By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: October 10, 2008
The North Okanagan Regional District will review how much the chairmen of all committees are paid. Considerable discussion arose Wednesday after director Rick Fairbairn suggested the chairmen of the Greater Vernon and electoral areas advisory committees continue to each be paid $6,000 a year as they were when the functions were commissions with delegated authority. The chairs of advisory committees get $12 extra for their duties. “The workload has not decreased (since the administrative structure of the committees changed),” said Fairbairn, who is chairman of the EAAC. “We have a tremendous amount of work in the agendas and reviewing the items coming up for those meetings.” That view was supported by Gary Corner, GVAC chairman. “I still attend as many meetings. There is still a lot of workload to it,” he said. However, other board members challenged that position.
“The workload should have changed because the responsibilities have changed,” said director Wayne Lippert, adding that stand-alone commissions no longer exist. “We are supposed to be saving money and being more efficient.” It was pointed out that the chairmen of the committee of the whole and the air quality advisory committee only get an additional $12. “A lot of the responsibility and big decisions are happening at the committee of the whole and the regional board,” said director Juliette Cunningham.
Fairbairn’s proposal only got verbal support from director Cliff Kanester. “The workload hasn’t changed so why should the remuneration,” said Kanester. “Are we trying to just save money or trying to make the system work?” Ultimately, only Fairbairn voted to keep remuneration for Greater Vernon and electoral areas chairmen at $6,000 each, with the rest of the board in opposition. But salaries for all committee chairmen will be reviewed prior to the next regular board meeting in November. “If we are going to look at remuneration, it should be for all committees. It should be all or none,” said Corner.
