Perth Voice Interactive

FORMER Bayswater mayor Terry Kenyon says his successor, Cr Sylvan Albert, has wasted $8000 of council money on three pages of “self-promotion”.

The council recently paid for full-page ads in three local newspapers informing ratepayers that council mergers had been cancelled.

Cr Kenyon says the same information was in the council’s letterboxed newsletter, the Bayswater Brief, and had been reported widely in the media.

“The information in the newspapers didn’t even go to all the ratepayers and was a waste of money,” he says. “How many times do you need to tell people that mergers aren’t going ahead. Really, it’s just about self-promotion some times.”

Cr Albert says it’s all to do with timing.

“The Bayswater Brief, because of the production schedule, did not appear until several weeks later; therefore placing a story in this newsletter was a timely way of informing the community and maintaining pressure for the reimbursement of the money spent,” he says.

“Our community—families, mums, dads and seniors—should not have to foot the cost of [the abandoned mergers]. The mayor is the spokesperson for the city…and given the significance of this announcement by the state government, was therefore quoted on this important matter.”

Cr Kenyon wants future publications costing more than $1000 to be approved by the council. That will be voted on later this month.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK