By Phil Melnychuk - Maple Ridge News Published: July 24, 2008
Maple Ridge council approved its 53-per-cent wage increase Tuesday, but it didn’t do so frivolously, said Coun. Ernie Daykin. “Not without a struggle,” he said Wednesday. “It was not taken lightly.” A staff report recommended that councillors chosen at the Nov. 15 election have their annual salary raised to $36,249 from $23,671. The mayor’s salary would go to $89,744 from $69,935 – a 28 per cent increase. Councillor’s mileage rate also goes up for car trips taken on district business outside Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to 52 cents per kilometre travelled. A staff proposal, though, to allow any unused training allowances ($2,000 for councillors, $3,500 for the mayor) to go to councillor’s RRSP contributions was nixed by council. The staff report recommending the raises looked at 10 other cities in the Lower Mainland. “If we were way out of whack with other people, it would be different,” Daykin said. “It’s never an easy decision to make,” Coun. Linda King said Wednesday. Of the cities compared in the study, Richmond had the most well-paid councillors, at $45,327, while Port Coquitlam only paid their councillors $22,257. Daykin said after the initial kibitzing he gets on the topic, people accept it. “I think at the end day a lot of people I talk to don’t begrudge us that at all.” The vote was unanimous, 7-0.
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