Newly elected Tauranga councillors will earn six-figure salaries for their work.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale will earn $179,316 a year, deputy mayor Jen Scoular’s salary will be $155,381. The remaining eight councillors will earn $135,900 a year.

The council set their remuneration at the first Tauranga City Council meeting on Thursday.

The Remuneration Authority set the mayor’s salary at $179,316 and the pool for councillors at $1,242,581 which is divided among them. The entire pool must be spent.

Drysdale recommended the minimum salary for a councillor with no extra responsibilities be $110,000, with an extra $25,900 for councillors who were a chair or deputy chair of a committee.

There are seven committees and all of the councillors have a leadership role in at least one of them.

This meant all councillors would be paid $135,900.

Mayor Mahé Drysdale at the council's first meeting. Photo / Alisha Evans: SunLive.

Drysdale said he’d had discussions with councillors and as they were a team of 10 and everyone wanted to contribute, they were looking at a “fairly flat” remuneration structure.

The $25,900 extra for leadership roles on a committee was a fairer reflection of the additional workload, he said.

Arataki councillor Rick Curach raised concerns that Māori ward councillor Mikaere Sydney, who was granted a medical leave of absence at the meeting, would be paid $110,000 while on leave.

This was more than the minimum of $87,695 set by the Remuneration Authority.

There was the potential for a bit of discomfort from the public about the pay for a councillor “that’s not on the job,” said Curach.

Scoular said she didn’t believe it would be a cause for concern.

Welcome Bay councillor Hautapu Baker said he didn’t want Sydney’s pay to “fall negatively on him … considering he’s been unable to debate, discuss, agree or disagree with the entire process”.

Matua/ Ōtūmoetai councillor Glen Crowther asked if it was meant to be a flat pay structure, could the base salary for a councillor be $135,900, with additional responsibilities not attracting extra pay.

Council’s democracy and governance services manager Coral Hair said the pool can be allocated how the council liked.

The Remuneration Authority needed a description of extra responsibilities and why that deserved extra pay because it gave the final approval for the pay structure, she said.

Councillors Rick Curach, Glen Crowther, Hautapu Baker and Jen Scoular. Photo / Alisha Evans: SunLive.

Crowther put forward an amendment that a councillor’s base pay be $135,900 a year.

This was passed with eight in favour, Drysdale and Curach were against it.

It meant all councillors including Sydney would receive an annual salary of $135,900.

Sydney’s leave of absence is until December 31.

The council’s seven committees are Vision, Planning, Growth and Environment Committee; Project Planning and Monitoring Committee, Community, Transparency and Engagement Committee; Accountability, Performance and Finance Committee; Audit and Risk Committee, Tangata Whenua / Tauranga City Council Committee and the Wastewater Management Review Committee.

Drysdale said the committee structure would help the council realise the ambition of being the best city in Aotearoa.

“As a council, the whole elected member team will be responsible for providing effective and efficient governance of the city and enabling informed leadership, advocacy and facilitation on behalf of our community,” he said in a statement.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.