Members must decide by Jan. 18 whether to accept all of a proposed hike based on Alberta average
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City council members have until next week to decide if they want to accept what some admit will be a controversial 5.35-per-cent salary increase. |
EDMONTON - City council members have until next week to decide whether to accept what some admit would be a controversial 5.35 per cent salary increase.
The hike, based on the rise in Alberta’s average weekly wage between September 2010 and September 2011, would boost annual pay for the mayor’s job to $158,813. Councillors are eligible to receive $87,955.
Political earnings are one-third tax-free, as are monthly vehicle allowances of $1,158 for the mayor and $578 for councillors. Those won’t increase this year.
“We’re going to get caught with this, whatever it is,” Coun. Ed Gibbons said Tuesday.
“You phone us at 5.35 per cent, you don’t phone us when it’s 0.6 per cent, but I’m not one to interfere with the process.”
He plans to accept his full raise, calculating that for his six-day work week, the money translates into roughly an extra $2 an hour, following a process for council raises used since 2001.
“We’re going to get beat up on it. Some will take it, some won’t take it,” Gibbons said.
“I don’t want to interfere with the formula. I don’t want to vote on what I make. This is totally neutral.”
Last year, Mayor Stephen Mandel and eight councillors refused all or part of a 4.6 per cent pay boost, or asked to have money donated to charity.
They voted on motions to freeze their compensation, reduce the increase or wait until contract negotiations with civic unions were completed, but in the end decided to leave the process alone.
A report presented during the debate showed that over the previous 10 years, council salaries rose 34 per cent, compared with 37 per cent for most of the city’s unionized staff and nearly 40 per cent for police and firefighters.
Mandel, who hasn’t taken a raise for four years, has told city staff he’ll continue to freeze his salary at $135,694 for 2012.
None of his colleagues have officially indicated they’ll also forgo an increase.
Calgary councillors use the same formula for pay hikes as Edmonton. They now earn $107,539 and Mayor Naheed Nenshi takes home $201,839.
Edmonton council members must indicate whether they want a lower-than-possible salary by Jan. 18, a city spokesman said.
Coun. Karen Leibovici, who didn’t accept any increase in 2011, is considering taking a raise at least equal to inflation, but said she hasn’t decided what to do.
“When you look at it, the economy is doing better this year, and I think that’s one of the reasons I didn’t take, the last couple of years, all of it.”
She doesn’t think this issue should influence the continued talks with city workers over their collective agreement.
“(We’re) just about even, or we’re behind (over a decade), so I think that’s not a piece that can be used in the bargaining.”
An outside committee, whose members have yet to be appointed, is to look at council compensation and make recommendations next fall.
Any changes would take effect after the next civic election in 2013.
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