One Job one pay

Hawkes Bay Regional Councillors are paid a little under $50 000 a year each and Napier and Hastings councillors under $30 000 dollars a year each. The extra paid to Regional Councillors is supposedly due to the very much larger asset base the Regional council has which includes the port, leasehold land around Napier and significant assets held elsewhere.

While the regional council has done an excellent job in maintaining the value of these assets it must be remembered the key elements such as the port were inherited and are not as a result of good decision making by the present incumbents. I suspect if all that wealth has gone to the other two councils it would have all been dissipated by now on money loosing wasteful pipe dreams.

In addition to their base salaries many councillors are paid extra as chair persons of the many committees all three councils have. Typically this adds about $10 000 to their base income.

The Mayors and chairman of the Regional Council earn around $100 000 an amount that is probably appropriate for the job but still a good little earner especially as none of the present trio would be likely to get an equivalent paying job elsewhere.

The base salaries are not especially generous and there are councillors earning these amounts so some presumably have other jobs or other sources of income, and this is entirely understandable.

Others such as Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule have previously owned businesses or farms and clearly they have spent many years building up these assets and do not want to give them up.

Generally I am not especially interested in these activities as they have not been acquired or developed as a result of their council occupations. Most retain these interests as something to go back to, when they are no longer in elected positions.

Some however are involved in activities that might be seen as pushing the boundaries.

One that stands out in my mind is the present Mayor of Hastings. In addition to being Mayor he is President of Local Government New Zealand a job paying $84 000 a year when he took it over and presumably rather more now two years later. This job involves a huge amount of travelling away from Hawke's Bay something the Mayor seems very fond of. It might be interesting to know how many days or part days he has been out of the area over the past year or two.

In addition he is Chairman of the Regional Sports Park, a position the other trustees receive $15 000 a year for, and Chairman of the Pettigrew Green Arena. Until recently he was also on the Board of Venture Hawke's Bay another job most board members were paid $10 000 a year for.

While there are often calls for people holding public office to reveal their wealth as MP's are now required to do, I personally am less concerned with their wealth and more about whether they have to time to do the job they are elected to do.

Another local body politician that interests me is Regional Councillor Neil Kirton. A while back I noticed he held the title Eastern Police District Victim Support District Manager. A position I understand he no longer holds but with a name like that it sounds very important and well paid. I have no idea if it was a full time job but who knows for sure.

In addition to being a Regional Councillor Mr Kirton is Chairman of Venture Hawke's Bay which I understand to be another paid position.

Its probably worth while reminding listeners that Venture Hawke's Bay has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons including a ½ million dollar overspend in just one year..

Perhaps the problem is the people charged with providing governance are simply too busy to put in the real effort needed.

The only other one who deserves a mention is perhaps the Mayor of Napier. Though never publicly mentioned it seems she is or has been involved in a Wellington based business providing training for school boards of trustees.

I imagine these boards need all the help they can get, and the present school governance system goes back several decades so it is possible this involvement started well before the Mayor became Mayor.

There is nothing in anyway illegal about any of these activities. The point I am making is when people are elected to represent the community we have a certain expectation of unencumbered commitment. Clearly to a greater or lessor extent we are not always getting it.

So this is my suggestion. Rather than demanding a breakdown of assets held by local government officials we should be provided with a list of other income earning occupations or commitments especially those in anyway linked to their elected positions so at election time we can be sure the people we are electing are going to be available to do the job.

Anyone wanting to be elected must understand they are doing it so they can contribute to the community, not for the money.