Jiu-jitsu coach, stand-up comic, apiarist: Inside the surprise day jobs of Sydney’s councillors

For 40 years, Victor Macri has spent five days a week cutting hair at Fernando’s Hair, the business his father started in Marrickville in 1960.

A dispute with local councillors over a building matter prompted Macri to run as an independent for the former Marrickville Council – which was later merged to form the Inner West Council – in 2004.

But the veteran councillor still spends Tuesday through Saturday giving haircuts with an ear to the ground.

“That’s how I keep in contact with the community,” Macri says. “I get all the complaints.”

He is among hundreds of local councillors in NSW for whom public office is not their primary source of income. From retail workers and Uber Eats drivers to martial arts masters and cosmetic surgeons, Sydney’s council chambers are filled with elected officials juggling a range of jobs.

Mayors and councillors at the state’s 128 local councils are not paid full-time wages but receive fees determined by the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal. Those payments are determined by the size and type of council on which they serve.

For example, a City of Sydney councillor is paid between $32,810 and $48,140. In Strathfield, it’s between $10,920 and $24,080.

Northern Beaches councillor Jody Williams is a trade lane gatekeeper three days a week at Bunnings, where he loads cars and checks receipts – and the community’s pulse.

He replies to emails during his lunch breaks, and Saturdays through Tuesdays are booked with council commitments, community events, and citizenship ceremonies.

Williams, a member of the Your Northern Beaches Independent Team, estimates he spends about two hours everyday reading council documents, but says it’s worthwhile.

“When you’re of service to other people, you forget about your own problems ... It’s about dopamine, and doing nice things for people,” he says.

Lane Cove Labor councillor David Roenfeldt drives buses from Sydney Airport to Yass and Canberra, while Bayside Council’s Chris Saravinovski, also Labor, works as an airport ramp agent, and is a jack-of-all-trades from baggage handling to health and safety.

“It’s not for the money,” he says. “You can’t survive on it ... I don’t blame any other councillor having another job and picking this up as a side thing.”

Wollondilly Mayor Matt Gould, an independent, once juggled council with drone piloting. Since becoming mayor, he resolved he could do “both poorly or one properly”.