Media Release

February 9, 2009

Councillors defer pay decision

Waitakere City councillors have deferred a decision on whether to accept a pay rise until next month while they continue deliberations on future council expenditure.

The council’s Finance and Operations Committee agreed that councillors and community boards needed more time to work through the Remuneration Authority’s recommendation that the 2009/10 funding pool for elected members be increased.

It will now be discussed at its March meeting.

“We are currently looking at all our budgets for the next financial year and this decision should be part of that debate,” Councillor Derek Battersby told the meeting.

“We shouldn’t take this decision in isolation.

“We also need to get a clear direction from the (remuneration) authority on the legal obligations to take up the offer or not.”

The government-appointed Remuneration Authority advises how much councils must pay the mayor and a pool from which the council must recommend back to them the allocation of payments for all other elected members, including councillors and community board members. The Remuneration Authority makes the final decision on all payments.

If the council unanimously determines that the increase proposed in the pool should not be applied in full or part, it has to give the Remuneration Authority valid reasons why for the size of the pool to be reconsidered.

ENDS

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