Tauranga's CBD, from the air. Photo / File
Plans to increase the salary costs for Tauranga City Council's staff by nearly $15 million within the next year despite a $2 billion financial hole have been labelled a "disgrace" and "shocking" yet "predictable".
The council, however, has justified the proposed spending as helping to deliver one of the most important investment programmes in the city's history.
Council commissioners voted at a meeting on Monday to approve a draft version of the Long-term Plan 2021-2031, which will now be edited and sent to auditors ahead of public consultation from May 7.
The plan included a proposal to increase council staff salary costs from $66.3m in 2021 to $80.5m in 2022.
In response to a question from commissioner Shadrach Rolleston at the meeting, council staff confirmed the increase was for more full-time equivalent staff members (FTEs) across the organisation plus a "catch-up from Covid" after salary costs were frozen last year.
However, when the council was asked after the meeting how many FTEs were budgeted in each of the years presented, a spokesman said salary budgets did not include detail of such staffing.
On March 18 the council told the Bay of Plenty Times it had 772 staff. This included 46 fixed-term staff and 726 permanent employees - a total of 727 full-time equivalents.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges told the Bay of Plenty Times the proposed salary increase was a "disgrace".
"Too many in and around our council think they improve things in Tauranga by more staff with fatter pay packets when more often than not the reverse is true. It just makes things worse."
Bridges said, in his view, "that under Labour's commissioners this terrible trend will only continue and speed up".
In the draft plan's breakdown of staff salary costs, the total was expected to increase from $80.5m in 2022 then to $85m in 2023 and $85.5m in 2024.
Bridges said he was concerned that housing, transport and other services would lose out despite the city's rates increasing.
"This is so predictable. Rates up, bureaucracy up, and still no results," Bridges said.
Investments in the areas he raised were included in the plan's anticipated $4.5b spend on capital projects over the next 10 years, however.
Commissioner Stephen Selwood said the staff investment was being made alongside a requirement for "clear accountability" for delivering a return on investment for ratepayers.
"Ultimately, these measures are all about making Tauranga better – a city people can be proud of and a place where they and their children will want to live, learn, work and play."
Mount Maunganui Residents, Ratepayers and Retailers Association president Michael O'Neill said the group was "absolutely" concerned.
"The need in our district is infrastructure development, not spending ratepayers' money on staff salaries. That's what people have been told; 'we are increasing rates to manage infrastructure need of the district' but a huge sum of that is going on salaries."
Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Philip Brown said: "It's just shocking that they can expect to increase their staff salaries by that much.
"They have too many people on the payroll creating projects which the ratepayer doesn't want."
Brown is a vocal opponent of the upcoming kerbside collection service created by the council, at a cost of $210 a year per household.
That cost contributes to a proposed 20 per cent residential rates rise. Commercial ratepayers are looking at a 39 per cent rise.
Brown said he could understand projects that addressed growth but did not believe the service was one.
Tauranga-based Labour list MP Jan Tinetti said she would be interested to understand why the wages have increased and said it could be "any number of things".
Selwood said the council "now needs to catch up on stalled recruitment, while also gathering the talent we need to deliver the most important and ambitious investment programme in the city's history".
"That investment is long overdue, as people from all parts and sectors of the city have told us. We don't have adequate community facilities for a city of our size and we haven't invested as much in roads, water, wastewater and stormwater systems as we should have. That means we have to play catch-up, as well as investing to meet the future needs of our growing city."
The council plans to spend $4.5b over the decade on capital projects aimed to increase land supply, replace old facilities such as pools and libraries, revitalise the city centre, help people move around Tauranga more easily and to make the city more resilient to natural disasters.
To deliver on those targets "we need to have the best people with the right skills" and avoid relying on contractors which come at a higher cost, Selwood said.
When asked to respond to concerns the council was spending the money while in the midst of a financial deficit, Selwood said they were equally concerned.
In November, the council said it had $2b hole in the then-proposal to spend $4.3m on infrastructure over the decade.
Yesterday, Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby, and former Tauranga mayor, said there needed to be a strong connection between the required resources of a council and what they are required to deliver.
"They also need to consider what staff and resources are to be permanent, fixed-term contract or consultants to resource effectively and efficiently. Councils also need to look ahead at major reforms like the Three Waters and resource management and how those reforms may impact on required resourcing for the future."
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said he was pleased the commissioners were being upfront.
"Previous councils have not increased staff resources, but instead they increased money paid to contractors and consultants. The city is facing significant issues.
"The commissioners need to ensure we have optimal staff resources so the council can deliver projects on time and on budget."
Cowley said the council had struggled to deliver capital projects and needed to rebuild trust with residents and businesses.
The draft Long-term Plan is expected to go out for public consultation from May 7 to June 7 before anything is confirmed.
This summer will be critical to discover if the sharks have started returning.