West Coast Regional Council’s $165k severance bill

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

The West Coast Regional Council (WCRC) made severance payments totalling $165,416, its annual report reveals.

The draft report states the payment was made to one employee, but chair Peter Haddock said on Tuesday that was an error and there were two staff paid out in that period.

One was former chief executive, Heather Mabin (pictured), who negotiated a settlement with the council.

She left the council in June 2023, after completing her contract.

In the previous year, the WCRC paid out $258,645 in a severance settlement, which LDR understands was made to one female employee.

The council’s draft annual report will be out on time this year – unlike its 2022 effort, an achievement chief executive Darryl Lew said was down to the fact that the council now had a full muster of well-qualified finance staff.

However, the council’s annual rate strike has been delayed.

The rates were to be struck at its monthly meeting yesterday, but chairperson Peter Haddock said he had taken the item off the agenda because he was not sure the figures were water-tight.

The council has 23 special rating districts, based on river catchments from Haast to Westport, and each district must decide on a works programme and what landowners are willing to pay for in a given year.

“Last year we had a rate strike and it was incorrect, and we had to retract and it was chaos for three months. Grey District have just done a rate strike and it was incorrect and they’ve had to change it.

“I want to be crystal clear that ours is correct,” Haddock said.

He and council staff had been working away on the rating district figures right up until the night before the meeting, he said.

“I said, 'I still don’t think we’ve got it right' – I’m going to delay it for a couple of weeks because we don’t actually have to set rates until September.

The council has adopted a new 10-year-plan that sets out rate increases of 27% this year, 12 percent next year, and increases of about 7% in subsequent years.

Haddock said on Tuesday the increases were significant but the council had been keeping the rates unrealistically low in previous years and was now in catch-up mode.