LGOIMA Request Details: LG2254
Date received: 28/03/2024
Requested information: Information about Councils payments to Taituara (SOLGM)
Status: Complete
Response:
Please provide for the 2023 calendar year:
A list of all payments from the Council group (i.e. including any CCOs) to Taituarā
See linked spreadsheet
2. For each payment:
a. the date, invoice number, and what the payment was for* and
b. whether it was recovered (or deducted from the pay) from the relevant employee enjoying the membership or services related to the same.
See linked spreadsheet as above
Many of the invoices relate to various attendances at Taituarā events and forums, these are training and development opportunities covering particular skills and topics specific to local government etc. These are all undertaken on a user pays basis and are usually online programmes.
Council register and pay for staff to attend these opportunities to provide them with training and knowledge to do their jobs well – just as any good employer would do. We observe that it is generally unusual for a council (or other employer for that matter) to recover that cost from an employee.
Invoices relating to payment of Taituarā memberships, are also covered by council as negotiated between the relevant employee and manager. A membership is currently $275excl per year. The membership allows members to receive access to member-only webinars, event registration discounts and many other professional development opportunities. We observe that it is common practice in councils (and other organisations) to include the payment of one member fee for a professional body as a term of employment for professional development.
Given the nature of Taituarā as a membership organisation – in effect the employment union for local government managers – if membership dues are not recovered or deducted, please provide:
a. the reasoning (if any) for not deducting the amounts (i.e. Why should ratepayers pay for a private organisation/benefit?) and
Please see answer 2b above
b. whether the Council does this for any other employment union or professional/networking association. If so, which ones?
The council does cover the costs of membership for various staff to their professional bodies that are relevant to the roles they hold. This is not deducted from staff salaries as this is deemed as an essential cost of their employment, many roles require professional body registration to keep their qualifications, and many require specific training, which is provided by those professional bodies.
MDC currently pays membership fees to the following professional bodies:
• NZ Planning Institute
• Manawatu Chamber of Business
• Institute of Directors
• Admin NZ Manawatu
• NZ Institute of Liquor Licencing
• BOINZ
• Recreation Aotearoa
• Local Authority Property Assn
• NZ & Aust Institute of Chartered Accountants
• ALGIM
• Renumeration Authority
• Waste Management Institute
• Water NZ - Corporate membership
• Engineering New Zealand
• IPWEA New Zealand
• Association of Public Library Managers
• NZ Institute of Planning
• Human Resources Institute of NZ Incorporated
• Archives and Records Assn of NZ
• Local Government NZ
Union fees are paid by individual union members. The PSA Union set the fees for their members and the fees are deducted from their pay and forwarded to the PSA Union
If the Council considers that the membership for Council officers is as part of their role at the Council (and therefore not for private benefit) please provide this information and explain how Taituarā is not therefore treated as a CCO under s 6(1) of the Local Government Act 2002 for the purposes of the Council group’s statutory reporting.
Taituarā is an incorporated society. It is the professional body for local government managers and staff. Membership is voluntary rather than a requirement as is the case for example with lawyers, accountants etc. Taituarā are not a union and play no role in the negotiation of employment contracts or employment relations for any individual or group within the sector.
With regards to the status under the Local Government Act. Taituarā does not meet the legal definition of a CCO. It is the individual not the council that is a member of Taituarā. No local authority or group of local authorities own or control 50 percent or more of the voting rights at any meeting of Taituarā, nor does any local authority or group of local authorities have the right to appoint 50 percent or more of the members of the governing body.