Low pay has been cited as one of the reasons the Banks Peninsula Community Board failed to attract enough candidates for October's elections.
The community board was left short after nominations closed on Friday with only one candidate, Howard Needham, running for the board's Mount Herbert subdivision which has two vacancies. Making it the only board out of seven to not attract enough candidates.
A by-election will be held following the October elections to fill the vacancy.
Banks Peninsula Community Board member John McLister thought this could be linked to the low rate of remuneration board members on the peninsula receive.
Only three of the eight current board members have stood for re-election. Five of the current board members were elected unopposed in the 2016 elections.
Mr McLister thought the current pay rate failed to account for the workload and a pay rate similar to the other boards would encourage more candidates to step forward.
The current remuneration model is set by population, so community boards with bigger populations get better remuneration.
As it stands, Banks Peninsula Community Board members are set to receive $9864 and the chairperson $19,729 after the elections.
Whereas members of the Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board will receive $24,580 and their chair $49,160.
Mr McLister thought they deserved a pay rate similar to the inner city boards.
The remuneration of the community boards could all change when the new city council decides on the allocation of a $1,843,200 governance pool.
Funds from the pool could be used to increase the $97,280 base salary of city councillors, the mayor's $195,000 pay packet or the remuneration of community board members.
Mr McLister said he would like to see some of the money from the governance pool used to bring the Banks Peninsula Community Board remuneration to a similar standard as the inner city boards.
"We have a landmass bigger than Christchurch, we have two harbours, we used to have our own council."
He said the low level of remuneration and time commitments of the role contributed to his decision to not stand for re-election.
