Coldstream's Staff and Council Costs Up

Written by Glen Morrison 107.5 KISSFM Tuesday, 28 May 2013 15:13 
Coldstream council's expenses were up in 2012, with council remuneration up by over 21-thousand dollars. The figures are included in the District's 2012 Annual Report. Mayor Jim Garlick says that's a function of the amount of meetings attended. "Remuneration ends being our hotel rooms and everything else when we go to UBCM, and any meetings that we hold, if we go down to Victoria, and we had some of those." As well he says there were a lot of regional district meetings, particularly dealing with a service review of the parks and rec function. Staff costs soared by over 103 thousand dollars but the mayor says that's due to vacant positions being filled, such as engineering where the chief administrator officer had done both jobs for about a year. "By doing that, the costs show year to year, as going up." The district's top paid employee last year was administrator Mike Stamhuis at $142,546 for salary and expenses, one of 11 staff paid $75,000 or more. Finance director Trevor Seibel was paid $115,777 (salary and expenses).