
Mr Dougherty
Mentioned on District-wide council candidate Christopher Ruthe’s website:
“Did you know the 2014/15 published Annual Report shows 18 [council staff] in the $120,000 to $300,000 range? The British PM gets $258,000 [£143,000], our CEO over $300,000. Are his responsibilities so much greater than Theresa May?”
Clearly there needs to be salary caps imposed, and our view is that no staff member — least of all Dougherty — is worth more than $200,000 a year.
Quiet so.
But seriously there is a strong possibility of the wrong person becoming mayor due to a split vote.
We could even see Church (or his deputy) back in which would result on stronger rates increases and more debt – after all he would claim he has a mandate.
For me its still dumping the $10 million dollar water meters that no one except most of the councillors and staff wanted and restriction rates increases to the CPI – this will have the effect of forcing efficiencies in all areas.
Incumbency is a big advantage for any elected office holder; they have to be associated with something particularly unpopular to be unseated; we saw that happen with Rowan because of the water meters, but even though he did a 180 on them after being elected, Church is much less associated with them than Rowan was. That’s the challenge with have with unseating Michael Scott too — he’s the incumbent and has a significant network in the town.