'Spin doctor' council role questioned

Murray Guy

A newly created, highly paid job at Tauranga City Council has been blasted by former councillor Murray Guy who says the position is nothing more than a "back watcher" for Mayor Stuart Crosby.

The council is taking applications for an Executive Officer, a new role responsible for providing "high-level advisory support services" to the mayor and deputy mayor, Kelvin Clout and reporting to them. The salary could be between $80,000 and $130,000 depending on the successful person's experience, according to sources.

The advertisement on seek.co.nz called for a person with combined "commercial and political acumen", someone who would "continually seek to identify opportunities to enhance the profile of Tauranga City Council's Mayoral Suite."

The candidate would have to have a "proactive awareness" of local, regional and national issues which would allow the mayor and deputy mayor to be a "step ahead at all times - with no surprises," the advert said.

Former city councillor Murray Guy told the Bay of Plenty Times the role was a "spin doctor" to make Mr Crosby and Mr Clout "look good".

Mr Guy yesterday questioned the need for the community to pay for a "back watcher" when council was proposing cuts to services in the draft annual plan, commenting that it "forces the community to accept significantly reduced and critical basic services, that our children and grandchildren benefited from, to fund a personal spin doctor for Mayor Crosby".

"Library bus to schools, swimming lessons for kids or spin doctor for Mayor, the community should get to choose."

City Councillors would not comment on the position, but Cr Steve Morris said a meeting would be held with the mayor when he returned to Tauranga.

Cr Morris said elected members had a "number of queries" regarding the role which they would put to the mayor. "It would be inappropriate for us to go into detail until we have had a chance to speak with Stuart," he said.

"We are not going to do a hatchet job on each other, that was something the old council did."

Via email from China, Mr Crosby told the Bay of Plenty Times the role was newly established and necessary.

Recent changes to the Local Government Act gave mayors a "greater leadership mandate including more accountability and responsibility," he wrote.

Mr Crosby said he supported the legislation changes but to achieve those mandates, "appropriate resourcing is required".

He would not be drawn on the exact salary, saying it would depend on qualifications and experience. "[It] ... will be benchmarked against similar roles in the public and private sector," he said.

Tauranga City Council currently has one fulltime PA and a part time staff member supporting the executive team but other councils such as Hamilton City have as many as five.