Councillor salaries are set to rise for the next term in Centre Wellington.
Council spent over an hour on Aug. 27 wrangling over specifics, based on a notice of motion filed by councillor Stephen Kitras.
To view the full discussion check out the Centre Wellington website – centrewellington.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=200 and click on the video icon. (Flash is required to view the video)
The motion passed 5-1 in a recorded vote with councillors Kirk McElwain, Dean Workman, Don Fisher, Fred Morris and Kitras voting in favour. Opposed was Mayor Kelly Linton.
Councillor Steven VanLeeuwen was absent from the meeting.
Kitras spoke for 15 minutes on his six-page motion regarding council compensation, which included various options and subsections, and what approach should be taken to review the salaries in the future.
A report on remuneration for council in 2017 cited the base salary as $28,606 for the mayor and $19,072 for councillors. In June council defeated a proposal regarding increased compensation.
Now, the base pay will be $45,000 for the mayor (a 57% increase) and $22,500 for councillors (up 18%).
The increases will be effective Dec. 1, 2018 for the start of the new term of council, and implemented over a two-year period.
Kitras said this would give the mayor a complete income of $83,512 ($45,000 plus the county councillor salary of $38,512).
The one third tax exemption allowance currently provided to elected officials will be removed as of Jan. 1.
An annual health care spending account of 50% of the current employee cost (approximately $3,000) is to be introduced for Centre Wellington elected officials, including an opt-out of the health spending account with 12% of the cost added to the elected official’s base salary. Notification of intention must be given by the elected official before Oct. 1 for the following budget year.
Further, council agreed that a compensation review be conducted about every four years – but no later than eight months before the end of the four-year term.
The review will be conducted by a community advisory committee and in-house human resources staff.
The base pay for elected officials is to be adjusted annually by the same adjustment applied to staff rates.
In citing his opposition, Mayor Linton stated he did not believe this was how salary changes should be implemented.
He pointed out the original process involved a consultant and a citizen’s committee, which made an arms-length recommendation to council.
“That is the way a compensation review should be done,” Linton said.
“Compensation reviews need to be an arms-length discussion – especially in the middle of an election campaign.”
The June recommendation from the citizen’s committee was for the base pay to be set at $38,009 for the mayor and $20,892 for councillors. Both were to be implemented over a two-year period, the committee recommended.
