The mayor and city council will receive a double-digit pay raise next year, even though one councillor indicated that’s unsustainable due to low population growth and projected salary increases in the 2021 budget.
After approving recommendations at its June 29 executive committee meeting to increase its remuneration starting in January, council officially approved those motions during its July 13 regular meeting.
Council voted 5-2 to raise the mayor’s wages to $100,068 from $82,303, which is an increase of $17,765 or more than 21 per cent. Councillors Brian Swanson and Crystal Froese were opposed.
Council then voted 4-3 to increase councillors’ wages to $33,323 from $25,924, which is an increase of $7,399 or 28.5 per cent. Coun. Dawn Luhning, Swanson and Froese were opposed.
Lastly, council voted 5-2 in favour of other recommendations that were attached to the remuneration report; an amendment to one motion decreased council’s travel budget to $3,000 from $4,756.
Swanson and Froese were opposed.
Who’s going to pay?
An extra $65,000 will be required to cover these increases, but the remuneration report dismissed that amount and said it’s a small amount of the municipality’s $75 million budget, Swanson said. They could apply the same logic by saying the mayor’s pay is a small amount, which is a deceptive argument.
“It is a lot of money. It is new money that was not included in the budget and it has to come from somewhere,” he stated.
Construction of a new home usually generates $2,500 in property taxes, but from January to June, contractors built only five homes for $12,500, Swanson continued. That is $52,500 short of funding this pay increase; 26 new homes would be required to cover the entire cost.
What worried Swanson is city administration provided council with a preview of next year’s budget and it “was not a pretty sight.” An extra $588,000 would be required to fund the increase in salaries and benefits for city employees, which means $653,000 in total is needed to maintain the status quo.
The same report said property assessment growth would be negligible, while most people realize the community has not grown in a while, he added. This will force residents to dig deeper to pay for their property taxes.
A decision that affects future councils
It’s okay that the motion affects the next council, Luhning said, since it won’t affect her pay now. She had been having a crisis of conscience during the past few weeks about having her pay bumped to $33,323.
She was also concerned about receiving per diem travel allowance and pay for acting as deputy mayor. She had asked city administration in March not to pay her for that role due to the pandemic and the fact councillors were not travelling anywhere.
“To me, it’s the wrong timing to be giving a raise of 20 to 28 per cent in the middle of a pandemic in very unstable and unpredictable times,” Froese said.
Being a city councillor means providing a type of community service and experiencing the same struggles as residents, she continued. The pandemic is still ongoing and another wave could hit; council and city administration have no idea what the overall economic effect will be. Many people have lost their jobs, while others have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet.
“I lose sleep at night about my community because we are not on the other side (of the pandemic),” said Froese, who thought it should be the responsibility of the next mayor and council to figure out their remuneration.
Attracting the best candidates
While this discussion is difficult, Coun. Scott McMann thought council should want to attract the best possible candidates to help make tough decisions, especially during a pandemic that has negatively affected the economy.
While the increase seems large and it’s always a struggle to find cash in the budget, this will be money well spent, he continued. The amount of remuneration for councillors and mayor shouldn’t deter people from running.
Coun. Chris Warren agreed that city council should want to have the best candidates to guide the municipality through the pandemic. He thought that compensation should be in line with other communities of similar size, while councillors should also receive more pay for having to put their reputations at risk online and in the media.
“We owe it to the next council and to the community,” he added.
