A Dunedin city councillor has slammed climbing salaries at council-owned company Delta, singling out its chief executive's pay as ''eye-watering''.
David Benson-Pope's comments came after the infrastructure company's annual report revealed its chief executive Grady Cameron was paid between $560,001 and $570,000 in the 2015-16 financial year.
This was up from $510,001 to $520,000 in the previous financial year and about 80% more than then chief executive John Walsh was paid in 2008.
The latest annual report showed 88 staff were paid more than $100,000, which is a 26% increase on the previous financial year. This comes as the company faces criticism for its involvement in a Christchurch subdivision which left it with millions in bad debt.
In response to questions, Delta chairman Ian Parton said its executive salaries were ''market-based'' and it paid ''benchmark salaries to attract the right people''.
At this week's council meeting where Delta's annual report was discussed, Cr Benson-Pope said Mr Cameron's pay was ''eye-watering''.
He elaborated on those comments when speaking to the Otago Daily Times yesterday, saying he had been concerned about pay rates at Delta for some time.
''I'm not all that happy about other [council companies], but it's the glaring example of what I think is inappropriate levels of remuneration.
''I had this view a long time prior to the disappointing revelations [about Delta's performance],'' Cr Benson-Pope said.
He called on Dunedin City Holdings Ltd (DCHL), which oversees the council companies, to do something about pay rates.
''It's time a lot of councils and other organisations started pushing back on the obscene salaries that are being paid in the corporate sector.''
Dr Parton said the salaries were to attract the right people.
''Chief executive remuneration is reviewed annually by the board based on the advice of remuneration specialists and nationwide surveys of executive remuneration and in accordance with company remuneration policy,'' he said.
He declined to respond further to Cr Benson-Pope's comments, saying: ''As a council-owned company it is not for us to comment on matters raised by councillors during the election period.''
At this week's meeting, DCHL director Keith Cooper, responding to questions from Cr Benson-Pope, said it had sought explanations from all council companies about how they set pay levels and was satisfied with the responses.
However, it had started a piece of work to ensure there was ''consistency'' over how pay was set across the different companies, while taking into account variations by sector.
After being questioned by councillor Lee Vandervis, he said it would likely be next year before the work was completed.
In August, Cr Vandervis said Delta was ''out of control'' after its annual reports showed the number of staff earning more than $100,000 had risen from 25 (or 4.52% of staff) in 2007-08 to 70 (12.24%) in 2014-15.
In the latest report, the number of staff paid more than $100,000 had grown to 14.5%.
Delta had 607 full-time equivalent staff in 2015-16, up from 572 the year before.
DELTA PAY
In 2015-16 financial year
• $100,001 to $120,000: 54
• $120,001 to $160,000: 20
• $160,001 to $200,000: 8
• $210,001 to $310,000: 5
• $560,001 to $570,000: 1
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Comments
Failure in corporate life is a guarantee of a higher salary. Gurglars law of executive salaries. "Executive salaries rises are inversely proportional to shareholder profits"
And Gurglars law about DCHL directors- " The distance from the grey matter of a DCHL director increases by the number of letters after his name ( and prior) and the length of time on the board"
I am a fan of Gurglar's Law, not for the Law, but because of Gurglar himself, who, if I'm not mistaken, has French provenance.
But you can pay the dcc chief exec a 6% payrise when delta staff were lucky to get 2% this year? Like a lot of business management they get high pays while the employees on coal front get just enough to survive. Have to consider delta is a highly profitable business whereas dcc makes a lot of their money from the ratepayers. Benson-pope this narrow minded view will not be getting my vote!
Salaries are benchmarked to the Corporate sector? This is the Public sector. Municipal governance has nothing to do with Corporations. Frankly, the public servant Ruth Stokes (DCC) is more efficient than counterparts in the private sector.