We still pay for bullies

HANDS up who wants a job paying $1200 a day.

It is the wage our new City of Greater Geelong monitors will be earning when they take up their post next month.

Jude Munro, a previous commissioner who helped oversee an inquiry into the Geelong council in 2015, will work two days and take home $2400 each week for the entirety of the council’s threeyear term. Current City of Greater Geelong administrator Peter Dorling will work one $1200 shift each fortnight.

The total cost of employing the monitors will be capped at $480,000 — and it will come out of ratepayers’ pockets.

This hefty hit on ratepayers is the latest cost to them — literally and figuratively — inherited from the poor culture of previous administrations.

The legacy of what the State Government Commission of Inquiry labelled a dysfunctional and toxic culture within the council when it was sacked in April 2016 has a long tail.

There is the long-term psychological effects of bullying — not to mention any potential legal or WorkSafe claim payouts and the costs associated with contesting them.

There is the cost of the necessary internal review and overhaul and the creation of many new roles inside the council, many of which are being filled now.

There is the cost to democracy as Greater Geelong residents were forced to watch on as all other municipalities elected new councillors last November, while Governmentappointed commissioners oversaw local matters. And, of course, there was the remuneration cost of the commissioners’ wages themselves.

Being forced to stump up $480,000 for two monitors to keep an eye on the new council is the next step in our city’s journey. It is a costly but necessary insurance policy to ensure the Greater Geelong council does not slip back into its bad ways and that the toxic culture is eradicated forever.

But ratepayers will be forgiven for wondering when the costs will finally end.