Connecting the dots

Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: June 22, 2010 7:00 PM

It’s easy to look at various situations in isolation. But once you start connecting the dots, you’ll find that a broader picture unfolds. And case in point is remuneration for elected officials. Early last week, it was reported that Wayne Lippert received $70,768 in salary and expenses for his duties as Vernon mayor in 2009. Now a few days a later, a completely different set of financial statements revealed that Lippert got $14,323 for his activities at the North Okanagan Regional District. Now as far as I know, none of the media, including myself, immediately connected the two. But if you pull out your rudimentary math skills, you’ll find that between the two agencies, Lippert the politician brought home $85,091 last year.

Of course, Lippert is not an anonmaly in the North Okanagan. Anyone who sits on both a municipal council and the regional district board or committee is going to get two sets of cheques rolling in. As an example, Jack Gilroy got a combined $37,656 from Vernon and NORD, while a total of $33,183 went to Will Hansma from Spallumcheen and the regional district. Coldstream’s Doug Dirk received $14,652 from NORD and $9,374 from his home jurisdiction, or a total of $24,653. For many of us, what happens with the politicians is known as double-dipping.And this is probably a good time to point out that not only are Vernon taxpayers on the hook for the salaries of their mayor and council, but they also pay 65 or 70 per cent of the bill at NORD as well. That means two different hands are going into the same pocket.

Obviously compensation must be fair if we are to attract people to elected office. After all, doing the public’s business interrupts your private career and your family life. The workload is considerable, including meetings and reading a never-ending pile of documents.There are also serious legal responsibilities that go with being a mayor, councillor or director. The buck stops with you. But while politicians deserve to be treated fairly, things are out of whack.

Whether it’s Gilroy’s $37,656 or Hansma’s $33,183, that is far more than many of their constituents earn. And the thought of matching Lippert’s $85,091 is just a dream for most. The recession has hit many households extremely hard — jobs eliminated, wages frozen and stock market turmoil sending retirement savings on a rollercoaster ride. And yet taxes continue to climb, including what politicians get paid. For the average Joe, hours are also spent at their respective jobs, years of education and training may have been required to get there, and whether you are running a company, a nurse at the hospital, working a shift at a corner store or pulling wood off a mill line, there are responsibilities. Our leaders will justify their remuneration, but that is generally based on their duties in an individual jurisdiction. However, when you start connecting the dots and pulling together all of their various sources of revenue, the picture turns out to be something completely different. It’s time that provincial legislation not only forced individual municipalities and regional districts to publish compensation annually. There should be a mechanism so the taxpaying public can easily see the cumulative pay from every board and committee their elected officials participate in. Only then will there be full disclosure and transparency and a true sense of what democracy actually cost taxpayers in the North Okanagan.