By NZ Local Government magazine editor GRAHAM HAWKES

Wellington City Mayor Kerry Prendergast says council chief executive Garry Poole has had “another excellent year” — based on the annual review of Mr Poole's work by WCC's performance review committee.

The CEO (pictured) has just been given a 4.9 per cent pay rise, bringing his annual salary to $406,231. Predictably the capital's newspaper has been pointing out that Mr Poole now earns more than the Prime Minister, and he has doubled his salary from the $217,500 he was paid on joining the council 12 years ago.

The 4.9 per cent pay rise, The Dominion-Post says, has boosted his pay packet by close to $19,000 a year.

However, Mayor Kerry Prendergast says: “Mr Poole chairs the Metro Sector CEOs group and is seen as one of the best local government CEOs in the country. We are very lucky to have him.

“In a tough environment, with some difficult financial challenges facing us, Mr Poole has continued to provide strong leadership.”

She says the CEO's remuneration last year remained at its 2008 level at his request and the latest council review showed Mr Poole has not only met all his performance measures, but exceeded expectations on many of them.

“He has continued to build important relationships with key external contacts and stakeholders; and to champion significant projects within the organisation such as health and safety, the Indoor Community Sports Centre and preparing for the Rugby World Cup next year — all at the same time as ensuring Council services remain high quality and financially sustainable.

“Under his leadership, we were able to hold this year’s rates increase to an average of 3.24 per cent — the lowest overall increase for seven years — and are continuing to ensure that Wellington remains an internationally competitive great place to live, but also affordable,” the Mayor said.

So nothing out of the ordinary here — a council CEO gets a big pay rise (by the yardstick waved around by most of the workers in this country) and newspaper reporters jump up and down and do their best to make readers think anyone on a high salary is some kind of modern-day Dick Turpin.

As the PM said at the LGNZ conference in Auckland, you can expect public scrutiny of spending and salaries within the local government sector to steadily increase, as most people in New Zealand find it harder and harder to make ends meet financially — so we can all expect more of these stories to feature in the country's newspapers.

In the August issue of New Zealand Local Government magazine — just out — we reported LGNZ president Lawrence Yule saying most council credit card spending that has been highlighted by reporters of late was “fair, reasonable and justified and...transparent”.

But when it comes to council managerial salaries that are many, many times greater than the average wage, don't expect the public to gather outside council chambers and applaud wildly.

Most people in the street have no concept of the complexities of a council CEO's job — and predictably their response to a salary pushing north of $400,000 is more likely to be loud booing and complete disgust. It's called human nature.