Township council members have ruled out having any bureaucrats becoming involved in an examination of council鈥檚 salary.
But at the Jan. 23 meeting, council appeared to drag its feet on a motion by Councillor Kim Richter which supported a 鈥渄etailed review鈥� by staff.
Richter鈥檚 motion, amended against her wishes, was ultimately referred to the Feb. 13 council workshop.
Four days before they were formally sworn into office on Dec. 5, council members received what Richter described as a
Mayor Jack Froese鈥檚 annual salary rose by 12.6 per cent, jumping by almost $1,000 per month to $105,456 from $93,724.
The salaries of Councillors David Davis, Grant Ward, Richter, Bob Long, Bev Dornan, Steve Ferguson, Charlie Fox and Michelle Sparrow rose 19 per cent, giving them almost $7,000 more a year and bringing their salaries to $42,936, up from $36,043.
Richter鈥檚 motion noted that the system used to arrive at those increases has been in place since 2000 and has not had an in-depth review since then.
She wants it linked to performance, and not made automatically every three years, as it is now.
Before it was referred to the council workshop, council amended the motion to exclude staff from the review, and substituted a citizen鈥檚 committee.
Fox said that referring the motion gives council the time and opportunity to think about the structure of the pay increases.
All members of council either have other jobs or are collecting government pensions. Fox is a retired 91原创 School District principal; Froese and Ward are retired police officers, and Ferguson recently retired as a high school counsellor.
Ferguson said that council raises are always a 鈥渧ery, very difficult鈥� issue.
While he commented that a second look would be welcome, Ferguson said: 鈥淣ow is not the time to cut back remuneration.鈥�
Richter thought otherwise. 鈥淓ssentially, I think we are very well paid now. We have had two very generous increases (and) the pay level is comfortable and generous.鈥�
Any increase should be a bonus based on performance, she suggested. If based on tax increases, the format would compel council to meet earlier in the budget process to come up with ways to meet budget targets.
鈥淲e should be a trendsetter here and blaze the trail,鈥� Richter said.
From 2003 to the end of 2011, the salary of a councillor has more than doubled, and that for mayor has risen by almost 70 per cent.
During the same time, the was frozen at $8 an hour. In May, 2011 it rose by 75 cents an hour, then rose again to $9.50 on Nov. 1, giving those at that rate an annual salary of under $20,000 a year, for a 40-hour work week.
The current council indemnity system was set in August, 2000, when council approved the recommendation of the task force that tied salaries to market surveys every three years to determine the 60th percentile of direct pay rates for the jobs of mayor and councillors.
The market surveys focus on the same six municipalities, Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Coquitlam, Delta, Maple Ridge and Port Coquitlam.
