![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8e99c1c6220220d71eb10a5d8b341c2866c3fc92.jpg\")
Camera IconMayor Daniel Kingston. Credit: The West Australian<\/p>\nAn attempt to strip the City of Joondalup\u2019s mayor of their council-funded vehicle from the next mayoral term has been thwarted by the council.<\/p>\n
The motion from Cr Rebecca Pizzey at last week\u2019s council meeting argued the dedicated vehicle was an unnecessary expense at a time when households were facing \u201cunprecedented cost-of-living pressures\u201d.<\/p>\n
Under the city\u2019s elected members\u2019 entitlements policy, the mayor is provided with a vehicle to support travel to official, civic and ceremonial duties, rather than claiming travel reimbursements like councillors.<\/p>\n
The current mayor drives a 2025 Toyota RAV4 purchased by the city for $48,999.65, with estimated annual operating costs of about $6000.<\/p>\n
Cr Pizzey said she believed the \u201ccontemporary transport landscape\u201d had changed significantly and the dedicated vehicle could no longer be justified, arguing it placed an \u201cexcessive burden on ratepayers in difficult economic times\u201d.<\/p>\n
She suggested the mayor could instead use buses, trains, taxis or rideshare services for official travel, or their own private vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe City of Joondalup benefits from comprehensive public transport infrastructure, including multiple train stations on the Joondalup line and extensive bus networks,\u201d Cr Pizzey said in her motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdditionally, on-demand transport services such as Uber and taxi services are readily accessible throughout the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe existing entitlement framework already provides for mileage reimbursement when elected members use their private vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the motion was lost after it was revealed that given the volume of travel a mayor typically undertakes on behalf of the city, shifting to a mileage reimbursement model would likely cost ratepayers significantly more than maintaining the current entitlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst it would be possible for the mayor to claim mileage reimbursement when using a private vehicle for city business and\/or use public transportation, this may create an administrative burden through processing of claims,\u201d city officers said in a report.<\/p>\n
Though it would not apply during his current term, mayor Daniel Kingston also defended the arrangement, pointing out the city had corporate insurance arrangements and bought fleet vehicles below market rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t actually see that this is a circumstance where the ratepayers are going to be better off by reimbursing,\u201d Mr Kingston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe previous mayor had a personal usage percentage, with private usage percentage set at around 7.29 per cent. He travelled approximately 101,000 kilometres, which therefore had the council business usage at around 93,000 kilometres.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou multiply that by the reimbursement rate of 67 cents. This previous mayor on a reimbursement model would have been reimbursed $60,000 to nearly $63,000 over the four years, which was actually more than the vehicle itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camera IconMayor Daniel Kingston. Credit: The West Australian<\/p>\n
The issue was debated for around 20 minutes in a council meeting that ran for more than five hours, which also included the city adopting its 2026-27 budget with a 6.5 per cent rate rise and several other motions relating to elected members\u2019 policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine the mayor of the city of Joondalup rocking up in an Uber, or a ride share, or an electric scooter to a meeting, so I won\u2019t be supportive of this,\u201d Cr Rohan O\u2019Neill said in opposition to the change.<\/p>\n
Cr Pizzey referenced the council\u2019s recent decision to raise rates during her pitch to scrap the entitlement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made decisions that affect household budgets across the city at a time when cost-of-living pressure is real and is being felt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we ask ratepayers to accept a budget, we owe them an obligation to account for every dollar we spend on their behalf. This motion is a part of that obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An attempt to strip the City of Joondalup\u2019s mayor of their council-funded vehicle from the next mayoral term…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2676,1774,152,2673,335,149,464],"class_list":["post-42527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-joondalup","tag-local-government","tag-news","tag-north","tag-perth","tag-politics","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}