Southern View: March 12, 2019

8
Tuesday March 12 2019
News
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
SOUTHERN VIEW
Local
News
Now
Community board changes on horizon
Fire rages, homes at risk
• By Louis Day
WHOLESALE changes loom for
the Banks Peninsula Community
Board.
Five members of the board
may not stand in October’s local
body elections due to concerns
over the money board members
receive and the time pressures
they face.
Chairwoman Pam Richardson,
and members Jed O’Donoghue,
Janis Haley and John McLister
told Southern View they are
unlikely to run in the next
election, while Felix Dawson said
he has not made a commitment
to run yet.
Tori Peden said she plans to
run again while newly-appointed
deputy chairman Tyrone Fields
said he would run if he was
selected.
The pay rates for the mayor,
city councillors and community
board members are currently set
by the Remuneration Authority
using a population-based
model, so boards in areas with
bigger populations get better
remuneration.
Banks Peninsula board
members – excluding the chair,
deputy chair and city councillors
– receive $9670 a year.
That is less than half the
$24,098 paid to Halswell-
STAY OR GO: The Banks Peninsula Community Board – which is made up of Andrew Turner,
Felix Dawson, Janis Haley, Jed O’Donoghue, John McLister, Pam Richardson, Tori Peden and
Tyrone Fields – may have some new faces after the local body elections in October.
Hornby-Riccarton Community
Board members.
Ms Richardson is paid
$19,342, while Halswell-Hornby-
Riccarton chairman Mike Mora
is paid $48,196.
City council secretary Jo Daly
said the Remuneration Authority
has indicated it would be taking a
new approach following the local
body elections this year.
However, Remuneration
Authority director Mike Kunz
said no decisions regarding the
remuneration of community board
members had been made yet.
Rev McLister said he will not
be run again due to the lack of
remuneration for members.
“It is simply the wrong
mechanism to judge what a
Banks Peninsula Community
Board member has to do. We
have big problems, we are bigger
than the city and we have to
travel more than anyone else,”
Rev McLister said.
Deputy mayor and
Banks Peninsula councillor
Andrew Turner agreed the
population-based model was
not an appropriate system of
remunerating board members.
“It makes the assumption
that the work of a community
board member is directly
proportionate to the number of
people that they represent and
fails to address the issues for a
place like the Banks Peninsula,”
he said.
Ms Richardson also did not
support the population-basedmodel
for remuneration and
said she is stepping down after
nine years because she wants
to spend more time with her
family.
“My reason for standing
down is that I have done three
terms and I want to spend time
with my family and grandson,
which I have not been able to
do as much as I would like,” she
said.
Mr O’Donogue, who can
sometimes work 40-50 hours
a week as a train driver for
KiwiRail, said he would be
stepping down due to his
commitments on the community
board costing him 20 days of
annual leave a year.
Mr O’Donoghue also said the
current remuneration rate was a
“barricade to democracy.”
“It is almost a realm exclusively
for the independently wealthy
or semi-retired, which is not
representative of the whole
community,” he said.
Ms Richardson said if board
members were better remunerated
it would open up the role to a
wider range of people.
“We need to look at the
remuneration model so we can
encourage the young ones to
come forward.”
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