Except for hubris, why should that be after noting excerpts from the report?

"Frankly, any of us would be better off getting a second job if we were only interested in the money."

It's a banal statement and falls well short of a compelling reason for a pay rise as a number of councilors already have separate employment.

"This city operates its water assets, its sewerage assets, it has responsibilities for indeed all the staff that far exceeds the other cities it is lumped in with."

That sounds more like direct council staff should be pushing for the pay rise rather than councillors.

However, if the implied inference is that councillors are hands on with the above, then that is a furphy.

For example, councillors dealing with staff, other than through the general manager, under the code of conduct would be deemed to be inappropriate behavior.

"It is really bizarre we don't all have a pecuniary conflict of interest with this motion."

Spot on. The first tier of government's salary remuneration is set by an independent body. Local government is only the third tier.

"Albury should be going up 'another rung' - it is certainly punching above its weight."

If costs blowouts (Lavington oval for one) that have to be funded by ratepayers and subcontractors is the standard to ascertain whether it is punching above its weight, then council have already moved to the super heavyweight division.

And when it comes to a request I made to council to explain why a consent was given for a development application which certainly appears to have breached Part 4 of the Albury Local Environmental Plan 2010, they have moved to the light flyweight division.

MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Virtually every prediction made by climate scientists has so far been proven wrong.

"The ice on the Himalayas is melting never to return" (wrong); "the arctic ice is disappearing" (those who sailed into the arctic sea to prove this got frozen in), "dams will never fill again" (followed by floods).

We are told we must follow the science. Since when is science the art of being wrong?

A decade ago, the talk was of "global warming being caused by carbon dioxide".

That all stopped when it was shown that there was no detectable warming and that there was absolutely no statistical correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature.

Why are we still rabbiting on about reduction of emissions and listening to the fear-mongering of proven ignorami?

The Stawell Gift is very important and a great part of Victorian and Australian sport.

The sad fact is that it has not kept pace with times and embraced change.

The old wood in control needs to get with what events require and have skilled talented marketers and events people involved.

The situation is typical of many regions and vents that could be far more successful.

Too many regional events that can boost towns and capture interest are in the control of rigid small groups and committees.

The Stawell Gift is unique and must be grown.