South Wairarapa councillor Martin Bosley. Photo: Soumya Bhamidipati
Celebrity chef and councillor Martin Bosley says the work required of elected members in South Wairarapa is "ludicrous" for the below-minimum wage they receive.
And despite the district's mayor being effectively sidelined from the council, he still receives a pay package of just over $100k per year.
Elected members receive a pay rise from 1 July, but South Wairarapa councillors remained some of the lowest-paid in New Zealand.
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The minimum allowable remuneration for South Wairarapa councillors was $19,553.
Bosley said he personally worked between 20 and 35 hours a week in his role as South Wairarapa councillor, which meant his pay was less than $10 an hour.
To add insult to injury, he said his business lost about $60,000 last year due to the time commitment in the elected position.
"When I first ran for council, I didn't know you got paid," Bosley said.
"I thought it was a community thing. Running because of the money was never the motivation.
"But, the amount of work for the remuneration is ludicrous. It's below minimum wage."
Council issues were dealt with at a "glacial speed" around New Zealand, leaving him to wonder if it was a "good use of time" being an elected member.
"But we do it because we believe in it and we care and are passionate about our communities."
South Wairarapa Mayor Martin Connelly said it was "fair to say that no elected member is fairly compensated for their work if they are doing a reasonable job".
South Wairarapa Mayor Martin Connelly. Photo: LDR / Sue Teodoro
Earlier this year, his council voted to remove him from a range of portfolios and committees, which followed a vote of no-confidence last year.
Councillors also set up a committee of the whole called the Strategy Working Committee, which was chaired by Deputy Mayor Melissa Sadler-Futter. It made the calls on big council business, apart from rates and other issues that could only be dealt with at a council meeting.
Three full council meetings have been cancelled due to "lack of business" as a result this year.
Connelly said despite some of his responsibilities being removed, he was still working "a good 40 hours a week, if not more, on mayoral activities".
"I'm not sitting around twiddling my thumbs," he said.
"I would say that whilst some of the things I used to do I no longer do, many of those things were not exactly time-consuming activities and they have more than been taken up by other things."
He said the Remuneration Authority's formula for setting pay for elected members was "interesting".
The Remuneration Authority recently told Local Democracy Reporting the new rates were decided using a system that ranks councils by size, according to population, total assets, total expenditure, socioeconomic deprivation indices and a complex weighting process. The pay rates were also aligned with the public sector.
A councillor's salary could range from $14,274 in the Chatham Islands to more than $100,000 in Christchurch and Auckland.
But South Wairarapa councillor Alistair Plimmer said there was something "fundamentally wrong" with the Local Government Act including the way pay was set.
South Wairarapa councillor Alistair Plimmer. Photo: LDR / Emily Ireland
"It is clear we are too small to do the job ... the whole thing is structured for a bygone era.
For small districts like South Wairarapa, he said you miss out on capable people because of the low pay.
He also said the pay gap between the mayor and deputy mayor was too large.
Bosley said he agreed, saying the deputy mayor was "basically doing the job of the mayor".
South Wairarapa's deputy mayor is paid $37,255.
Bosley said councillors had also taken on the portfolios they had removed from the mayor with "no extra pay".
"We did put this on ourselves, but the alternative was that we couldn't trust the person in these positions."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
