Tauranga council approves pay rises for Bay Venues board

Bay Venues runs Baywave and Baypark among other community facilities. Photo / File

Tauranga's council has delivered an early Christmas present to Bay Venues' board, but there's nothing in Santa's sack for those behind two other council-controlled operations.

This week the council approved pay rises for Bay Venues Limited's chairman (up $10,000 to $66,000), and directors (up $3000 to $33,000). There are currently five directors.

The company does not have a deputy chairman, but the position is expected to be added in the future with the pay set at $41,250.

It was the board's first pay rise since April 2013, working out to 2 per cent a year until July 2018. The council turned down a suggested pay rise in an April 2015 review.

The council also pointed to the public pool and facility operator's 54 per cent external revenue growth - from 11.6m in 2013-14 to $17.9m last financial year - as justification for the rise.

The trustees of Tourism Bay of Plenty and the Tauranga Art Gallery Trust were not so fortunate, with the council voting against recommended pay rises.

Council staff recommended doubling the gallery trustees' pay- from $5000 to $10,000 for the chairman and $2500 to $5000 for trustees, plus introducing a deputy chairman rate of $6250.

The current pay rates were set in 2015. Before that, the representatives were not paid.

For Tourism Bay of Plenty, pay rises of $2500 apiece were recommended for the six trustees, taking them to $10,000 a year, plus a rise of $3125 for the deputy chairman and $5000 for the chairman.

In both cases, the rises were recommended to better reflect the work of those trustees.

Some councillors highlighted the good people in the roles but, in the end, those who thought the raises excessive outvoted those who did not.