Cash-strapped lobbyists spend $12,000 publishing council 'rich list'

Saturday, 2 May 2020

A proof of the advertisement by the NZ Taxpayers Union listing those it believes earns more than $250,000 at Auckland Council.

A public spending watchdog paid nearly $12,000 publishing the identities and estimated salaries of more than 80 top-earning executives in the Auckland Council group.

The Taxpayers Union and its local brand the Auckland Ratepayers' Alliance have been working on the list since late last year, trying to refine publicly-available information about executive salaries at the council and its five main agencies.

It will release the list on Sunday.

The so-called 'Auckland Town Hall Rich List' includes photos of all but four of 84 executives believed by the groups to be earning more than $250,000, but some have departed in the months since information was provided, and the council has called the exercise inaccurate.

'These people are on the same pay as a government minister and more. The public deserve to know who they are,' Jordan Williams, the union's executive director said.

Auckland Council and its agencies have more than 80 staff earning more than $250,000.

Gifts from socks to world travel have been declared by Auckland Council staff.

* Coronavirus: Auckland Council top brass cut own pay by up to 20 per cent

* Coronavirus: Auckland Council cuts up to 1100 temporary and contractor staff

* Auckland Council agency Panuku paid $451,000 to staff in bonuses**

The lobbyists have been frustrated by the council not providing individuals' names to match the job titles, and providing salary information only in bands rather than specific individual sums.

Jordan Williams, the executive director of the Taxpayers' Union.

It emailed the executives directly to get the extra level of detail but Stuff understands none offered any.

'We object to you targeting specific Council group employees and pressuring them to release their personal information,' wrote council chief executive Stephen Town to Williams, pointing out that the detail provided was in line with previous rulings by the Ombudsman relating to Christchurch City Council.

The Rich List campaign is one of the group's biggest local body exercises for some time, and on Friday it launched a fundraising push.

'For just $11,800 we can have the whole rich list – every one of the 86 individuals – published across a double-page spread,' wrote ratepayers' alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes in an email to supporters.

'Thanks to earlier donations from supporters like you, we're already halfway to paying for it. I've just chipped in $500, bringing the remaining cost down to just $5,700,' wrote Holmes.

It's understood the $12,000 was raised.

Auckland Council chief executive Stephen Town.

The fund-raising pull comes just weeks after the Taxpayers' Union was given a $60,437 Covid-19 wage subsidy by the Government, for nine staff, with Williams telling Stuff the group had suffered a sharp fall in the number and value of the donations which fund its work.

The full disclosures from Auckland Council, and three CCOs to the Taxpayers' Union have been published on the council's website.

Auckland Council had 34 staff on more than $250,000 a year, Auckland Transport 24, Watercare 9, Regional Facilities Auckland 6, and ATEED and Panuku on 5 each.

The response from Watercare to the Taxpayers' Union was in some respects less detailed than appeared in its 2019 annual report.

Watercare CEO Raveen Jaduram is the highest earner in the Auckland Council group on between $770-780,000.

There, in addition to the chief executive, 10 employees are listed with incomes above $250,000, and sorted into bands of $10,000, while the company listed just eight executives - but specified their titles - and lumped them all in a band of $280-390,000.

Watercare's chief executive Raveen Jaduram is the top earner in the council group, with the annual report showing him on between $770-780,000 last year.

Williams declined to reveal his own salary to Stuff.

'Considerably less than half the lowest paid on the Rich List,' said Williams.

Neither the council nor its agencies would comment on inaccuracies, but based on the thumbnail proof circulated by the lobby group, Stuff observed at least four named council executives have left, and at the development agency Panuku, the name and photo of acting CEO David Rankin, appears alongside an estimate of the salary earned by his predecessor Roger MacDonald.

The council chief executive, along with the chief executives and chairs of the CCOs have voluntarily taken a 20 per cent pay cut for six months, with tier two executives and board directors taking a 10 per cent cut, in response to Covid-19 financial pressure on public budgets.

The number of staff earning more than $100,000, is published each year in salary bands in Auckland Council annual reports.

The council's latest showed as at June 2019, 129 staff across the council and its agencies earned more than $240,000.