The mayor and two councillors have allocated their allowances to a Rotary appeal for fire-afflicted Ebor - but other members of the local government object.
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Mayor Simon Murray and Crs Peter Bailey and Andrew Murat donated $5000 to the Rotary Ebor Bushfire Appeal this week, providing, Armidale Rotary president Grant Harris said, immediate help for those who have gone through the trauma of the bush fire.
The Bees Nest fire has ravaged more than 106,000 hectares of farm and forest land since it began nearly seven weeks ago, devastating local communities. One landholder Cr Murray knows, for instance, went from 3000 acres to 200, and has all his livestock on them.
Three local Rotary clubs - Armidale, Armidale Central, and Uralla - have received $15,000 from the organisation's Rotary Australia World Community Service fund, thanks to a donation from philanthropist Dick Smith, which they will match through fundraising and private donations.
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The three councillors provided a third of Rotary's target. Their contribution comes from Cr Murray's mayoral allowance and Cr Bailey and Murat's personal development funds, allocated to councillors each year for education and training.
"These are unprecedented conditions," the mayor said. "The challenges affecting landholders in our region, confronted by both drought and bushfire damage, represent a more compelling use of those funds for this year."
Mr Harris said he was heartened by the response. "We spend two years in drought, and then we have a bushfire like this. Hopefully we can do something just to alleviate those pressures in the immediate sense."
The $30,000 will be in the form of vouchers with locally owned businesses that landholders can spend for urgent relief, such as pharmacies, rural merchandise, or water carting, Mr Harris said.
"The added bonus is this money is directed to local businesses. As the drought continues, it's not just farmers that feel the strain. Businesses and the wider community are also hit hard."
Cr Margaret O'Connor, however, believes the money would be better spent on training councillors.
"We all want to alleviate the suffering of drought and bushfire victims in our LGA, but my concern is how we councillors do that," she said.
At last week's Local Government NSW conference in Sydney, she said, she lobbied government agencies for more support for drought and bushfire relief, and explained policy shortfalls that contributed to the region's difficulties.
Residents, she said, may not know that the law requires councillors to keep up with new developments and improve their professionalism each year. S. 232 of the Local Government Act 1993 states that they must "make all reasonable efforts to acquire and maintain the skills necessary to perform the role of a councillor".
She doubted whether it was legally possible to donate the professional development allowance, as it was not councillors' personal property, but came from council's revenue to ensure compliance with the Act.
"In other words, it has educational strings attached to it!" Cr O'Connor said. "The reasons that money is there is to end the era of poor decision making on councils caused by a lack of proper education and skills in the complex matters that are now the duty of elected councillors to deal with."
Cr Murray said he had verified he and other councillors could use their allowances to assist Ebor.
"We're making sure councillors are aware that if they [contribute] this money, that limits them on what they can do in other areas," he said.
"It's up to them to decide. I've cautioned everyone who has asked me [if they can contribute to the appeal]: 'Are you sure?' And they are. They've said: 'This is unprecedented; we're willing to put it towards this cause, because it's part of our community'. It's not like it's going to an area outside their community. This is impacting very much on our locals."
Cr Murray's own contribution, he said, came from his mayoral allowance.
"Mine's not being used," he said; "this is the last of it that I'm putting in. I don't know what I'm going to do next time a community group comes to me and says: 'Can you help me to do X, Y, and Z?' Won't have the money."
Cr O'Connor said she did not support what she called a culture of deliberate ignorance at state and national local government levels.
"It has meant I have had to foot many local government education bills myself - but if that is the price of complying with the Act, and my desire to make informed and high quality decisions, then I guess that is the price."
The value of education, networking, and lobbying with politicians and councillors' peers was priceless, Cr O'Connor argued.
"We are very remote from where decisions are made in Sydney," she said. "We get far more done for our communities when we work together as a sector, rather than isolating ourselves from opportunities to lobby for more funding on appropriate policies, projects, and grants that will help us help ourselves."
Cr Dr Dorothy Robinson, however, believed the community would benefit if unspent professional development funds were devoted to such worthy causes as helping the Ebor community.
"My only really important professional development activity in relation to council business was one I had to pay for myself, so council's expenditure on my professional development has been minimal," she said.
"Councillors need the skills and knowledge to do a good job of representing the community, making wise decisions, and networking and lobbying for much-needed funds from other levels of government.
"I'd be delighted if council wanted to review decisions about unspent professional development funds in previous years - unused allocations could then achieve greater benefits for our community."
The Bees Nest fire is one of six burning in the LGA, while the RFS incident management team at Glen Innes is managing fires from south of Walcha north to the Queensland border.