Auckland Mayor Phil Goff dishes out big salaries for mayoral office staff

New Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is paying mayoral staff big salaries. Photo / Nick Reed

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is dishing out big salaries for staff in his office - one of whom earns up to $295,000.

Goff has revealed that four staff in his office are being paid more than $150,000, but claimed in a statement he will have fewer staff than former Mayor Len Brown and spend less.

Of the 11 staff currently employed in the mayoral office, five have senior roles - chief of staff Fran Mold, finance and policy director David Wood, planning manager Rory Palmer, communications and external relations manager Mike Burgess and senior press secretary Nirupa George.

The four salary bands for staff earning more than $150,000 are:

• $275,000-$295,000
• $245,00-$265,000
• $148,00-$198,000
• $130,000-$180,000

For privacy reasons, Goff did not say who the salary bands applied to.

Goff said he had campaigned on having fewer staff in the mayoral office but some might be paid more in line with the expertise he was seeking to get the best contestable advice to hold council and the council-controlled organisations to account.

He said the mayoral office spend will be at least 3 per cent less than last term in line with a 3 per cent to 6 per cent efficiency drive across council.

"Some staff have taken pay cuts to come from the corporate sector to the mayor's office. My office, as with the rest of council, will do more with less and will provide value for money," Goff said.

"Easing the burden of growth on ratepayers is a priority, everyone has to contribute their fair share to fund our city's ongoing development," said Goff.

"As a Council, we have a fiscal responsibility to spend the ratepayers' money efficiently and part of that has to be by doing more with less. However, making savings isn't enough. We need to find new revenue streams to build infrastructure or we risk this city grinding to a halt and cutting into front line services," he said.

As well as the 11 staff in the office, Goff has five or six positions still to be filled, including a senior finance adviser, communications adviser, environment and community manager and two or three other policy advisers.

Brown also ran a frugal office, coming in 10 per cent under the budget of about $4 million.

As mayor, Goff is paid $269,500.