owned by the City of Casey with the view of reviewing these holdings and the possible sale of land.
Cr Beardon said he was interested to see the council’s land holdings to highlight property that could be sold.
Cr Morland supported the proposal and said it was always good to look at council’s assets.
Casey CEO Mike Tyler said there were thousands of parcels of land in Casey and officers would only compile information on surplus land where its use had not been decided.