That’s the conclusion from a search for the salaries given to equivalent positions in First World countries.

The example of the City of Los Angeles is given above, where the City Administrative Officer gets $256,800 (about $NZ 350,000) a year. (The biggest salary in L.A. of $326,900 is actually paid to the General Manager of the city’s airports which include Los Angeles International or LAX and two regional airports at Van Nuys and Ontario, California.)

Remember that this is a city of nearly 4 million people within its boundaries, involves an annual budget of $8.8 billion and has to run departments like police and fire which aren’t applicable in Kapiti.   Put another way, the Chief Administrative Officer of Los Angeles costs each citizen there 7c a year, while Dougherty costs each citizen of Kapiti nearly $6.

What do you think of that, dear reader?  Exactly.