By Luke Voogt
City Hall could dump its controversial $25,575 membership of the Committee for Geelong next year, with new mayor Bruce Harwood set to review the expense.
Cr Harwood opposed the membership when he was part of the council that cut ties with the committee in 2013.
“I just believed at the time that the City wasn’t receiving the value that it had in previous years,” he told the Indy on Monday.
But departing chief executive officer Kelvin Spiller signed off on council re-joining the private lobby group earlier this year.
Cr Harwood declined to detail his current position on the membership, which expires on 30 June next year.
“I’ll have a discussion with the new council,” he said. “We’ve got to look at the value that we are receiving.”
Earlier this year the committee’s chief Rebecca Carson joined a large delegation to State Parliament seeking to delay council elections until 2018.
The delegation requested “important time” for Geelong’s administrators to implement changes to City Hall, which an independent commission of inquiry described as “dysfunctional”.
The Andrews Government appointed the three administrators after sacking Geelong’s council in April 2016.
The committee originally supported the government’s plan to place council under administration until 2020.
The Greens and the Coalition forced the government to bring the election forward to October this year.
Mr Spiller, who recently announced his pending resignation, defended the decision, which he made under the administrators.
“It makes sense to be part of the committee in order to enable collaborative working relationships with key stakeholders, which has strategic value for the whole of our region,” he said.
“Council is a member of a number of representative organisations and it is important that the City has an active role in the larger future-orientated decisions impacting our region.”
Mr Spiller announced last month he would leave council in March, instead of November 2018 when his contract was set to conclude.
Unsuccessful council candidate Michael King campaigned against Mr Spiller’s “blink of an eye” decision to become a Corporate Plus member of the committee.
He said during his election campaign the decision failed the “pub test”.
Council would also review its spending on municipal alliance G21, Cr Harwood said.
Former mayor Darryn Lyons recently criticised the organisation for advertising for a health and well-being director – with a $130,000-plus taxpayer-funded salary.
The City signed a memorandum of understanding with G21, approved by council on 16 February 2016 and which expires in 2020.
“We’ll look at the value (these organisations) represent to the city as a whole,” Cr Harwood said.
