Staff and councilors here will receive a 2.5 per cent pay increase for 2014.
Council passed bylaws implementing the increase at the June 10 regular meeting. Raises for staff and council are retroactive to Jan. 1.
Mayor Bruce Whale will be paid $16,678, and councillors will be paid $12,972. That pay includes all council and committee of the whole meetings, as well as all special meetings the mayor requests all councillors attend.
The mayor’s base pay last year was $16,259 and for councillors it was $12,646.
The mayor and council will receive a fee for extra committee meetings and for attendance at conferences and seminars. They will receive $120 per full day, $70 per half-day meeting, and $50 for a night meeting. These rates remain unchanged from 2013.
Councils are not permitted to divulge the actual pay for employees under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
Instead, those salaries are presented as a range of hourly rates, and the actual pay depends on where each employee sits within various levels on a salary grid.
Chief Administrative Officer Patty Sinnamon’s pay range is $45.43 to $53.43 per hour.
For newly-hired public works director Bradley McRoberts, the hourly rate ranges from $35.89 to $42.22.
The position of director of finance in Mapleton, held by Yufang Du, pays the same hourly rate as the position of public works director.
The hourly pay range for the position of chief building official, held by recently-appointed CBO Patty Wright, is $32.28 to $37.97.
The senior services coordinator, deputy-treasurer, deputy-clerk, facilities manager and building inspector positions all have an hourly range of $27.02 to $31.79.
The township’s, account/payroll clerk, facilities maintenance manager, fleet safety manager, parks and cemeteries manager, and the operations and construction manager are all paid a range from $23.32 to $27.44 per hour.
Equipment operators in Mapleton have an hourly pay range of $19.14 to $22.51. That range also applies to seasonal equipment operators, the finance clerk, assistant arena manager, the administrative assistant at the seniors’ centre, and administration assistants in categories one and two.
Arena attendants and caretakers are paid from $16.51 to $19.42 per hour, and crossing guards are paid a range of $13.89 to $16.33.
Fire Chief Rick Richardson receives between $34.89 and $41.05 per hour.
Firefighters in Mapleton are paid on a point system, with one point allotted for:
– responding to a call;
– going to the call;
– staying for clean-up;
– training sessions before 7:15pm;
– training sessions before 8pm; and
– monthly meetings.
There are two points allotted for attending monthly mutual aid meetings and another two points for weekend truck checks.
Funds allotted to the point system are $127,500. The point value is not to go below $10 per point, and a firefighter is allowed $20 per hour after being at a scene of a call for over two hours. The total allotted for points for 2011 was $122,500.
The total allocated for the $20 per hour rate is $10,000.
Officer remuneration is allocated as follows: deputy chief $5,000, captains $2,000, training officer $4,000 and lieutenant $500.
The fire fighters receive the same per diem for meetings as council does, except those for which points are accumulated.
The total cost for all wages for the fire department, excluding the chief, is estimated to be $180,400.
Councilor Mike Downey questioned why separate bylaws are needed for staff and council remuneration, given that established “policy” is for council and staff to receive the same percentage increase.
CAO Patty Sinnamon said that although council has discussed the issue in the past, there is no written policy.
“Then it’s not a policy if it’s not written down,” said Downey.
“It’s been a practice,” replied Sinnamon.
“If it hasn’t been written, then we better form a policy,” suggested councillor Jim Curry.
“Either way it’s going to achieve the same goal,” noted Mayor Bruce Whale.
