By Jerram Watts
Ratepayer dissatisfaction over large pay increases given to council chief executives has spread north.
After the Christchurch City Council chief executive Tony Maryatt gave back his payrise, Kapiti ratepayers are demanding their council chief do the same.
They are fed up with what they call the mismanagement of ratepayers’ money.
Their biggest concern is over a $44,000 pay increase to the council’s chief executive Pat Dougherty.
“The fact they have given the CEO a large wage rise – which is probably what most of us have to live on – and his performance has been particularly bad over the past two years, so we’re just really not happy,” says Kapiti Coast resident Faye Dawn.
Mr Dougherty’s salary was raised by 18 percent to $285,000 in a closed council meeting – the fifth highest for a council chief executive in the region.
Mayor Jenny Rowan says while she understands it is a big number for protesters to accept, Mr Dougherty’s increase is actually overdue.
“If I want to, in this council, bring about the results that we need to do in the next 18 months, then I need the calibre of the CEO that I have at the moment and we needed to bring him up to speed,” she says. “This isn’t an add on. This is bringing him up to where he should have been a couple of years ago.”
But protest organiser Murray Cooper says the salary should be performance-based and is requesting one thing:
“Have the CEO hand his money back, because he’s been paid this salary on a non-performance basis”.
The mayor says she plans to meet with protest organisers soon.
3 News