Living wage

‘‘Put your toe in the water incredibly gently’’ on Living Wage (May 25).

The Nelson City Council chief executive may have unwittingly suggested a rule of thumb in the appointment of her successor. That kind of ‘‘incredible’’ caution might lead to the discovery of someone with the character and judgement in a role earning $400,000 to strongly recommend paying a living wage of $20 an hour to all council employees and contractors.

Benefits of a new culture could include increased productivity and reduced staff turnover. decide the future. Permanent staff create policy alternatives that are presented at ‘‘workshops’’ (unminuted non meetings from which the public are excluded generally). Those councillors attending take the path of least resistance and permanent staff go away to prepare the same material to go before the charade of a full council meeting with the same outcome.

On other issues, those councillors who have done their homework – or not – rubber stamp a motion, believing that they have done their democratic dury. Those who, under prompting from the CEO (who is an employee of the council, not their boss) are deemed by the mayor and CEO to have an undeclared interest are prevented from voting. Those who are dishonest enough do not declare an interest and vote. Those who defy the mayor are subsequently censured. The rubber stamping has to stop now. Councillors must use the brains they have, or not, and do their own research and be left free to vote according to their consciences. forming an SOE (State Owned Enterprise) to sell our drinking water and use the profits to fund improvement and preservation of water quality, generally?