I find Cr Falkner's latest comments fatuous and verging on sophistry.
Council appoints the CEO, and, then sets his salary. Then council signs-off on the budget the CEO presents to them each year, thus they take ownership of it too.
As we older folk know, in earlier times councils actually did things, with their own staff. Now, we are seemingly fixated with out-sourcing and (we hope) contestable contracts. But, in the perception of many, we continue to employ nearly as many staff, except they are now mainly well-paid executives. So, what figures, many ask?
Regarding the CEO's salary, the insidious matter is that, inevitably the salaries of those reporting to the CEO key off the CEO's level, and so on down the chain. So, overpay the CEO and the overpayment philosophy quickly permeates the entire structure. Can we see the evidence of that right now in TCC?
There is no evidence of any rigour within TCC. Conversely, there is plenty of evidence of a burgeoning over-remunerated bureaucracy
So, I challenge Cr Faulkner to provide a Staff Structure Chart - no names, just job descriptions, division by division, the CEO at the top, the job descriptions of all his direct reports, and so on until we know the functions and duties of each of the 506 full-time staff.
David Lee, Papamoa.