Pay rises of up to 25% for Selwyn councillors

By Jonathan Leask, Local democracy reporter

Selwyn's new district councillors may be light on experience but will be earning more money than their predecessors.

The Remuneration Authority is an independent body that sets the pay for elected members, which is funded through rates.

Selwyn District Council's pool has been set at $754,690, a 26% increase on the $597,857 last year.

Third-term councillor Sophie McInnes said it wasn’t the case of the new council voting themselves a pay rise but deciding how to split the pool of money.

“The pool is significantly larger than in prior years, which intensifies our responsibility to work hard for the people of Selwyn.”

The councillors were provided with three options for dividing the remuneration pool, but councillor John Verry put forward a “fair” fourth option, a slight variation on one of the other options, which passed unanimously.

The result is deputy mayor Brendon ‘Big Red’ Shefford will receive $86,513 – a 22% increase on the $70,337 earned by former deputy mayor Malcolm Lyall.

Shefford’s role as deputy will be reviewed at the end of next year.

First-term councillor Aaron McGlinchy, chair of the Finance and Performance Committee, will be on $79,150, while the other councillors will earn $73,628 each – a 25% jump from the $58,613 last term.

Mayor Lydia Gliddon said it’s generally accepted that a deputy mayor carries additional responsibilities that need to be reflected in the remuneration.

"The same applies to the chair of the finance and performance committee.

“We are looking at significant changes to the way that we operate in this business around finance and performance, and there is a big body of work there to be done and handed to that person.”

Gliddon’s salary is separate from the councillor pool and was set by the Remuneration Authority at $167,420.

It's a 5.9% increase on former three-term mayor Sam Broughton's final year salary of $158,082.

Gliddon also assigned councillors to fill positions on the various committees and other bodies.

The new mayor announced her preferred candidates and put each decision up for debate.

The only conjecture was around the two representatives to sit on the Greater Christchurch Partnership.

Gliddon had suggested Shefford and McInnes, but Cr Elizabeth Mundt indicated she wanted to be one of the representatives.

It resulted in the councillors holding a secret vote, writing names on pieces of paper to be tallied, which went the way of Shefford and McInnes.