Clarification and changes made to remuneration and expense policy
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
The Council remuneration and expense policy went under the knife after it became apparent some issues needed to be clarified. On Oct. 6, administration brought the policy before Council with recommendations for a few amendments.
In the spring of 2010, administration received direction to research Council remuneration policies in other municipalities and bring the results and a recommendation back to Council for review and consideration. This was presented to Council on June 16. The recommended policy amendments on Oct. 6 included a clause where per diems could not be claimed for any business conducted within the Town, or for an Council appointed committees where travel out of town is required, i.e. Bow River Basin, Calgary Regional Partnership, etc, however, mileage can be claimed.
The amendments also contemplated an increase to the base salary for Mayor and Council.
“I have fought diligently to keep these issues from arising in our period in Council,” said Councillor Bob Sobol. He was happy to see a number of things in the amended policy, and believes it effectively deals with per diems. Although Strathmore currently has one of the lowest paid Councils of municipalities of our size, a majority of the councillors agreed that the increase was too much.
“The mayors remuneration had been suggested at $44,000, with council at $22,000, which was 50 per cent of the Mayors recommended salary. At the meeting previous to the Oct. 6th meeting, I convinced council to reduce the mayors (remuneration) to $36,000, thinking automatically the Councillors remuneration would go down to $18,000, which it didn’t,” said Councillor John Rempel, after the meeting.
“I certainly can’t agree with this large of an increase,” said Councillor Mike Lloyd. At one point he had wanted to increase it for the future Council in hopes of attracting a ‘better’ council to the seats, but felt the Oct. 6 meeting was too late. He also would have liked to see per diem amounts subtracted from the remuneration for meetings that were missed.
“The fact that we have many people lined up willing to do this job for what it pays obviously speaks volumes,” said Lloyd.
Councillor Earl Best expressed concern, that the next Council will end up in the same situation as the provincial government, where they had to give themselves a significant raise. He feels that it would have been beneficial for the new Council to have the remuneration set prior to their terms in office, so they wouldn’t be faced with the same issues.
Lloyd suggested a committee be struck to determine what the remuneration should be for the new council.
“I don’t see the huge gray areas in the previous policy. The policies are only as good as the people who are going to follow them,” said Lloyd. Previously, committee’s had been set up to research and make recommendations with regard to Council remuneration, however, the CAO has had difficulty finding enough people to sit on the committee. It was also determined that there should also be residents on the committee, not just business owners.
A majority of Council felt that it would be more appropriate for the new Council to determine the salary amounts. Sobol moved that Council approve the new policy in it’s entirety, apart from the section referring to the base salary, and suggested that the new council have the CAO select a committee to determine salaries of the mayor and councillors. The motion was approved.
Past & current Council Remuneration is as follows, (going back to 2003):
On November 5, 2003, Council approved the following amounts for Council Remuneration, effective November 1, 2004, by Motion # 589.11.03:
Mayor $17,472.00 /yr
Council $10,507.00 /yr
These amounts were subject to the annual cost of living increase paid to any Town employee.
On April 30, 2008, Council approved the following amounts for Council Remuneration, effective May 1, 2008, by Motion # 170.04.08:
Mayor $26,000.00 /yr
Council $15,000.00 /yr
On April 15, 2009, Council adopted Policy #1806, which is the Council Remuneration Policy, by Motion # 173.04.09, with the following amounts:
Mayor $26,780.04 /yr
Council $15,450.00 /yr
These numbers are available to the public and were provided by Town administration. Clarification was needed after incorrect numbers were circulated in a flyer through the town.