Four months after taking issue with a report recommending against a pay raise, Kelowna Council has endorsed that same report. A council appointed citizen's task force which looked into remuneration back in the spring suggested mayor and council show fiscal leadership and hold the line on salaries. The report recommended salaries remain unchanged in 2012 and 2013 before being adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index on January 1, 2014. It further recommended the mayor be offered a benefits package beginning in 2014 with the city picking up half the cost and the mayor of the day the other half. The mayor would not be obligated to take the benefits package. Council adopted the proposal Monday, the same proposal some took issue with in May, suggesting people do not understand just how hard the mayor and councillors work on behalf of the people of Kelowna. Council deferred a decision in May, asking instead to see how their salaries compared to their counterparts in other similar sized municipalities. While that report suggests members of Kelowna council make less, they, never-the-less, adopted the report. "Upon reading this and looking at the time frame that this has come back to us, it's a bit late to do anything this year and, as I said to the compensation committee I'm not opposed to the current salary regime for the next couple of year's," says Councillor Robert Hobson. "The supplemental information does show that, in fact, we are lower than the median for what I consider to be compatible municipalities. In staying where we are I think the public needs to understand we are going to fall further behind the median of our peer municipalities. That's a decision we have to live with I guess." Hobson says he doesn't think this is the right time to make changes but wonders about the wisdom in eliminating the yearly CPI increase. Councillor Graham James took issue with the compensation package being offered to the mayor wondering why, when city staff receive fully funded benefits, the mayor is only being offered a package funded half by the city and half by the sitting mayor. "It's the principle of taking the mayor's position, which is a full time position, and treating that position as not as important as our other employees by only paying 50 per cent of those costs," says James. "I believe that should be looked at. It doesn't matter who is in that position. I really think we should treat our mayor's position as an employee." While James believes the issue is a slap in the face to the mayor, the task force believed that, since the benefits package was being offered for the first time, 50 per cent was a good place to start. Councillor Charlie Hodge told council he's just glad this debate is over but reminds people councillors never did ask for a raise. "This council asked to have this whole issue looked at because we felt it was the proper process to go through," says Hodge. "No one on this council asked for a raise. That was never on this table. That was never the reason this came about and I wish that would be clarified." The mayor currently makes just under $90,000 a year while councillors take home $31,000 per year.
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Item 7.7 - Supplemental Report - Council Remuneration Review .pdf (5432kb) (2011-09-08)
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