Council Staff numbers and cost demonstrate a lack of executive skills and restraint by Councillors
The Mayor and Council must move to restructure the now ENORMOUS staff costs within council and remove at least 30-40 % of the current workforce.
Auckland Council is $15,000,000,000 ($15 BILLION) in debt but has only 630,000 ratepayers (which means every single ratepayer owes the bankers $23,810 EACH!).
Currently Auckland Council has justunder 7,500 staff at a cost of $1,300,000,000 ($1.3 BILLION) per annum.
This means each staff member costs every single one of our 1,800,000 residents (not just the 630,000 ratepayers) $722 each per year.
That is NOT value for money!
Transport spending in particular, must demonstrate clear public value. The council should publicise proposed improvements prior to approval and thereby allow customer input that will lower or avoid costs and disruption that cannot be justified.
Auckland Council missed the opportunity to redesign their entire internal business structure recently and remove over 600 unnecessary FTE’s (Full-Time Employees) from the workforce. Just 20 positions were not filled when people departed AT, and 1330 moved to Auckland Council.
Auckland Transport still employs over 650 staff.
As far as can be ascertained, no staff were “let go” - NONE!
So why was the exercise completed in the first place, if not to improve efficiencies and produce performance and productivity benefits?
Both these groups of staff are overpaid by 25% compared to the private sector and yet seemingly have “jobs for life”.
It is now time for the councillors and the mayor to answer to the public why they did not take the necessary and obvious opportunity to restrict and downsize their incredibly costly workforce / wages bill.
As the old business maxim goes ” If you are not adding value, you are adding cost" - and here we have far too many staff doing things that no one wants, needs or has asked for (Let alone wants to pay for).
Roger Hawkins
Ponsonby
Letter to the Editor
