Editorial: Peanuts, monkeys, heard it before

OPINION: It is fitting that Nick Smith used his first speech as local government minister to focus on council spending. His timing was perfect. Christchurch's council and its ratepayers are riven by the $68,000 pay rise given to the city's chief executive, Tony Marryatt. Kapiti Coast District Council has given its chief, former Nelson City Council senior staff member Pat Dougherty, a $44,000 rise. Closer to home, on the brink of a Nelson-Tasman amalgamation announcement by the Local Government Commission, the Tasman District Council has appointed a new chief executive who will get six month's redundancy if the union happens without him.

The rises will take Mr Marryatt – who's hedging in an almost comical way about whether to accept – to $538,000 a year. Mr Dougherty will go to $285,000 and the TDC's new man, Lindsay McKenzie, will start on 95 per cent of a $282,000 package. It will be adjusted after his first review, if the job lasts long enough. Let's not forget also that the Nelson council awarded its outgoing chief executive, Keith Marshall, a $5000 bonus and an extra five weeks' holiday less than three months before he announced he was moving on.

The first argument that is brought up in defence of such profligacy is that the market must be met. "Pay peanuts, get monkeys" is trotted out with much harrumphing and the politicians and officials retreat into their ratepayer-provided towers. To some extent, they are right – which is exactly why Mr Marryatt and Mr Dougherty will be thinking hard about what to do now. They and their bosses can argue that they are just getting the going rate for the job. If either now rejects the rise, he will be setting a precedent for the other council chief executives around the country, and priming the pumps for the cost-cutting brigade. They are both in a tricky spot.

Yet set aside the large salaries and put the increases into percentage terms and the rises become much more difficult to justify. In a year when Christchurch is grappling with the worst problems it has ever faced, and which will stretch its budget to the limit and beyond, Mr Marryatt is up for a 14.4 per cent jump. Mr Dougherty stands to get an extra 18.2 per cent, with cost blowouts in council projects prompting a Grey Power complaint to the auditor-general. It doesn't add up.

This is not to pass judgment on the performance of either man, or that of other chief executives such as Mr Marshall and the incoming Mr McKenzie. The point is that pay increase of this size are completely out of touch with the reality of most people they serve. The wound is salted by the way that rate rises have got so out of kilter with inflation, going up by an average of 6.8 per cent a year for a decade, and by the galloping debt of many councils, including the two in our region.

In his address to Nelson rotarians, Dr Smith called for a fundamental change in local government culture, from the top down – and made no bones about the size of the task. It is impossible to disagree with his contention that such reform is urgently required – or to ignore the fact that governments have pumped up costs by forcing additional functions on to councils. He'd better have a look at that, too.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First

Peter Brine   #7   02:03 pm Jan 31 2012

$538,000.00? Mr Marryatt is a genius! The private sector needs greed like his. I'd be happy to take his job for half of that.

rayNelson   #6   11:04 pm Jan 30 2012

pay peanuts get monkeys, apparently it seems that you pay top dollar get monkeys as well. What's the deal? It's obvious in some places no matter what the salary you're always going to get monkeys...

Daddio   #5   03:10 pm Jan 30 2012

ringo #4 I like it Ringo.

ringo   #4   11:38 am Jan 29 2012

daddio#3 the comment i like is pay peanuts get monkeys pay truffles get pigs seems to fit eh?

Daddio   #3   01:24 pm Jan 28 2012

35,000 volunteers are helping put ChCh back in business (without asking for a cent) but the rich won't volunteer a second of their work---Pay peanuts get Monkeys---Pay Diamonds and get criminals----criminals don't aim for peanuts.

Yes I do believe trying to make a profit out of your country in a crisis just because there is no law against it is criminal and most certainly not the act of a man or people that love their country.

Notbusiness   #2   02:57 pm Jan 27 2012

It stands to reason that any leader of public servants whose primary motivation is salary will not be a success at any rate.

Global Conscience   #1   01:04 pm Jan 27 2012

What a load of bollocks. Pay risers and atsronomical bonuses for the private enterprise CEO have far outstripped raises for the average worker and the public sector. But this little gem is conveniently overlooked by the Mail and by Nick. rates increase when new things are proposed. If what the Council spend there money on was static then inflation based increases would be justified. But new sporting facilities, cultural facilities and infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the increasing amount of new development means that over inflation based increases have to occur. I would like the Nelson Mail to openly say that nothing new should be provided by either Council and Rates capped at inflation. This would mean the developers who are allready creaming the pot woul have to charge more than the allready falsely inflated prices for the land/house/business developments they propose. Until the mail is willing to make this statement, they are purely pulling the one appendage that cannot be exposed in opublic.

Ad Feedback