January 30, 2012

For immediate release

Kapiti Mayor Jenny Rowan said there is no comparison between the situation in Christchurch and her Council’s Chief Executive’s salary package.

“The situation is entirely different. When Pat Dougherty joined Kapiti District Council he was paid substantially less than the market rate and since then, his salary has remained substantially below the market rate.

“Last December Council undertook a thorough review of his salary which included taking professional advice from a company involved in the assessment of executive salaries, which is a specialist field.

“Based on this advice, Council decided to adjust the CE’s salary up to its present level. Even with the increase, his salary is ranked 5th of the nine local government Chief Executives in the Wellington region.

“We accept that some people won’t like this and we did not make the decision lightly. However, Council has a number of significant projects before it, including four expressway projects belonging to the Government, the Water Supply Project, the Civic Building upgrade, and the construction of the Aquatic Centre, to name just a few.

“Our CE is under considerable pressure to deliver across all these projects within a short time frame. I have every confidence that he will.

“My Council is hard working and focussed on providing measurable results. This will become increasingly apparent when we shortly move into the Draft Long Term Plan consultation round.”

Mayor Rowan said there would be no retrospective downward review of the CE’salary.

ENDS

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