Whanganui mayor says time is wrong for elected members’ pay increases

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe says council pay hikes are coming at the wrong time, amidst a cost-of-living crisis and efforts to reduce council spending. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Whanganui mayor says he’d reject the mayoral pay hike set by the Remuneration Authority if he could.

Mayors and councillors around the country get a 3.7% pay rise from July 1.

Mayor Andrew Tripe said it was the wrong time for pay bumps but the decision to lift elected member pay rates was made independently of councils.

“We have no influence on what [the Remuneration Authority] decides.

“We cannot reject any pay increase, either. If I could, I would.”

Tripe’s pay packet rises by $5537, from $149,641 to $155,178.

He said if it was up to him, the mayoral salary would not increase while the community was facing a cost-of-living crisis and the council was scrambling to pare back spending.

However, he noted the rise was the first for elected members since the 2022 local body elections.

From Monday, the pool of money allocated to pay Whanganui councillors increased from $576,061 to $597,375.

Deputy Mayor Helen Craig will receive $62,357. Councillors chairing committees or advisory groups will get up to $58,823, and councillors with no special responsibilities will receive $41,571.

Tripe said the pay was “not anywhere near enough” for what councillors did.

“It has become a fulltime role and these people are working incredibly hard. The average elected member is doing 30-40 hours a week, often including weekends, yet the pay is commensurate with two to three days’ work.”

Tripe said mayoral and councillor roles were historically seen as “somewhat honorary”.

“But these days you need strong financial capability, the ability to communicate and articulate your argument well, to mix with all of the community, and to read a vast number of documents across a vast number of topics.

“The roads, the pipes, the sewerage system, the water you drink, the libraries, the parks, the trees, the opera house, the town hall and other facilities are all run by this council. We do an extraordinary amount.

“Our pay rate is probably below the minimum wage if you averaged it out across the hours we do.”

The complexity and challenges facing elected members were growing by the year, Tripe told Local Democracy Reporting.

“We’re faced with incredibly tough decisions around balancing affordability with the aspirations and desires of our community when the cost of running a council has gone up significantly.”

For example, the cost of building a bridge had jumped 38% over the past three years, and putting in water pipes and roads was up by 27-30%.

Better pay would attract the diverse range of skills needed around the council table.

Tripe said he put in between 50 and 60 hours a week as mayor.

“The mayoral role is expected to be fulltime – it’s well above that. It’s extraordinarily demanding but at the same time rewarding because you can see the difference you can make.

“My earning capacity is more than the mayoral salary but I’m doing this because I love my community.”

’A little battered’

Tripe, who is midway through his first three-year term in local government, said the abuse copped by elected members was damaging.

“The last 18 months have been like no other. It has been a baptism of fire for new members,” he said in his monthly mayoral message.

“We are in the midst of the most challenging time in local government in a generation. It has felt like being on a boat in the rough ocean – one moment in the depth of a wave and another on top of it.”

Hearings and deliberations on the council’s new Long-Term Plan, completed last month, had left him feeling “a little battered for a few days”.

“A small portion of our community is very happy to sit behind their keyboard and give abuse with very little understanding of what we actually do, and how we have genuine, heartfelt desire to make our community a better place.

“People don’t see how hard council officers and councillors work. I’m constantly thanking them for going the extra mile and above and beyond to work with our community.

“All this amidst unnecessary and unhelpful social media comments, to a point where some people who would be great councillors have no appetite to stand because of the unreasonable flak that they would get.”

The Remuneration Authority has said it will undertake a full review in the year ahead of the framework for deciding the remuneration, allowances and hearing fees covering the elected members of local authorities, local boards, and community boards.

The review will inform the determination effective from July 1, 2025, and apply to all local government members from the day after polling day for the 2025 triennial local elections.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.