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Kapiti Coast ratepayers picket outside council offices - Source: ONE News -
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The Kapiti and Christchurch councils have failed to heed public concern about inequities in society in awarding hefty pay rises to their bosses, according to a public policy expert.
Yesterday hundreds of ratepayers protested outside the Kapiti District Council against a $44,000 pay rise for the council CEO Pat Dougherty.
The 18% increase last August took Dougherty's salary to $285,000.
The protest at Paraparaumu followed a mass protest by ratepayers against the Christchurch City Council's CEO being given a $68,000 pay increase, although Tony Marryatt subsequently turned down that rise.
Director of the Auckland University of Technology's Institute of Public Policy, David Wilson, says it is difficult to support such rises.
He told TV ONE's Breakfast the inequity in them has become very real and people are very upset about it.
"I think possibly that both the councils in question would probably take a look at themselves and think about the timing of these kinds of announcements and the context within which they're making them," Wilson said.
"We've had the Occupy movement, before that the global financial crisis and we witnessed some pretty extreme examples of opulence and greed during those processes," he said.
Wilson said the two council pay rises are now public targets and "as a result you've got a real concentration and a focus on these particular examples".
"I think the context is very strong and so this is the mistake that they've made.
"People are very, very concerned about inequality and equities in society. And when you've got CEOs that are earning more than 10, 12, 15 times (more) than the lowest paid person in a particular organisation then people are starting to question why one person would earn that amount of money."
Wilson said most of New Zealand's council CEOs would be earning more than cabinet ministers.
"So you've got to question whether or not this role is a role that demands that kind of salary."
Kapiti Mayor Jenny Rowan was in the firing line of the protesters yesterday for allowing the pay rise for Dougherty to occur.
But she defended the increase, telling ONE News she thinks he's the best CEO the council has had and it needs to secure his services.
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