The Queenstown Lakes District Council yesterday adopted its proposed annual salaries for the 2010-11 financial year, but amended its policy on the rules for reimbursement to include a "travel time allowance".
It will also seek to increase the mileage allowance for Mayor Vanessa van Uden and Wanaka councillors.
The salaries, which would be forwarded to the Remuneration Authority for consideration, would see Ms Vanessa van Uden receive $91,900 and Lyal Cocks as deputy mayor/community board chairman/chairman of standing committee receive $48,997.
Cath Gilmour, John Mann and Leigh Overton as chairs of standing committees would receive $40,102, with other councillors receiving $29,165 and the community board member receiving $12,249.
The authority also required the council recommended a policy on the rules which applied to the reimbursement of expenses and/or payment to elected members.
Deputy chief executive and finance manager Stewart Burns said guidelines for introduction after the election had been incorporated into the council's policy.
The authority's threshold for mileage was 30km, meaning only travel more than 30km for any one event would qualify for payment.
Added to that was an "annual maximum" of 5000km claimed for each elected member.
Cr Cocks, of Wanaka, said that amount "will not even get half way" to what the Wanaka representatives travelled annually.
Ms van Uden said the council was better to "bite the bullet" and accept the 30km threshold and put a case to increase the maximum distance to 10,000km for Wanaka councillors and herself.
The council also voted to amend its policy to include a travel time allowance, which enabled councillors to claim for travel time for any one event, with a threshold of two hours and an allowance of about $15 per hour.
