The Otago Regional Council plans to spend more than $20 million on staff next year as it adds scores of new workers to its ranks.
Council chief executive Sarah Gardner said the 2020-21 draft annual plan budget of $75,494,000 next year includes $20,630,087 in salaries — an increase of $3,649,432 over this year’s $16,980,655.
The council would add 38.1 full-time equivalent positions (FTE) to its staff of 208 permanent and fixed-term staff, moving from a budgeted 203.2 FTEs to 241.3 FTEs.
Later this month the council will begin public consultation on its annual plan, which follows a Prof Peter Skelton Ministry for the Environment-backed report that showed years of underinvestment.
‘‘Our 2020-21 Annual Plan recognises that we have urgent work to do, and that ORC has not been adequately resourced in the past. This lack of resource was a theme of the consents function review that we commissioned in late 2018, and in Prof Skelton’s report last year on our capacity to resolve deemed permits,’’ Mrs Gardner said. ‘‘We have been implementing and accelerating the recommendations of these reports, and responding to our community’s desire for ORC to do more. We are increasing our resource in science and policy, and expanding our state of the environment monitoring programme.’’
She could not say this week how salary increases would affect council spending, as the council’s remuneration policy involved salary reviews.
Salary reviews took into account the council’s ability to pay, market data, individual performance, position in range, and ‘‘internal relativities’’, she said.
The council is proposing a rates rise of 9.1% as it adds nearly $8 million to its budget.
To cover the spending without a major rates impact it said it would ask for $2 million more than it had planned to from Port Otago, upping the dividend the company would pay out from a planned $8.1 million to $10.1 million and take $4 million from its reserves.