Prove your worth: Nelson

Former Kwinana mayor David Nelson has agreed with proposals to increase remuneration for elected local government members, if they can prove their worth.

Mr Nelson first joined the council in 1982 and went on to become mayor, after Frank Konecny died, for two terms — from 1987 to 1988 and 1989 to 1992 — before hanging up his council hat in 1994.

He was paid a stipend rate of $4000 and instead of keeping the money, Mr Nelson gave it to charity groups that needed it most.

“I used to give it away because we would have community groups who wanted to hire a hall, so I’d say right, I’ll hire the hall,” he said.

“If a community group was doing a fundraiser I’d give them some money towards it.”

Despite dedicating up to 50 hours a week to his mayoral duties, Mr Nelson said he did not consider himself a full-time mayor.

“I suppose the first time it ever really made me feel like anything I was on Chalk Hill,” he said. “There was someone else there and they said ‘I suppose you’re looking at your kingdom from here, your responsibility, you’re responsible for all of this here’.

“Until that time I had never given it another thought, it was just something else I was doing and working at.”

Mr Nelson’s full-time job at the time was co-ordinator of the Bridging the Gap organisation.

“I had three diaries going — diary for council, a diary for work and a diary for home — and I had a wife who didn’t know where I was,” he said.

Mr Nelson said the responsibilities of incumbent mayors were somewhat different and wages should be adjusted accordingly.

“I suppose if someone is taking on the responsibility and doing it full time they deserve a full-time wage,” he said.

“My job was my job and my role was being mayor.

“If someone is doing a job and they are doing it for their livelihood and to the satisfaction of everybody, then there should be something they should be measured against.”