Some council staff doing well

Well that smarts, putting it politely.

After Porirua City Council deems it unaffordable to pay staff a living wage, city councillors and the remuneration authority ensure 30 employees now earn more than $100,000.

No wonder the chief executive and senior management look like the cat that got the cream in the front page photographs (June 17).

He believes that because the council spent $3974 on each ratepayer while the average for other city councils was $3411, that makes for ‘‘good reading’’.

Since when does spending more of other people’s money to provide the self-same services as do other councils become a cause for celebration? The man is in financial ‘‘cloud cuckoo land’’.

Upper Hutt City Council has only 11 staff on more than $100,000 a year compared to Porirua City Council’s 30 – 173 per cent more!

Maybe that’s why the average residential rates for Porirua are 26 per cent higher than in Upper Hutt.