Council worried about staff State-pay link

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 9

Council worried about staff State-pay link

The Christchurch City Council wants a review of the link between local government officers’ salaries and Public Service pay. ’ * Councillors believe the recent 30 per cent rise in council officers’ salaries is too great. The council is obliged to pay its staff the increases because of the link with wages for public servants set by the Higher Salaries Commission.

The highest paid of the Christchurch council’s senior officers is the Town Clerk, Mr John Gray, who now gets $69,000 a year. The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay — on the scale for elected representatives, which is due for review soon — gets $31,600. He said yesterday that about 100 council staff would receive more than he did.

At a meeting of the council on Monday, councillors called on the Government to review the linkage which had led to spiralling salaries bills for

local authorities. “There is a limit where the ratepayer will say, ‘No more’,” Sir Hamish said yesterday. The council’s salaries bill for senior staff has risen a third since November when the new salaries were fixed. The increases mean the council will overspend by $2 million on salaries this financial year, which ends next month. Of this, $1.25 million is for rateable activities, and the rest for airport and M.E.D. salaries.

The $1.25 million will be more than met by the larger than expected return from interest. Even without the $700,000 the council decided on Monday not to transfer from the M.E.D. accounts ($3 million will be transferred) interest earnings will take the council into the next financial year with a surplus. Smaller authorities will not be so lucky, Sir Hamish believes. Some would face the new financial year with a deficit be-

cause of increased salaries bills, he said. It was time for a review of the relationship between local government and Government officials, he said. One alternative would be for each local authority to assess what it should pay its officers.

“That would mean taking into account what the authority and its ratepayers could pay,” he said.

On Monday evening the council passed provision within the budget for 1986-87 for a 12 per cent increase on salaries from November this year.

Sir Hamish said that figure was a “guesstimate” to cover inflation and the effect of the goods and services tax. “We try to make provision so that we end up with a nil balance for the year. This year we miscalculated because of the Higher Salaries Commission’s action. We are fortunate that we still have a surplus. It means we start the new year worse off

than we would have been.”

The Higher Salaries Commission has indicated that it will review the. salaries of senior public servants again in April. The review of elected representatives’ remuneration has been deferred. Sir Hamish believes the increasing costs facing councillors may stop some from seeking re-election. “We have people at the council table who are saying, ‘I can’t afford to continue’,” he said. Now was a time when elected representatives were being asked to devote more time to local government affairs because of amalgamation. Good councillors could be lost because they could not afford to stand. The council will ask the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, to review the terms of reference for the Higher Salaries Commission. It has also asked members of the commission to meet the council’s staff sub-committee.