Board member pay works out at $120 per hour

Some board members handling New Plymouth District Council’s affairs are getting paid $120 an hour, it has been revealed.

Board members for airport company Papa Rererangi i Puketapu and the New Plymouth PIF Guardians (NPG), which looks after the council’s perpetual investment fund, have had a salary review.

This has led to increases worth $170,000 in the next financial year, and the total cost of paying the two boards and their chairs will become $379,000 a year. There are three board members for the airport company and four for the PIF Guardians, as well as a chairperson.

Councillor Harry Duynhoven, at an extraordinary meeting yesterday, said the airport board members were ‘‘very well remunerated’’.

‘‘Even taking the maximum hours recorded, they are being paid $120 per hour,’’ Duynhoven said.

‘‘From the point of view of our ratepayers . . . we have to be sure we are getting good value for money at every point.’’

According to Statistics New Zealand, in the year to the December 2020 quarter, average hourly earnings increased 4.2 per cent to $34.14.

Duynhoven said the council did need to go with the salary increases ‘‘but keep an eye on it’’.

Councillor Colin Johnston said the pay should be left as is.

‘‘Even taking the maximum hours recorded, they are being paid $120 per hour.’’

Councillor Harry Duynhoven

‘‘It is not an overload of work,’’ he said. ‘‘Their workload has probably decreased if anything.’’

The council’s finances boss, Joy Buckingham, told the councillors that they had had an external party give recommendations on what to pay the board members, taking into account other boards on other organisations.

Other councillors were happy with the pay, with Marie Pearce saying that level was needed to attract good directors.

Deputy mayor Richard Jordan said the pay they were offering, relative to the amount of work that council got from its controlled companies, was excellent value for money.

It was a close-run thing in the end, with the salary increase passing six votes to five.

From July 1, both airport and investment fund directors will go up from $35,000 a year to $37,000.

The fund chair will go up from $50,000 a year to $55,000 while the airport chair stays on $65,000 because the position already pays in the upper range.