The Dunedin City Council bureaucracy continues to expand, with a $10.1 million (34%) increase in the amount paid to staff in five years.
Figures released to the Otago Daily Times show the council has added the equivalent of 86 staff since 2004, pushing its total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees from 601 to 687 this year.
At the same time, the amount paid out annually for council wages and salaries had grown from $29.86 million in 2004 to $39.95 million last year.
Council chief executive Jim Harland defended the increases, saying they were the result of the rising cost of compliance with Government regulations, and additional services provided, which both required more staff.
Staff moving up the council's pay scale, and those bargaining for better pay, had also added to the bill, he said.
"It's not a case of a chief executive being able to build an empire ... Every local authority, if you pulled that data, will look much the same," he said.
The cost of the increases was covered by a mix of rates, user-pays charges and other revenue, Mr Harland said.
However, Cr Kate Wilson, who also called for a detailed breakdown of the size of the council's staff at a recent finance and strategy committee meeting, said she planned to scrutinise the figures for ways of achieving savings.
While not yet calling for staff cuts, Cr Wilson said the council faced "substantial challenges ahead financially".
She planned to ask "serious questions" about whether the amount being spent on an expanding bureaucracy was warranted.
"It's very easy to increase the need for staff by doing things that a small minority of people want. In the end, we also need to understand the outcomes for the city in terms of costs and improvements," she said.
Her comments came after councillors deliberating on the 2010-11 draft annual plan moved to rejig planned capital expenditure and ease pressure on rates.
At the time, Cr Chris Staynes suggested other council expenditure should also be scrutinised for savings.
Data detailing the council's growth was released to the ODT last week, following a request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
It showed 41 council employees were on remuneration packages totalling at least $100,000, including eight receiving $150,000 or more.
Mr Harland - the council's top-paid employee, with annual remuneration of $335,000 - said the number of top-earners within the council had remained static during his decade as chief executive.
He insisted the growth in staff numbers and the total bill for wages and salaries was justified, and the council was not top-heavy.
"If you don't have appropriate remuneration, you won't get candidates that are able to do the role effectively."
Regulatory changes - such as the introduction of the Building Act 2004 - had created greater workloads, requiring more staff, but individual pay rates were assessed by Strategic Pay, an independent firm, he said.
The council's policy was to pay a median rate for a role, when compared to New Zealand's other local authorities.
Departments had to seek approval for new staff from Mr Harland and the council's executive management team, and each request was challenged "quite firmly", he said.
However, over time an estimated 70% of requests had been approved, he said.
Staff costs now equated to 23% of the council's total expenditure, although that was forecast to drop to 21% by 2019-20, he said.
It was difficult to contrast the DCC's size with other councils, which had differing assets and levels of service, he said.
"I think we as a general rule are leanly resourced when compared to other [local] authorities ... I try to run a tight ship while still getting the work done."
In December, the ODT reported the Auckland City Council employed more than 2350 FTE staff and the Wellington City Council about 1500 FTE staff.
Christchurch City Council employed 1839.5 FTE staff, a spokeswoman said, while the Invercargill City Council employed 452 staff in November last year, including 233 full-time, 78 part-time, 22 fixed-term and 115 casual, its website said.
Figures for Hamilton City Council were not immediately available.
