Electors’ meeting ratepayer motion win after City of Rockingham council scraps $20k meeting dinners

All but two City of Rockingham councillors voted to do away with expensive post-meeting dinners at last week’s council meeting.

A vote to do away with the dinners, which were billed at about $20,000 annually on the ratepayers’ purse, came up after a motion moved at the city’s annual electors’ meeting in February.

However, an alternate motion was moved by Cr Kelly Middlecoat and approved, that would see a single dinner after the final council meeting before an election and a year-end dinner.

Mayor Lorna Buchan, deputy mayor Robert Schmidt, Cr Middlecoat, Cr Craig Buchanan,Cr Peter Hudson, Cr Dawn Jecks, Cr Mike Chrichton, and newly installed councillors David Rudman and Ryan Robertson voted in favour of this motion.

Cr Mark Jones and Cr Leigh Liley voted against the motion in favour of keeping the dinners on the basis that they fostered a positive work culture.

During the debate, Cr Middlecoat argued that the practice be discontinued to ensure operations remain aligned with contemporary standards of financial accountability and public expectations.

“An annual expenditure of $20,000 is not material, but it is a discretionary expense that provides zero community benefit,” Cr Middlecoat added.

A cost breakdown provided by the city showed it was spending more than $1000 a month on dinners, or about $87.72 per head.

In practical terms, one dinner wiped out the equivalent of a good portion of an entire household’s annual rates contribution.

The dinners came in at a time when councillors did not receive a payment for their time.

But today, with the position coming with a yearly $34,278 sitting fee and $3500 communication and technology allowance, many ratepayers questioned if these meals passed the pub test.

Council officers recommended that a decision about the dinners be deferred until a 2027 policy review.

However, Cr Middlecoat pointed out how important the decision was to the community, adding: “When our own residents take time to raise this issue at an annual electors’ meeting, I think that ignoring that feedback until 2027 sends a message of indifference.”

She acknowledged that the decision made her “really, really unpopular in the room”.

Cr Buchanan said he agreed with Cr Liley but was voting for the motion because he was sick of debating the issue.

“Do I think we’re rorting the ratepayers out of a plate of food and a glass of wine, and it is literally a glass of wine, after a meeting like this? No I don’t,” Cr Buchanan said.

“Do I actually want to sit here and debate it again and again and again? Look I’m past it I really am, if it’s that big a deal for ratepayers.”

Cr Jecks agreed that it was a great team-building activity, but acknowledged it gave the perception that councillors were all “fat cats”. “Just the perception out there, and it keeps being brought up, and we’re being made out to be fat cats when I know that we’re not,” she said.

“I know decades ago, the meals from what I understand were pretty extravagant, then I remember when the previous mayor took her position, she actually scaled it right back.”

Cr Jecks mentioned boxes of fruit, and Cr Crichton drew a laugh when he quipped, “let’s not mention the fruit”.

In 2023, the city scrapped free fruit for the council staff that was costing $29,000 a year.

Ms Buchan didn’t speak during the debate, but it has long been on the record that she wasn’t a fan of the dinners.