Big bucks were racked up by politicians and bureaucrats while doing the public’s business last year. The City of Vernon released its 2006 annual report Monday and it shows that $188,483 was spent on wages and expenses for the seven council members, and $12,445,565 in wages, allowances and expenses for employees. Topping the list among council was Mayor Wayne Lippert with remuneration of $59,189 and expenses of $6,512. All councillors earned $19,094 but Coun. Jack Gilroy led the pack with expenses of $3,727. “I went to a safe cities conference in Calgary and that was expensive,” said Gilroy, adding that such conferences provide direct benefits to the community. “We came back with ideas to get the police out of their cars and there were a whole bunch of bylaws from it.” An interesting trend is that the new members of council claimed expenses, including Buffy Baumbrough at $2,147 and Juliette Cunningham at $2,341, while the veteran politicians (Barry Beardsell, Pat Cochrane and Patrick Nicol) submitted no expenses. “We are new to council so we have to see what is happening,” said Gilroy of attending conferences and other sessions.
In terms of staff, there were 18 individuals last year who earned more than $75,000. They included chief administrative officer Leon Gous, who earned $122,658 and had allowances of $4,800 and expenses of $6,603. He was followed by former finance manager Bernie Fehrmann with earnings of $127,343, allowances of $2,275 and expenses of $1,273. Next was deputy chief administrative officer Marg Bailey with earnings of $102,643 and expenses of $2,574. Lippert admits the staff figures may seem high to the average taxpayer. “It’s part of doing business. We need to compete with other municipalities and regional districts (to attract staff),” he said. Lippert added that it is important for staff to attend conferences and training sessions that improve their skills or lead to new initiatives that benefit residents. “We have good staff and they give us a lot back.”
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