Members of city council deserve a pay raise since they work long hours and are attacked for their efforts online and in the media, a councillor argues.
Council members can sometimes put in 50 to 70 hours per week, which is a high workload when combined with a regular job. However, being a councillor is not going to be someone’s full-time job since the position pays about $24,000 a year, said Coun. Chris Warren. He acknowledged that most people don’t enter municipal politics for the money.
These extra hours all lead to a decrease in work-life balance, Warren said during city council’s June 29 executive committee meeting. Furthermore, everything they do to promote municipal business is done in public “and rightly so.”
However, this leads to negative comments on social media and supposedly in the local newspaper, where council members’ names are “dragged through the mud” for their perspective. Warren thought this didn’t allow for a rebuttal since negative online comments tended to stay negative.
“It puts stress on somebody’s mental health. We know (during) the last few years, mental health has been at the forefront of discussions because a lot of people are afraid to talk about it (and) bring it forward. They are fearful of repercussions. It’s a reality,” he said, adding he believes councillors should receive access to city hall’s employee and family assistance plan (EFAP) in the future.
City clerk/solicitor Myron Gulka-Tiechko, one of three members who sat on a panel that reviewed council remuneration, explained the panel looked into EFAP and found it is available to all elected officials. What council members don’t receive are dental and health benefits.
Coun. Heather Eby noted she accessed EFAP at one point.
“I wasn’t aware I was eligible for it. Someone brought it to my attention when I needed that,” she added. “If someone is elected, they should know it is available.”
Panel recommendations
The panel produced a report that included 16 recommendations about how much the mayor and council should be paid and compensated.
The panel recommended that the mayor’s position follow that of a Saskatchewan MLA, which means the mayor would earn $100,068 starting on Jan. 1, 2021. This would be an increase of $17,765 or about 21 per cent.
The panel also recommended that councillors receive remuneration equivalent to 33.33 per cent of the mayor, which means as of Jan. 1, 2021, a councillor would earn $33,323. This is an increase of $7,399 or about 28 per cent.
After a lengthy discussion, council voted 5-2 to accept the recommendations. Councillors Brian Swanson and Crystal Froese were opposed. Council must now approve the recommendations at the July 13 regular meeting for them to become official.
Council discussion
The report included the results of an online survey to which nearly 400 people responded, many of whom were not in favour of a significant increase, Swanson said. He wondered how the panel accounted for that disapproval compared to the recommendations it presented.
As the panel expected, asking for public feedback led to some comments that were negative “and not necessarily on point,” said Greg McIntyre, a panel member and RBC commercial banker. The survey became a platform for residents to complain about potholes.
“I would say the comments we got from the online survey tended to have a fair amount of noise,” he remarked, adding most comments from members of the Moose Jaw & District Chamber of Commerce were positive, deliberate and thoughtful.
Paying for the mayor’s travel
Mayor Fraser Tolmie indicated he hadn’t needed a large travel budget — the panel proposed $13,000 a year — during his four years and thought $10,000 a year was better. However, the panel’s recommendation of $150 per month for in-city car allowance was low and he thought $500 per month would be appropriate since it would make up for vehicle depreciation.
Warren thought giving the mayor an adequate car allowance was necessary since the mayor is the leader of the community, travels to many events, builds relationships, fights for positive change and uses a personal vehicle more than the city manager of any municipal employee.
Comparisons to other communities
A similar report produced in 2009 provided a transparent method that tied the mayor’s salary to a percentage of a provincial cabinet minister, said Swanson. However, since then the mayor’s salary has increased by 60 per cent.
The panel’s report compared Moose Jaw’s salaries of elected officials to cities such as Swift Current, Yorkton, and Prince Albert; the latter has 3,000 more people and pays its mayor roughly $83,000, he continued. The 2009 report indicated the City of Brandon had 41,000 people and its mayor received roughly $83,000.
Based on those numbers, he thought Moose Jaw was in the right ballpark to pay the mayor about $80,000 per year and a councillor $25,000 per year.
“Public life needs to be a sacrifice for it to be valid … and it needs to be reflective of the community,” Swanson remarked. He thought $2,000 per month for about 10 hours per week was reasonable compensation.
Reducing council’s pay
Swanson then introduced a motion that effective immediately until Oct. 31, 2020, council’s salary be reduced by 20 per cent because of the pandemic. He also moved that the panel’s report be received and filed.
The prime minister of New Zealand has shown exceptional leadership during the pandemic, by having every politician there take a pay cut to show solidarity with the country’s hard-hit communities, he said. Similarly, he pointed out economists have said most people to feel the pandemic’s economic effects have been low-income Canadians, of whom Moose Jaw has a disproportionate share.
“I think we need to show solidarity with the people who have been impacted. We’ve had less work during this time. Significantly less work,” said Swanson.
In response, Warren said, “I am disappointed that Coun. Swanson would want to use this platform to politicize the pandemic. And that’s all I have to say about that.”
Council then voted 6-1 against both motions, with Swanson the only one in favour.
Council does plenty of work
This council commits plenty of time to the community, whether it’s serving hot dogs to solve the “High Street fiasco,” raising money for the hospital, picking up garbage in Sunningdale, or advocating for women in business, said Tolmie. Councillors also participate in virtual meetings with the chamber of commerce and the downtown business association.
“I see that. That’s very public. That goes above and beyond the number of hours they put in. The estimate of 10 hours, I highly doubt it,” he added.
Report’s bad timing
Froese was concerned about the timing of the report and what effect it would have on a tax increase. Some businesses won’t reopen, while many people won’t return to their jobs.
The increase in salaries would add another $65,000 per year to the budget, but the percentage increase is unknown, said Gulka-Tiechko.
“It’s a modest price to pay for a trade-off for getting the best candidates for the positions we can,” he added.
Being a city councillor is different from working in private industry, Froese said. There is a large community service component to the role since residents have access to them every day and everywhere.
“It is a difficult decision (to approve the recommended pay increases). If this were a year ago, it would maybe have been a different outcome,” she said. “I just feel like no one else is going to be receiving a 20-per-cent raise in the midst of this pandemic.”
