Ratepayers cough up thousands for hotel bills

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Ratepayers footed a Hamilton hotel and restaurant bill of $11,000 for the chairman of Waikato Regional Council last year - even though he lives little more than an hour's drive from his office.

Peter Buckley stayed at hotels more than 40 times last year - including the Novotel Tainui 36 times - despite living on a farm in Meremere less than 100km away.

He spent $9784 on accommodation, parking at the hotels and on-site meals, plus about $1126 for restaurant dinners while sleeping over last year. He is regarded at Novotel as a special guest.

Mr Buckley is not covered by provisions to allow stayovers for elected members living more than 100km from their office.

But he cited a policy where the council would pay for accommodation if it was "not practicable to return home on the same day or if there were exceptional circumstances".

"You look at it as why endanger yourself when you have to leave here at some ungodly hour of the night time to get up at some ungodly hour in the morning to come back to work."

He said he felt council members "should be rewarded" for the effort they put into their jobs.

Mr Buckley is paid $137,216 a year. His salary is proposed to rise to $142,100 from July and he is also given a car and petrol card.

The bills are part of a total of $41,297 spent by Mr Buckley since he was elected in October 2010 - money for car parking, a two-year Air NZ Air Points membership, conferences, gifts to take to China, cellphone bills, flights and meetings at restaurants.

Mr Buckley says it is 82km from his farm to the council's Hamilton East head office.

Last year he stayed 36 nights at the Novotel with accommodation and car park costing between $188 and $196 a night, with four nights at the cheaper Ibis Hotel and a few nights at some of the city's motels.

He said staff decided where he stayed. "I've looked at other options out there and even sort of thought of getting an apartment but there's other costs I've got to bear out of it.

"I think, for the time and effort people put into these roles, I think they should be rewarded.

"Not over expediently, but there are roles and functions we've got to attend to and I think we should be reasonably rewarded for that."

Chief executive Bob Laing said Mr Buckley's travel and accommodation spending was "reasonable and justified in terms of purpose, relevance to the council's business and his personal safety".

"It would be unfair and unreasonable to suggest this level of expenditure is unjustified in light of Councillor Buckley's very long hours and extensive travel requirements within the region."

But Rates Control Team councillor Jane Hennebry said it was up to Mr Buckley to defend himself. "It's his judgment call. He lives within the distance for not staying over. I'm sure there would be occasions where it would be practical to stay over and that's what he has to weigh up."

As well as eating on-site at the Novotel where as a "special guest" for his patronage he got an Accor card entitling him to half-price meals, Mr Buckley also ventured out and, according to his credit-card bill, his favourites included Silk Thai Restaurant, Babaganush and Gengys.

He also stayed several nights in Coromandel Town on aquaculture-related business and travelled to Hawkes Bay with three other elected members to "build a relationship" with its regional council, as well as the odd night in Auckland and Wellington.