A nearly 25 per cent pay raise is on the way for city councillors following the October municipal election, with no expectation of additional hours worked.
The annual salary for each of the city’s 12 councillors will jump to $51,327 from $41,412.
That’s the decision coming out of council’s committee of the whole on Monday afternoon, which saw council intentionally avoid labelling the position as full or part-time, which are generally considered to consist of 20 and 40 hours per week respectively.
Council is expected to consider formal ratification of the matter at the end of the month, though council asked city staff to come with some new information before then, including some alternative comparisons with council salaries in other municipalities.
The committee motion was approved in a 10-3 vote, with support from Mayor Cam Guthrie along with councillors June Hofland, Mark MacKinnon, Leanne Caron, Phil Allt, James Gordon, Dominique O’Rourke, Cathy Downer, Mike Salisbury and Rodrigo Goller.
“That’s a good wage for the position,” Caron said of potentially attracting people to run for office. “Anyone looking to do this as a job rather than as a public service, that is adequate compensation.
“We are working toward … more and more full-time.”
The increase was just too rich for some people to support it.
“A 20 per cent increase is not something I’m going to support for the next term of council,” commented Coun. Dan Gibson, whose sentiment was shared by councillors Bob Bell and Christine Billings.
After removing municipalities with populations over 500,000 from the list of comparators, Billings said the median councillor salary is $42,705 and the 55th percentile, which was used by the remuneration committee in determining its recommendations, is $43,084.
Monday’s discussion follows a recent report from the city’s council remuneration and support advisory committee which recommends councillors be granted full-time status and be paid $75,000 annually, up from the current $41,412, to compensate for the anticipated increase in work hours.
As an alternative, that committee recommends councillor wages be set at the 55th percentile of comparable municipalities, which is the $51,327 endorsed by the committee of the whole, if part-time job status is to be maintained.
“Twelve (city councillors) at full-time is a lot,” commented O’Rourke. “I don’t feel the community is ready for that at this point.”
It’s up to each councillor to decide how much work goes into the job, much of council agreed, with several councillors suggesting they could hire assistance paid out of their stipend if needed to keep up with the workload while holding down a full-time job.
“I think it’s smart to stay quiet on that,” Gibson said of full versus part-time expectations. “The title of full or part-time is irrelevant.”
The committee of the whole also went against the remuneration committee’s recommendation of a $20,000 annual pay cut for the mayor’s position, opting to maintain it at the current level of $152,711.
Leading up to that decision, several council members pointed out the difficulty in comparing “apples to apples” because of differences between single and two-tier municipalities, as well as populations and council duties. Many mayors sit on both the local and regional councils – Guelph is a single-tier municipality – but only the lower-tier compensation was considered in determining comparable wages.
That amendment passed 12-1, with Gordon providing the sole opposing vote.
“I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the report,” Gordon said of the remuneration committee’s recommendations, adding it’s “disturbing” to see amendments being made. “I’m standing in solidarity with the committee to show support.”
Both the recommended mayor’s pay of $132,780 and part-time councillor compensation of $51,327 are set at the 55th percentile of comparable municipalities, the report notes, listing Toronto, Ottawa, Burlington, Pickering, Oshawa, Kitchener, Barrie and more.
If the committee motions are confirmed by council on March 28, the new salary levels would come into effect on Nov. 15, following the Oct. 24 municipal election and not impact the current term of council.
In a report to city council last June, a consultant team from Watson & Associations recommended the eight-ward model with eight full-time councillors in order for elected officials to work “undistracted” by other obligations on “increasingly complex” city business.
Council ultimately voted 9-4 to stick with 12 councillors, with two from each of six wards, however the employment status question was referred to the remuneration advisory committee for a recommendation to council.
The remuneration committee also recommended council consider adding a support staff member for councillors, should they be maintained as part-time, but a Monday motion sending that to 2023 budget discussions for consideration failed 5-8.
“I think it’s an unnecessary thing to add to the budget,” commented MacKinnon, who was joined in opposition by Guthrie, Gibson, Goller, Billings, Salisbury, O’Rourke and Bell.
The cost of adding a full-time equivalent support staffer for council is estimated at $92,000.
