New Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger’s mantra: ‘An honest day’s work’

Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger and chief executive Dawn Baxendale. Photo / Christchurch CIty Council

An honest day’s work from his councillors. That will make Mayor Phil Mauger happy. And he includes himself in that mantra.

Mauger will be paid $200,000 a year for his role; his city councillors have a base of $100,278, which increases depending on responsibilities.

“Pulling the rope in the same direction for the good of Christchurch, that’s the most important thing in my view,” he said.

“The mayor thing at the moment is probably doing me 65 hours a week, I imagine, a good 60 anyway.

“I’m up three o’clock most mornings because I can’t sleep and I’ll look at my emails and stuff like that and I’ll get tired and go back to sleep ... I don’t get it off my mind, but there is a lot of work that you have to do.”

He no longer has any involvement in Maugers Contracting, a company he led for many years.

Three people are now running it; these include his daughter Brittany, and two long-serving employee shareholders, one who has been there for 25 years.

Mauger said what councillors were paid wasn’t “high high”, for the amount of work they did.

As Burwood Ward councillor from 2019-2022, what the hourly rate worked out to wasn’t very high for “working morning, noon and night”.

“At an absolutely minimum, it’s 40 hours a week, an absolute minimum.”

Councillors could be assigned to committees or as directors of council external companies on top of their role as a representative of the community.

“You could immerse yourself into council life so much that you would never come up for air,” Mauger said.

When asked whether or not he agreed a city councillor could get their work done in less than 40 hours, or balance other commitments, Mauger said the younger ones were capable of multi-tasking more than himself.

“It might take me a long time to get stuff through ... I watch some of the younger ones ... you can probably do two or three things at once, I can do one, one-and-a-half at once because my silly old brain won’t take it in.”

Mauger has had one-on-ones with the city councillors and he said he was “heartened” by the strengths they had.

He sought to foster a “working together, collaborative environment” and did not want an “A team and B team”.

If someone was not doing what they should, Mauger said he would sit them down and “have a bit of a yarn with them”.

But from his time in council, he said he had not seen anyone who wasn’t pulling their weight as much as they should.

His decision on deputy mayor was fourth-term councillor Pauline Cotter, when the new council was sworn in yesterday.

Inside his council would be seven councillors of those he endorsed: Kelly Barber, Tim Scandrett, James Gough, Aaron Keown, Mark Peters, Victoria Henstock, and Sam McDonald.

Mauger would face six The People’s Choice councillors: Tyrone Fields, Jake McLennan, Pauline Cotter, Yani Johanson, Tyla Harrison-Hunt, and Pauline Cotter. But Cotter’s seat is still in question after Ali Jones filed for a recount on Tuesday.

A city council spokesperson said: “Regardless of Ali Jones’ application for a recount, Cotter can still be sworn in with the others on October 25. Her win stands unless the court decides there are grounds to proceed with a recount, which might not be known for two weeks.”

The mayor wasn’t worried about possible disagreements.

“Every councillor wants what’s best for Christchurch and what’s best for their ward. It’s up to me to harness that strength,” he said.

“There’ll always be a couple of councillors who won’t agree with it and that’s democracy.”

- starnews.co.nz