21 May 2025
File Ref: IRC-8239
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #30594 email]
Tēnā koe Chris,
Thank you for your email dated 1 April 2025 to Te Kaunihera o Pōneke | Wel ington City Council (the
Council) requesting the following information:
Whilst Wellington City business has been destroyed due to your policies, il conceived cycleways,
unaffordable rates and general mismanagement seeing closures and layoffs I understand Wellington
City stil has an open cheque book to make the ratepayers life worse!
I am writing to request information under the Official Information Act 1982. I would appreciate it if you
could provide the fol owing details:
1. Total Wage Bil for Each Year Since 2020: Please provide the total annual wage bil for
Wellington City Council for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
2. Total Number of Employees per Annum Since 2020: Could you please provide the total
number of people employed by Wel ington City Council at the end of each year from 2020 to
2024. Please break this down into Ful and part time employees.
.
3. List of New Roles Added Since 2020: Please provide a comprehensive list of al new roles
that have been added to Wellington City Council since 2020. This should include:
•
The title of each new role.
•
The team or department where each role is situated.
•
The year each role was introduced
4. Total Annual Costs of Consultants: Please provide the total annual costs incurred by
Wellington City Council for consultants and external services for the years 2020, 2021, 2022,
2023 and 2024.
Your request has been considered under the Local Government Of icial Information and Meetings Act
1987 (LGOIMA).
Question 1 –
Total Wage Bil for Each Year Since 2020: Please provide the total annual wage bil for
Wellington City Council for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024
The below table provides a breakdown of the total cost the Council annual wage bil :
Wage Bil
FY 19/20
$107,652,913
FY 20/21
$113,839,692
FY 21/22
$123,271,422
FY 22/23
$141,901,131
FY 23/24
$151,477,695
FY 24/25 to March
$122,891,850
25
Please note:
• The information has been provided to you by financial year, with financial year 2024/25
provided in part to the end of March 2025.
• The total wage bil comprises of wage and salary costs.
The fol owing factors influence wage bil s and include:
• Annual remuneration budget for the year
• Headcount growth - the number of kaimahi (staff) we have employed across the year
• Any resizing or changes to role grades across the year.
Question 2 –
Total Number of Employees per Annum Since 2020: Could you please provide the total
number of people employed by Wel ington City Council at the end of each year from 2020 to 2024.
Please break this down into Full and part time employees
This information is publicly available within the Council’s Annual Reports and can be found within the
following links under the section titled “Remuneration and Staffing”:
• Annual Report
2019/2020 - Page 293 onwards
• Annual Report
2020/2021 - Page 107 onwards
• Annual Report
2021/2022 - Page 117 onwards
• Annual Report
2022/2023 - Page 121 onwards
• Annual Report
2023/2024 - Page 121 onwards
Question 3 –
List of New Roles Added Since 2020: Please provide a comprehensive list of al new
roles that have been added to Wel ington City Council since 2020. This should include:
•
The title of each new role.
•
The team or department where each role is situated.
•
The year each role was introduced
Alongside this response is a document titled ‘Appendix 1’ which provides the information above you
are seeking. To ensure a complete and balanced view of role changes within our organisation, we
have also included a list of roles that were closed during the same period. While not explicitly
requested, we believe this additional context is vital for understanding the net impact of position
changes.
Please note:
• The position information is based on permanent and fixed term roles and the role FTE that
has been set up in the payroll system.
• The information provided to you has been aligned to our current Group and Business Unit
structure, noting that the Council has gone through a number of structural changes since
2019.
• The information has been provided from 1 July 2019 (start of the financial year) through to
end of March 2025, and broken down by financial year.
Wel ington City Council | 2 of 4
Question 4 –
Total Annual Costs of Consultants: Please provide the total annual costs incurred by
Wellington City Council for consultants and external services for the years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
and 2024.
Information on professional costs incurred on operating activities, for each financial year, is publicly
available in
Note 7 Expenditure on operating activities of the Annual Report, Volume 2.
The total annual amount incurred on professional costs, for both operating and capital expenditure, is
shown in the table below:
Financial Year
Professional Costs
$000s
2019/20
29,130,000
2020/21
23,819,000
2021/22
36,742,000
2022/23
64,904,000
2023/24
59,472,000
Professional costs include a range of dif erent types of external services due to the diverse nature of
the Council’s operations. This includes expenditure such as:
• Consulting or advice
• Legal Services
• Technical services
• Architecture
• Engineering etc
Additionally, the growth in professional fees from the 2022/23 financial year is linked to the increase in
the scale of the Council’s capital programme.
Given the volume of information involved, the detailed transactions have not been reviewed any
further to define this to consultants and external services as it would be substantial col ation for
officers to manually search the data to categorise it in this way. This part of your request has been
refused under section 17(f) of the LGOIMA due to substantial manual col ation or research involved,
however we have provided you wil total professional costs above.
To finish, we kindly ask that requests under the LGOIMA remain focused on the specific information
being sought, with due particularity as required by the Act. The content at the start of your request is
unnecessary and does not contribute to the information being requested.
When corresponding with the Council in the future, we ask that you keep your tone respectful and
ensure your requests remain specific to the information you seek.
You have the right, by way of complaint under section 28(1) of the LGOIMA, to request an
investigation and review of the Council’s decision to withhold information by the Ombudsman.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
If you require further information, please contact
[email address].
Nāku noa, nā
Wel ington City Council | 3 of 4
Ol ie Marchant
Senior Advisor
Of icial Information & Privacy
Wellington City Council
Wel ington City Council | 4 of 4
