Corangamite Shire councillor Simon Illingworth said the mayor earnt nearly $70,000 and the public should know who councillors would vote in for the top job.

"I think it is really important that the public knows who each candidate will choose as mayor before casting a vote," he said.

"The public cannot vote for mayor so they must be informed by the candidates before an election as to who their mayor will be.

"The happenings at Warrnambool were testament to how chaotic and divisive it can be and this can be avoided."

He said it was clear councillors in many local governments were "waxing" - sharing the title of mayor amongst themselves and not basing the decision on merit.

The coastal ward councillor also said the increasing amount of work expected of a councillor made the allowance over four years hard to justify.

"Personally, I feel I have led a great deal of the strategy for Corangamite council, as a ward councillor, and for that I receive just $20,000," he said.

"That financial reward for the workload delivered is unsustainable and simply, I can't afford it.

"Coastal ward is a solo councillor ward only because the councillor numbers are based on population. It does not take into account the millions of visitors, gas plants, fishing industry and more."

Mayor Neil Trotter said he supported the election of the mayor by their peers in the chamber.

He said allowances were set by the state government, and recent pay cuts made the job harder.

READ MORE: Merry Christmas! State government hands council a pay cut gift

"Last year our salaries got a haircut, councillors were on about $25,000 a year and they lost nearly $5000 and the mayors lost close to $20,000," he said.

"It's not a great incentive and a lot of councillors felt aggrieved by it as it came out of the blue and there was no appeal process.

"The role has become a lot more work in recent years, a lot of work is in advocacy dealing with the state and federal governments and a lot of it is ceaseless advocacy, there can be 700 pages of material for a single council meeting, and then there's planning issues with hundreds of pages of supporting documents.

"We're talking about people's futures when it comes to these decisions and there's usually quite a lot of money involved, they're not inconsequential decisions.

"I think if you were doing it for the money you wouldn't be doing it at all."

Mr Trotter said he would not be standing for council again.

In December last year the mayoral allowance was cut from $79,612 to $61,651 and councillors' allowances trimmed from $25,730 to $20,636 a year.

Corangamite Shire is deemed a category one council and councillors are among the lowest paid in the state as set by the Local Government Minister.

Councillor Jo Beard said she would run for council in October and believed the decision of who became mayor should stay in the hands of councillors.

She will not be running for mayor again.

"I don't see it as something that needs to be publicly discussed or commented on, we have to wait and see whose actually elected first," she said.

"I want the community to vote people in for the right reasons, whether they become mayor or not, the role is one I don't take lightly. It comes with great dedication and care for the community."

Cr Beard agreed often the workload outstripped the remuneration, but it was a labour of love.

"The community now certainly expect more from the role than when I first became elected in 2011," she said.

"I know for a fact I'm putting in more hours than I can be paid for, for me it's because I care and love being a councillor and helping my community.

"It's not easy but every day is different and challenging but the reward outweighs the difficulty.

"It's tough lot of work involved, you don't do it for the money."

Outgoing councillor Helen Durant said only the councillors should have a say on who became mayor.

"The mayor is a really important role as leader of the council team and bringing the councillors together, so only they should determine who is mayor," she said.

"I think it's an interesting time to be talking about pay increases in a time where people are losing their jobs."

New recruit councillor Geraldine Conheady said she would be running in the next election, but wouldn't stand as mayor.

She said council allowances didn't come into her decision to apply for council.

"Everyone has different motivations and I only speak for myself when I say I didn't think about that at all, I was just thinking about what to do for my community, I'd never given consideration to payments made," she said.

"In saying that it's quite a lot to take on, the breadth of responsibility is extensive enough - the size of the documents a lot to take in alone so you definitely have to be committed."

Cr Illingworth fears the low pay will cut people from running for council.

"Some people simply can't afford to be a councillor," he said.

The Standard was not able to reach Cr Lesley Brown or Cr Ruth Gstrein.

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