Council settles on pay hike

By Wayne Moore - Castanet Mar 7, 2012 / 2:59 pm
A year ago they held the line -- this year, it's 3 per cent. That's the number West Kelowna Council settled on Tuesday night as it deliberated the size of a pay hike for mayor and council.  The raise bumps the mayor's yearly stipend by more than $1,800 a year to $62,678, while councillors get an increase of $620 a year to $21,273. The increase means an additional $5,546 from public coffers. Council also voted to tie increases in 2013 and 2014 to the BC Consumer Price Index (CPI).  Over the last three years, the CPI has been sent at 0% (2009), 1.3% (2010) and 2.4% (2011). The increase falls far short of the recommended remuneration hike of 9.71 per cent for the mayor and a whopping 13.5 per cent for councillors. The recommendation was based, a per council policy, on the median salary of mayor and council in six BC communities including Penticton, Vernon, Langley, Port Moody, North Cowichan and Campbell River. By holding wages in 2011, council fell further behind the median remuneration of the other municipalities, thus the large recommended increase. Council scrapped altogether the remuneration policy and have instead instructed staff to bring back a report on alternatives to the previous [policy. A new policy would be in place before a new council is voted into office in November, 2014