Council’s first job: voting on a pay rise

Six months after they gave themselves a pay rise, Wellington’s city councillors are on the brink giving themselves another one.

One of the first orders of business when the new council meets for its first proper meeting tomorrow will be to decide how much its councillors should be paid for the remainder of the 2016-17 financial year.

One of the proposals – which has the support of Wellington Mayor Justin Lester – would see the annual pay packets of almost all 14 councillors expand by between $1083 and $3429.

This move comes just six months after the previous council voted to increase their salaries across the board. The new council was elected in October, and has done little more than take the oath of office thus far.

Councillors will be faced with the option tomorrow of keeping their remuneration roughly where it is now, or voting for a more expensive option that would see anyone put in charge of a specific area of council business – otherwise known as a portfolio – receive $90,050, rather than $86,605.

Lester has decided all of his councillors will have at least one portfolio in their three-year term.

The more expensive option would also see the deputy mayor’s annual pay increase from $107,143 to $109,403, and the chairperson of the newly formed city strategy committee receive $96,952, rather than $95,869 – the figure a committee chairperson earned on the previous council.

Paul Eagle has already been named Wellington’s deputy mayor, while councillor Iona Pannett will head the city strategy committee for the next three years.

Lester’s $170,317 annual salary is set by the Remuneration Authority and will not be affected by the proposed changes. While the authority independently decides on the base salaries of councillors and community board members, the money comes from rates.

Lester backed the more generous packages, saying he wanted a ‘‘fairer, flatter’’ pay structure that reflected the fact all of his councillors would be shouldering the workload, not just a handful of them.

As deputy mayor, Eagle would have a fairly full plate looking after the areas of housing, recreation and events, while also filling in as mayor on occasion.

Pannett would also have more responsibility as head of the strategy committee. This replaces the separate committees that dealt with transport, economic and environmental issues under former mayor Celia Wade-Brown.

‘‘We don’t do this job for the money,’’ Lester said. ‘‘But it’s important that [councillors] get paid enough to support them and their families.’’