A WODONGA poll candidate feels a “lot” of city staff are “professional meeting goers” and there’s “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”.
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Veronique Janel is concerned at the amount Wodonga Council spends on staff salaries and believes it should fall from 67.2 per cent of rates and charges revenue to no more than 50 per cent.
She has calculated that the average employee cost at Wodonga is $107,552 compared to $81,934 at Alpine Shire and $84,798 at Indigo Shire.
Concerned: Wodonga Council candidate Veronique Janel has highlighted five areas where she believes spending could be improved at the city administrator.
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“There’s absolutely nothing to justify that, the cost of living is not a factor, we’re not in a capital city,” Ms Janel said.
She is concerned there are “too many high-level people, too many managers, too many chiefs and not enough Indians”.
Ms Janel said had worked at the council five years ago and spoken to those working for the city.
“The culture hasn’t changed since, there are a lot there that are professional meeting goers,” she said.
“They spend all day going to meetings, I don’t see what you can achieve by that.”
Ms Janel’s wage cost plan is one of five measures she would pursue to have the city stay inside a rate cap.
The others are: cutting waste and unnecessary expenditure; a focus on core services; axing programs that are not local government’s responsibility and lifting council’s external funding from 18.4 per cent to at least 30 per cent within four years.
“Unless you have a plan (to stay below the cap) it’s not likely to happen, especially when everybody is promoting this and that to sporting groups,” Ms Janel said.
She also questioned the amount of council spending on consultants, saying more feedback should be obtained by the city’s staff.
Ms Janel is one of 24 candidates for Wodonga Council.
The postal ballot closes tomorrow with votes having to be postmarked October 21 or handed into the returning office in High Street by 6pm on Friday.
Returning officer Alan Cuman said 52 per cent of votes had been lodged.
A total of 15,984 votes are in with 22,000 expected based on some ballots not being returned by over 70s and non-resident ratepayers.
