{"id":38583,"date":"2020-01-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/uncategorized\/ratepayers-shouldnt-have-foot-bill-councillors-flight-fancy\/"},"modified":"2020-04-15T09:47:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T09:47:35","slug":"ratepayers-shouldnt-have-foot-bill-councillors-flight-fancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/news\/ratepayers-shouldnt-have-foot-bill-councillors-flight-fancy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ratepayers Shouldn\u2019t Have To Foot The Bill For Councillor\u2019s \u201cFlight Of Fancy\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d for ratepayers to have to pay for a by-election to replace outgoing former deputy lord mayor Houssam Abiad after he sensationally resigned from the Adelaide City Council to pursue business interests in Saudi Arabia, says FIVEAA Breakfast\u2019s David Penberthy.<\/h3>\n

Penbo said during Thursday\u2019s Breaking @ 8 segment:<\/p>\n

\u201cRatepayers are going to have to foot the bill for the fact that on this flight of fancy Houssam Abiad has decided to leg it to Riyadh or whichever part of Saudi Arabia he is currently residing in to pursue undisclosed business interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when councils are talking about rising costs\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c$60,000 can do a lot of good things\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely as happens in federal politics when senators have quit you have a count back, you look at the person who came next on the ticket and install them. I can see no reason why the same process doesn\u2019t apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when councils are increasing rates\u2026 I think it\u2019s unacceptable that purely for a personal decision like this that the public has to pay a single cent when there\u2019s another option available.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

LISTEN:<\/p>\n\n

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