Salary hike on the agenda for council

Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: September 12, 2009 12:00 PM

Vernon politicians could be pocketing more cash after Monday. City staff will present a proposal Monday that would see the mayor and the six councillors continuing to receive a base salary. But they would also start being paid for participating in committees they are appointed to. “It would recognize the workload done by different councillors,” said Kevin Bertles, the finance manager. Presently, council members are not specifically paid for committee work, and those duties are covered by the base annual salary of $62,775 for the mayor and $20,250 for each councillor.

However, Mayor Wayne Lippert says a problem has arisen because some council members are on numerous boards and the work is time-consuming.“Someone may be attending three or four times the meetings because of the committees they’re on,” he said. As an example, Coun. Buffy Baumbrough attends about 65 meetings a year, while Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe is at 58. At the other end of the spectrum is Coun. Shawn Lee at 12 meetings and Coun. Jack Gilroy at 17. Under the proposal before council, Baumbrough would receive an additional $8,905 a year for her committee work, bringing her total remuneration (with base pay) to $29,155. If Lippert gets $4,658 a year for committee work, his total salary as mayor will climb to $67,433.In terms of the other councillors, committee pay could amount to $1,644 for Lee, $2,603 for Patrick Nicol, $7,946 for O’Keefe, $2,877 for Bob Spiers and $2,329 for Gilroy. The proposal could add $30,962 to the city’s budget expenses.

Baumbrough supports a new method for remuneration. “It’s a fair approach. It compensates councillors for additional activities,” said Baumbrough, who sits on the environmental, advisory planning, affordable housing and transportation demand management committees. “I put many hours into council and it impacts my ability to do other paid work. ”Lippert added that elected office impacts family lives and careers. “Some of the new councillors are realizing how much time it takes away from their jobs.”

Opposition to the proposal will come from Spiers. “We all got elected knowing what we would get paid for three years,” said Spiers. The city’s policy mandates that a review of remuneration take place prior to the civic election every three years. That means the next group of politicians, not the council of the day, benefit from any change. Prior to the 2008 election, a review was conducted and the previous council decided to tie salary hikes to the consumer price index. “It was a unanimous decision, including four of the incumbents,” said Spiers, who was elected in 2008. Spiers says the city’s policy allows for accountability and transparency and because of that, he can’t support the staff proposal. “With the way the economy is going, lots of people are losing their jobs. At this time, an increase in pay is not necessary,” he said.

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Morning Star Editorial: Published: September 12, 2009 12:00 PM

Vernon council will debate the merits of a proposed salary increase Monday, but do absolutely nothing about the actual issue at hand. And what they should be talking about is workload and the considerable inequity that has developed at city hall. Is it fair that Buffy Baumbrough will attend about 65 meetings this year and Mary-Jo O’Keefe 58, when others are only racking up 12 or 17 meetings a year? First, weren’t they all elected to work on behalf of the citizens of Vernon, so committee duties should be distributed more evenly. Secondly, such a daunting schedule could easily burn out those officials who are appointed to too many committees by the mayor.

There should also be a concern that too few people are actually involved in the decision-making process and because of that, some councillors are not fully aware of the city’s activities. It will be suggested by some that their time for committees is limited because of careers, but the demands on politicians are no secret. As soon as they filed nomination papers and ultimately were elected, they should have realized that adjustments to their personal lives would have to be made. To not fully embrace the responsibilities of city hall is an insult to Baumbrough and O’Keefe, who also have careers and families but seem to make considerable time available.

It’s doubtful that the proposed wage hike will proceed given the economy and the fact that it goes against city policy. But if it does, nothing will change and they’ll just be throwing money at an organizational mess.