Salary decision on hold

New Plymouth’s councillors have laid any further discussions about their pay rates on the table until five days before Christmas.

Yesterday, in what was supposed to be one of the first decisions made by the new council at the start of their triennial term, councillors voted unanimously to wait until their last meeting of the year to divvy up how their annual salaries will be paid out from a pool of $869,359.

That figure excludes New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom’s salary, which is set by the Remuneration Authority.

Holdom was first to rise and address the pay scale recommendations he had made, which start with deputy mayor David Bublitz making the most – $87,466 annually – and incoming councillors with less responsibility receiving the least. The lowest paid councillors would receive $53,010.

The mayor started by sarcastically thanking former Remuneration Authority chairwoman Dame Fran Wilde for introducing the pool-based fund in 2019.

Holdom thought it was unfair on councillors who had to decide their own annual salaries.

‘‘It puts all of my colleagues in really awkward situations,’’ he added.

While Holdom said he had tried to make the calculations as ‘‘painless as possible’’, his love of a ‘‘good spreadsheet’’ clearly did not pave some palms with enough silver.

Councillor for the North,

Tony Bedford, stood to argue that those around the table who were also tasked with being representatives on community boards just might deserve a bit more recompense, before he questioned if he would support the proposal.

Former mayor Harry Duynhoven also raised the fact that sitting on regional transport committees was not a thrifty use of time, before Anneka Carlson proposed an amendment she had slipped to governance lead Julie Straka earlier which outlined new pay scale ratios.

As Straka typed in Carlson’s proposed figures – which were not read out to the meeting – senior policy adviser Greg Stephens squinted, corrected and then asked for an adjournment to make sure everything added up.

Holdom agreed, ordered the adjournment, then came back 15 minutes later to put a motion for the recommendation to lie on the table until December 20.

Although he believed the majority of councillors wanted the issue resolved in a timely manner, Holdom said it was better to wait an extra few weeks for a decision.