John MacDonald: Cloth-cutting Christchurch Council fleecing ratepayers

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

Yesterday, the Christchurch City Council agreed to give its chief executive a $16,000 pay rise.

This time last year, she got a $18,000 pay rise.

And why? Because Dawn Baxendale is an asset to the council. That’s what mayor Phil Mauger says.

Let me quote him: “She is an asset to the council and we know everyone has had a tough year so we want to acknowledge her hard work.”

Do me a favour, Phil.

I’ll get back to Dawn Baxendale, but anyone who voted for Phil Mauger thinking spending by the Christchurch City Council was going to be brought under control must be feeling like they’ve been taken for a bit of a ride.

Remember all the talk about cutting the cloth? It seems to me that instead of cutting the cloth, the mayor and the rest of his councillors are more intent on fleecing the ratepayers. Because since this new Council was elected, it’s done nothing but rubber-stamp expenditure.

Cost blow-outs on swimming pools, beautifying the streets around the stadium site. Spend, spend, spend. And this pay increase for the chief executive is another example.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, for someone who earns around $500,000 a year - another $16,000 is a pretty small percentage. Three percent, actually. Just like the $18,000 increase this time last year was a small percentage.

Nevertheless, when you’ve got a mayor who said before the election that he thought inflation was one of the main challenges facing the people of Christchurch - then this extra $16,000 when ratepayers are facing a big hike in rates next year, just makes a mockery of all that talk.

And let’s not forget that Dawn Baxendale is the same council chief executive who said the other week that getting next year’s rates increase down to 5 percent was going to be “impossible”. That’s what she said.

I’ll quote Dawn Baxendale directly. She said: “To get anything at 5 percent would be, in my view, impossible. I’m being honest and upfront about that.”

Now, I don’t want to be completely ungenerous about all this, and I should acknowledge the fact that when the Covid pandemic hit, Dawn Baxendale did take a pay cut. Nevertheless, when the council is obviously struggling to get its costs under control - and is going to be passing those costs on to ratepayers - then it should be doing everything it possibly can to ease the burden.

Giving its chief executive a $16,000 pay increase is not an example of the council doing everything it can to ease the burden.

What’s more, when Dawn Baxendale said the other week that it would be impossible to get next year’s rate increase down to 5 percent, she said one of the things the council was dealing with was increased external costs.

Which is what the mayor talked about the other week when we asked him what had happened to his pre-election pledge to keep increases at around the 4 or 5 percent mark. Increased external costs - supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine - all the things that every organisation and business in the world is dealing with.

So you would think, wouldn’t you, that if you can’t control your external costs, you’d do your best to keep your internal costs down. And you could start at the top, and tell your chief executive that belts need to be tightened and there’ll be no pay increase.

But, oh no, Phil Mauger says Dawn Baxendale is an “asset” and her hard work needs to be acknowledged. And she’s getting a 3 percent increase.

But what about all the other council staff who work just as hard in their jobs? I know we bag council staff sometimes, but that place is full of good people. So what about them? I wonder how they’re feeling today.

If I was working there, I’d be saying if a pay increase is good enough for the chief exec - then it’s good enough for me too. And, really, who could argue with that?

And if that happens, what will our rates look like the year after next?

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