Extra pay offered for Super City meetings

Elected members of Auckland's eight councils have had their pay frozen for 12 months but may get extra for meetings about the Super City merger.

This year, the Remuneration Authority looked at boosting the salary pool for Auckland members by 2 per cent to 6 per cent.

But most councils refused to accept a rise in light of the recession, and the authority says it will peg the salary part of councillors' remuneration to last year's level.

However, it has also told the councils it recognises extra work has been created by the coming merger of their councils into the Super City.

It has upset some councils where members get a salary only and don't have a pool from which meeting attendance fees are provided.

The authority's suggestion is that councils can apply, roughly, what they would have been due in a pay rise, to either set up a meeting-fees pool or boost their existing one.

If they set up a pool, they could reward meeting attendance at $100 per half day.

Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney councils have a salaries-only policy and won't accept the offer. Auckland City says it will stick to a $70,000 pool which it set aside in April to cover fees for all types of meetings.

Other councils, some of which have a mix of salary and pools, are yet to discuss it.

"It was a silly idea because we are all in this together and we do what we need to do," said Waitakere councillor Janet Clews.

"I don't expect to be paid additional for doing something that's my role, which is representing council on any transition meeting."

But Waitakere finance committee members feel that if a meeting fee pool has to be set up, then the proper rate is $233 per half day plus expenses.

Auckland Regional Council pays its members $230 for the day, not per meeting. They don't get more if they go to three meetings in one day. But the council agrees that any extra meetings for changing governance should come from the addition to the pool.

North Shore City Mayor Andrew Williams said the authority's offer is too late.

"It's ridiculous when we have been putting a lot of extra hours around this Auckland governance thing for the past year. It's added a lot to our workload."

His council had resolved to "let it lie".

The extra $26,000 it is due for any meeting pool would be "a paper figure in our budget but it won't get spent".

The authority will decide its policy this month after hearing views of the councils.

It tells councils how much they pay the mayor and the size of the pool from which payments are made to elected members of councils and community boards.

MEETING FEES
OFFER 2009-10

Auckland City: $94,885

Franklin: $26,000

Manukau: $105,500

North Shore: $26,000

Papakura: $34,500

Rodney: $16,000

Waitakere: $34,500

ARC: $354,000