COROWA mayor Fred Longmire and general manager Chris Gillard will pay for the privilege of meeting NSW Premier Mike Baird in Albury this week to avoid a breach of the NSW Local Government Act.
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Mr Baird will be the guest of honour at a Liberal Party fund-raiser at the Albury Club on Thursday with an invite extended to local mayors and general managers.
But the Act prevents elected representatives or staff to go to political party fund-raisers at the expense of ratepayers.
Cr Longmire confirmed he and Mr Gillard would attend the night-time function at the Albury Club and would be paying the $30 charge to attend out of their own pockets.
But Liberal Party supporters have been issued with invitations where they can donate higher amounts.
Albury mayor Kevin Mack said he would be attending the Albury Club function and would be doing so at his own expense.
“The invitation I received was clearly identified on the back as a political fund-raiser and consequently I paid to attend out of my own pocket.”
“As mayor, I would do a similar thing for other candidates of various parties to ensure I can advocate for the project we deem important.”
But Albury ratepayers will be paying for councillors to attend the business breakfast the next day being organised by the Albury Northside Chamber of Commerce.
Earlier last week, Cr Longmire expressed his disappointment an opportunity had not been set aside for the Premier to meet with local mayors and council general managers on matters of local interest.
“As we speak we are compiling a list of concerns we want to raise with Mr Baird,” Cr Longmire said.
“We would like to invite him down again, but if not we would like to go up and see him in Sydney.”
Cr Longmire said he didn’t think Corowa ratepayers should pick up the tab for he and Mr Gillard to attend even though they couldn’t under the Local Government Act.
“We are going out of courtesy,” he said.
He said the council was chasing state government funding for bridge projects in the shire including the Yarrawonga-Mulwala replacement bridge.
Two weeks ago, member for Albury Greg Aplin went against Corowa Shire’s preference for the grey route and sided with member for Murray Valley Tim McCurdy and Moira Shire in backing the green route.
