Letters / Minimum wage salary
The annual report on councillors’ expenses (now embellished with attendance figures) always makes good copy but, unfortunately, does not give the full picture (The cost of local democracy; SN, 30/05/14).
Unlike some of the more regular attenders at the 100 council and committee meetings held over the past year, I am not retired.
I have always given valid reasons when unable to attend meetings – usually because they clashed with other meetings or because I was at work. I note with interest that these reasons are not included in the press release put out by council officials.
Most of my council work for constituents is done in the evenings and early mornings, along with reading the papers for all council and committee meetings. Last week alone these weighed three kilograms.
Unlike most backbench councillors, I also spend a lot of time researching and writing detailed discussion papers on council policy. These I usually circulate to all colleagues. It is rare that any of them responds.
One example was my recent proposal to have all the business of the main spending committees dealt with by the full council. This would have saved a great deal of staff time and money and speeded up decision making (from as much as 18 weeks down to about four or five).
Officials took it upon themselves to exclude my suggestion from the papers for our meeting to discuss “governance” where, like most of my contributions, it was ignored. I am well used to that.
The statistics issued by the Town Hall do not record the time I spend as a council representative on the Anderson High School parent council, Shetland Amenity Trust, Shetland Charitable Trust, Shetland Tourism Association, Shetland Heritage Association and Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR).
All these organisations generate papers, which must be read and often lead to extensive correspondence, even when I am not able to attend meetings in person.
Most of my expenses are accounted for by the CPMR duties, which I share with councillor Ratter. Our costs in doing this work are a large part of the council’s budget for lobbying Europe on issues such as regional aid, environmental issues and fisheries.
Unlike some other councillors, we make very detailed reports back to our colleagues after we attend meetings on their behalf. These are available to the public on request.
Like other councillors, our expenses only cover the actual cost of travel and subsistence and are of no financial benefit to us. On the contrary, we sometimes have to lend the council money, interest-free, for a month or more until we receive reimbursement.
I never claim car mileage or the cost of using my own phone and office equipment on council business, which must be considerable. I have not used a council phone for many years.
The allowances received by the council convener, the political leader and other office-bearers are derisory when you consider the hours they put in.
Few of their vocal critics in the local cyberchatterboxes would work for such a low hourly rate, which in many weeks is somewhere around the minimum wage.
Councillor Jonathan Wills
Independent
Lerwick South ward
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