Council salary registers show $60 million cost for 420 senior managers
Ratepayers are spending more than $60 million to pay for more than 400 senior managers working for Adelaide’s 20 councils. SEARCH THE SALARIES
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Each resident in the greater Adelaide region is annually paying around $360 for wages at their local council, prompting calls for greater efficiency.
Salary registers kept by 20 councils reveal they are spending almost a total of $560m a year on staff – including $60m on 420 managers earning over $120,000 each.
The managers – almost half of whom get council vehicles for private use – are reporting to chief executives earning between $232,000 and $384,000, plus vehicles and other allowances.
Each have managers responsible for overseeing capital works, planning, governance, finance, marketing, human resources, road maintenance and public reserves.
Their salary packages – ranging from $126,884 to $291,039 – are detailed in registers legally required to be kept updated by councils and made available for public inspection.
The registers for Adelaide’s 17 metropolitan councils and three “fringe” councils – Gawler, Adelaide Hills and Mount Barker – detail substantial numbers of employees within middle management.
Most are protected by non-redundancy clauses in enterprise bargaining agreements individually negotiated between councils and the Australian Services Union or Australian Workers Union.
The Productivity Commission last year recommended changing legislation to enable councils to conduct joint enterprise bargaining negotiations to improve local government efficiency.
Adelaide City Council already is embarking on a substantial staffing restructure, with up to 300 jobs expected to be made redundant in a bid to save $20 million over the next 12 months.
Property Council executive director Daniel Gannon said there needed to be more efficiency within local government to reduce the financial burden on ratepayers.
“The State Government was right to highlight rate capping as one piece of the reform puzzle, but it should also consider amalgamations to complete the picture,” he said.
“There’s too much inefficiency and duplication of services across 68 councils, with 19 of them based in metropolitan Adelaide alone.”
Mr Gannon said the extent of middle management within councils needed to be addressed.
“It’s not unreasonable to cast an eye over expenses like these, especially when the private sector has frozen or reduced salaries and changed working hours for staff during COVID,” he said.
“Councils do have an important role to play in providing local services, but ratepayers are right to question whether these functions require these salaries.”
Local Government Minister Vickie Chapman said legislative reforms for local government before state parliament would help bring council salary packages under control.
“The Local Government Reform Bill currently before Parliament will provide for CEO salaries to be determined by the Remuneration Tribunal,” she said.
“This will set a standard from which all executive and management salaries can be set.”
Local Government Association chief executive Matt Pinnegar said local government played an important role in delivering essential services.
“Strong communities are built on the hard work and professional expertise of council CEOs, planners, engineers, public health officers, business development advisers and library and community centre managers, as well as the other indoor and outdoor staff that deliver and support local services and facilities,” he said.
“These staff are paid – on average – well below state and federal public servants.”
Mr Pinnegar said the Productivity Commission’s inquiry found South Australians councils already were delivering a “high level of relative efficiency”.
“But our sector is committed to continued improvement,” he said.
“The LGA is about to commence a project that will involve mapping elements of council enterprise bargaining agreements with a view to looking at how we can develop a more consistent industrial relations framework across the sector.”
Mr Pinnegar said the LGA also was developing comprehensive benchmarking “to help councils identify opportunities to deliver even better value for their communities”.