Rise and rise of Brighton Council GM’s pay with four increases in three years

BRIGHTON Council’s general manager has received four pay rises in the past three years, Right to Information documents show.

BRIGHTON Council’s general manager has received four pay rises in the past three years, Right to Information documents show.

Ron Sanderson, who has been in the job for 10 years, received an increase of 2.5 per cent in 2013, 2.8 per cent last year, another 3.5 per cent in November last year, and 0.09 per cent in July this year.

Mr Sanderson has dual roles as general manager and a salesman for the council’s own computer software Microwise, which he spruiks to other local governments around the world.

The software, which manages local government operations, was developed in the mid-1990s by a council programmer and by 1998, the council had set up Microwise to be a separate company, but still owned by the council.

Mr Sanderson’s salary, including commission from ­Microwise ($62,505), a vehicle for council business ($10,000) and superannuation ($21,266), totals $260,826 – making him the state’s third highest paid council general manager.

“In my contract it’s standard to get a CPI rise every year, which is the same for the rest of the council staff except they have a cushion in their enterprise bargaining agreement where if it’s under 2 per cent they still get at least that whereas I don’t, so this year I only received .09 per cent,” Mr Sanderson said. “Now and again I get a possible extra raise based on performance.”

As part of the Mercury and Sunday Tasmanian Your Right to Know campaign, councils have been asked to provide details about pay rises given to general managers and the criteria used to measure the general manager’s performance.

Documents show Mr San­derson has been assessed on performance criteria in the past three years, including governance assistance issues such as providing council with strategic advice and direction, advising the council and the mayor on policy and compliance matters and being a spokesman for the council.

Other criteria relating to general management included providing financial and people management and preparing reports and plans.

Mr Sanderson said his role selling Microwise was unique.

“The software has been evolving over time and now we have it being used in NSW, NT and SA and Suva City Council [Fiji] has been using it for a number of years,” he said.

“I fly around as a salesman meeting other general mana­gers and CEOs and taking them out for meals just like a software company would.”