One of the easiest games in town is currently being played in Wellington. 

The water company has a new Māori name, and they are going to start sending out specific water bills to everyone, which upon first blush, if you have never got a water bill before, seems a lot. The average will be about $2,500. 

But then the upside is it's good to know what things actually cost, as opposed to having it all hidden away in a mass bill called "rates" where you have no idea what's what. 

The real scrap though is over the pay packets. In this new company they are a lot bigger. 

The chair of the board gets $110,000. They used to get $60,000 before. The members of that board get $60,000 when they used to get $30,000. 

The bloke who carries the can as CEO gets $645,000. 

Toss a few figures like that about the place and the upset is almost instant. 

But, and here is your real-world issue, you either want decent people for the job, any job, or you don’t. 

I don't need to tell you that previously a lot of the people doing Wellington's water work were clearly useless. In a small and not complete way, money fixes that. 

It is not to say big money automatically gets brilliance. But it is fair to say if you pay rubbish, you will get rubbish. 

The old community contribution, "give something back" line only carries you so far and you tend to get do-gooders, not professionals. 

Can I be even slightly more fiscally acerbic by suggesting that even at these new inflated numbers you're not exactly paying top dollar. $645,000 is a lot of money if you're in year 13, or a teacher, or a journalist. 

But it's not much to be a CEO. It's even less when you are the CEO of an entity that is under tremendous pressure and publicly accountable by a population that will want to lynch you if you fail. 

As a rule, the public service underpays. And that in part is why the public service is in the state it's in. Cheap in general is no way to run business, sign contracts, accept quotes or operate your life. 

Worry less about the money and more about the outcomes. 

If Wellington had never had a water worry with no burst pipes, no contamination, no poo in the harbour and the bloke running the place was earning $2 million and gave you that, what a bargain. 

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