Western Bay of Plenty Council votes on remuneration

Western Bay of Plenty District mayor Garry Webber, left, and deputy mayor John Scrimgeour will both receive pay increases. Photo / File

Western Bay of Plenty District councillors have voted to give themselves a pay rise, with the recommended remuneration being an almost $10,000 average increase.

The pool of funds from which members of the council were remunerated was $479,232.

The mayoral salary was excluded from this fund, as it is determined by the Remuneration Authority.

Mayor Garry Webber's salary of $136,500 has a 6.5 per cent - $8963 - increase compared to the 2016-2019 term.

Deputy Mayor John Scrimgeour is to receive a salary of $60,000 - a 24.5 per cent increase on the recommended minimum remuneration of $48,807.

The Local Government Members Determination provides guidelines for how members of local authorities should be paid.

For the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, it recommended a minimum salary of $32,959.

Councillors voted to give themselves a salary of $40,122 - a 16.2 per cent increase, or $6513, from last term's salary of $33,609.

The chairperson of the performance and monitoring committee will be remunerated $48,000, while the chairpersons of the other committees and community boards will be remunerated $43,500.

Kaimai Ward councillor Margaret Murray-Benge said there should an increase in the salary of a chairperson to $45,000, but other councillors said that this would mean having to reduce the remuneration of the deputy mayor.

The council also voted to adopt a vehicle mileage allowance, a travel time allowance, communications allowance and a childcare allowance.

The travel time allowance would provide councillors with an allowance of $37.50 per hour of eligible travel time. This did not include the first hour of travelling.

The childcare allowance included payment of up to $6000 for the care of children under the age of 14.