Wyndham council has defended a decision to spend more than $18,700 on an overseas trip for two councillors and two officers.
Earlier this month, the council’s economy, innovation and liveability director Kate Roffey, WynLens creator and project director Adam Mowlam, then-mayor Henry Barlow and smart city portfolio holder Aaron An visited Barcelona for the Smart City Expo World Congress.
The council was invited to attended to make a presentation about its WynLens initiative, a mixed reality technology project which has won several awards, including this year’s National Award for Excellence in Local Government.
WynLens was also up for an award at the Barcelona conference, but lost to Dubai.
Cr Barlow told radio station 3AW that although the council could have sent just two people, the conference “ … was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see what smart cities are doing”.
Wyndham council’s chief executive Kelly Grigsby said the council sent four representatives to the Barcelona conference, because there were a number of meetings to attend during the event.
Ms Grigsby said this included meeting Leading Cities chief executive Mike Lake; the City of Chicago chief information officer Danielle Dumerer; and representatives from the Taipei Smart City Office, Singapore’s Housing and Development Board, the Israeli government and the federal government’s trade and investment commission, Austrade.
She said the Wyndham councillors and officers also met representatives from organisations working in the smart cities field, including CitizenLab and DigitalTown.
“To enable Wyndham city to attend all of these meetings, our mayor, Cr Henry Barlow, and smart city portfolio holder, Cr Aaron An, attended the conference along with two staff representatives at a total cost of $18,717.22,” Ms Grigsby said.
“The councillors and staff stayed at the Ofelias Hotel, which was recommended by the congress organisers.”
According to its website, Ofelias Hotel is a four-star hotel.
