During an extraordinary council meeting yesterday, elected members approved a recommendation setting the levels of remuneration the deputy mayor, committee chairpersons and councillors will get this term
The Remuneration Authority, which regulates and sets pay rates for public officials, has put the pool of funds for the council at $573,463 to be divided between those roles.
It did not include the mayoral salary, which was set at $149,291, the mana whenua representatives or the Bluff Community Board.
A report from council governance and legal manager Michael Morris stated the pool had increased by about $66,000 since the last election.
The increase was larger than previously budgeted, he said.
Despite council staff providing three options for councillors to decide on, they approved a fourth option which they believed was the "most logical".
Mayor Nobby Clark said that meant the deputy mayor would earn $63,000 a year, chairpersons $54,600, project leaders $52,000 and councillors $42,000.
Last term, after the changes to the council structure, councillors were paid $38,583 yearly.
Deputy mayor Tom Campbell said the new figures did not add up to the pool value, but their proposal was to have the "few hundreds dollars left" to be split equally between elected members.
He said this option was based on a formula used by corporate boards.
"Option 4 is based on the ratios and based on the best salary for the councillors.
"So you take the $42,000 and multiply by 1.3 — you came up with the number for the chair. [Then] multiply for 1.5 and you came up with the number for the deputy mayor.
"This is how it is usually done by the commercial boards," he said.
The suggestion was endorsed unanimously by council and would now be presented to the Remuneration Authority to be approved.
