July 15, 2010 7:34am by David Farrar

Nickel and Diming It

Manukau City chief executive Leigh Auton has charged ratepayers $244 for two combined birthday celebrations with Mayor Len Brown and Deputy Mayor Gary Troup.

The council’s senior leadership have birthdays on consecutive days between October 1 and October 3 and use their birthdays to get together and take stock of what is happening in the community, Mr Auton says.

Oh I see. A birthday party becomes a Council expense when you use it to talk about the community.

Mr Auton, who was given a $35,313 pay rise last year, despite restrictions on other council staff and the pressures of the recession, said the lunches were a “legitimate business expense” and he would not repay ratepayers out of his $412,079 salary.

Mr Brown, who is paid $157,096 as mayor, refused to comment on the ratepayer-funded birthday celebrations. His Super City mayoral campaign spokesman, David Lewis, pointed the Herald to Mr Auton’s “clear explanation of the work lunches”.

What really grates with people is that two men on a combined salary of $600,000 would try and find a way to justify the ratepayer paying for their birthday muffins, rather than one of them just shouting.

It is what people refer to as nickel and diming.

Whether or not one was “entitled” to do so is only part of the issue.

It’s like when Phil Heatley had his expenses problems. What many talked about what a Minister of the Crown on $250,000 bothering to charge a $7 burger at Burger King to the taxpayer. It didn’t matter so much that it was a legitimate expense.