Rotorua Lakes councillors agree on what they will pocket in pay

Monday, 13 February 2023

Deputy Mayor Sandra Kai Fong’s salary will be about 90% of the mayor’s.

Rotorua’s deputy mayor will be paid almost as much as the city’s mayor - a decision the mayor has defended.

Tania Tapsell believes her deputy’s pay of $143,787 was justified against Tapsell’s $159,679 given Sandra Kai Fong’s numerous responsibilities.

The discussion was had at Rotorua Lakes Council’s first council meeting of the year on Wednesday, when councillors agreed what they would be getting in their pay packets this year.

What each councillor is paid is set from a pool decided on by the Remuneration Authority, and Rotorua Lakes Council’s allocated pool for 2022/2023 was $858,787.

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Councillors discussed pay at the first Rotorua Lakes Council meeting of 2023.

Before last year’s election, the pool sat at $786,353.

The authority sets mayoral pay separately, and the Rotorua mayor’s pay was set at $159,679. This was up from $152,000 for the 2021/2022 period.

The pool is set based on factors such as the size of the governance roles of each council, the average time required by an elected member on a council of a particular size, and a general comparison with parliamentary salaries.

Council sets its own base pay as long as it is above the set minimum of $59,442.

Councils made recommendations to the authority on the allocation of councillors’ salary pools, and generally, more responsibility meant more pay.

A starting point of $65,000 was recommended, compared to the previous $57,696.

Deputy mayor Kai Fong will be the highest paid, $143,787, for her roles, including Community and District Development committee chairwoman. Her salary is about 90% of the mayor’s.

At the meeting, councillor Trevor Maxwell asked why she would be earning a similar figure to the mayor. Tapsell said she supported the remuneration given the responsibilities Kai Fong had taken on.

“Fortunately for us, we have a deputy mayor that is capable and passionate.

“I’m very comfortable with where it is sitting at the moment.”

Councillors Gregg Brown, Rawiri Waru, Karen Barker and Fisher Wang will each get $97,500 for their roles as committee deputy co-chairs while the five remaining councillors will receive $65,000.

Conan O’Brien was the only councillor to vote against the recommendation. He had earlier asked how the pool was set.

District leadership and democracy deputy chief executive Oonagh Hopkins explained the council was involved in a significant piece of engagement when the authority undertook a review in 2019 in an attempt to alleviate discrepancies between the size of councils.

One of the findings was councillors needed to be paid accordingly to attract, in particular, young people. She said this group was not well represented before the review.

It also reflected a change in time of the council’s role over community leadership, which she said was a major responsibility to have.