City Caucus.com Dec. 23 Post by Daniel in Editorial
With Vancouver City Hall slowly emptying out and people heading home for the holidays, a nice little gift was delivered to the elected officials by Patrice Impey, the Chief Financial Officer. The gift came in the form of a memo whereby she advised the Mayor and councillors they are entitled to a raise in pay. You'd think after all the recent tough talk of budget cutbacks, layoffs and the closure of the Bloedel Conservatory, a few civic politicians would be thinking twice about taking a pay hike during these recessionary times. It doesn't appear so.
On January 1st all the CUPE workers will get a 4% pay hike while the city's managers will get 2% followed by another 2% increase in July 2010. City Manager Penny Ballem is the only employee who decided to forego a pay increase in 2010 (this according to the Mayor's office spinmeisters – we've never had it confirmed publicly by Ballem herself). We naively thought she might have set the tone for local politicians who are about to receive a 2.77% pay increase in the new year.
According to Impey's memo: The annual adjustment to Councillors’ salaries is the based on the increase in average weekly wage rate for BC for the 12 months ended November. The increase was 2.77% for the 12 months ended November 2009 and is applied to calculate the 2010 salaries as follows:
2009 2010
Councillor $60,014.30 $61,674.56
Mayor $136,232.46 $140,001.26
The Mayor's and councillor's expense accounts (which are tied to their overall salary) are also on their way up. Impey states:The 2010 annual expense allowance for the Mayor is $14,000.13. In addition the Mayor may either receive a monthly transportation allowance of $600.00 or be provided with vehicle. The 2010 annual expense allowance for Councillors is $6,167.46.
The above adjustments in base salaries and expense allowance for the Mayor and Councillors, effective January 1, 2010, represent an incremental increase in the 2010 Operating Budget of approximately $23,300.
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Don Quixote Note: Vernon Council Salaries are adjusted each Jan 1 for the CPI as measured in November. Last years CPI in Nov. 2008 made for a 2% adjustment upwards. This year's CPI in Nov 2009 is a 1% adjustment upwards Bank Of Canada Inflation Tables:. You can see the Council Indemnities budget on page 48 of the 2010-2014 City of Vernon Proposed Financial Plan.
The 2010 Projected Budget of $223,993 is an increase of $33,445 )(17.55%) over the 2009 budget figure of $190,548. The increase over the CPI figure of 1% are obviously to budget for the $137 per City of Vernon committee meeting that Council can apply for if they choose. Assuming a budgeted figure of $31,535 for committee meetings they will be 230 applications for compensation. (N.B.: 1/3 of the meeting fee is non-taxable)
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