September 26, 2010 10:18am by David Farrar

Council golden handshakes

The Auditor-General has been called in to investigate lucrative golden handshakes being awarded to the chief executives of seven Auckland councils which are expected to cost ratepayers millions of dollars.

The Herald on Sunday has been told council bosses from Rodney to Franklin will receive redundancy packages with a combined cost of about $2.5 million.

Unbelievable. The probability of a super city has been known for three or more years, so prudent Councils would have ensured their CEO contracts do not leave ratepayers with massive golden handshakes to fund.

Auckland City mayor John Banks has released the severance package of his chief executive David Rankin, and said there were no golden handshakes given to him by Auckland City Council. He called on other councils to do the same.

“Rankin will be paid an additional $30,000 because he has stayed on past his contractual arrangement. We didn’t want him to leave halfway through the the year.

Auckland City is the only Council to be transparent on this issue. why won’t Len Brown reveal the size of the golden handshake he agreed to with the Manukau City CEO? Is it because it is so huge? How does this fit in with his TV ads claiming he stands for transparency?