Councillor says $40,000 a year is being wasted by CVC
THERE was an intriguing moment at the end of Tuesday night's marathon Council meeting.
Cr Jim Simmons had submitted a motion saying they need no longer pay $40,000 per year to have independent accountants provide advice on investment regulations for Council.
"The reports provide assurance to Councillors as to compliance with investment regulations or such," wrote Cr Simmons.
"The reports are sometimes interesting, sometimes not, sometimes containing a lot of information that in my view goes well beyond what we need... Is it worth $40,000 per annum."
He went on to write Council can no longer invest in hedge funds or managed funds in the wake of new regulations that have come in over the past few years since many local governments and even state governments lost billions during the global financial crisis.
Councils are now told to take a "zero risk" approach with public money which means most of the money CVC has invested (about $80 million) is in term deposits.
More on this story in tomorrow's paper.
