I thought I was in a time warp when I read this…but alas its real and recent. The pay increase being talked about isnt a cost of living adjustment but rather an annual review of the salaries.
As Ive talked about in the past, ad nausem apparently, the optics of this is off the chart. I understand that town staff’s salaries need to be reviewed. When youre talking about union adjustments, thats fine, seeing how theyve been negotiated in the past.
Where MY problem comes in, town council is put on the same pay grid as town staff. WRONG! Plain wrong!
Added to that, town council has already increased their pay just after they were elected in 2007. Only one councillor at that time voted against it, and that was someone who attending their first council meeting after a bi-election.
Town councillors should not have the opportunity to increase their salary by votes. Most municipalities, like Milton, use citizens advisory committees to come up with what their increases should be. But, in the case of the councillors, the pay increase should take affect the when the NEXT council sits.
Politics is perception and this wont sit well with Milton taxpayers. The last 3 years we have had higher than normal increases in our mill rate with what to show for it? More Milton Transit buses that run empty throughout town that we spent over $3 MILLION dollars in the last 3 years? Have there been more roads developed for that money? Who knows. But its wrong for town council, not shortly after their LAST increase, to have their salaries increased….AGAIN.
When will it end? What council needs to do (and maybe someone can help me with the legality of this) is have councillors taken OFF that pay grid and into a grid seperate and distinct from everyone else. This way, they WONT be able to vote for increases in salaries that would benefit themselves.
Does there need to be an automatic increase in town council’s remuneration? Should it be on performance based rankings? IE They do they job they say theyre going to do? Hard if not impossible to do that. But changes on how our elected public representatives need to be made.
Some might say these increases are minor and they would have an arguement. Problem is, in case no ones noticed, we are in some pretty tough economic times right now and municipalities need to focus on saving taxpayers dollars not spending more when they can wait.
Here’s Tim’s article in this weekends Champion!
Councillors, staff to get 2.5 % pay raises in June
Tim Foran, Canadian Champion Staff
Town council voted Monday to give themselves and the municipality’s 183 non-union staff, including managers, a 2.5 per cent raise at the start of June.
The pay hike isn’t a cost-of living hike but rather a market adjustment, which is done annually and is based on comparable increases given to non-union employees at other similar municipalities, according to staff. The Town’s non-union staff have received an average 2.7 per cent market adjusted raise over the past three years, slightly below increases negotiated with unionized workers.
Generally, such increases for white-collar municipal workers fly under the radar, but due to the economic recession the issue has received more attention from the media. The City of Toronto’s Mayor David Miller announced recently that municipality would be freezing any hikes to non-unionized staff and he, along with some other councillors, would be returning their own pay increases to the City.
Only one Milton councillor decided to discuss the issue Monday night. Ward 3 Councillor Jan Mowbray responded to an e-mail she received from a local resident asking her to vote against the council and staff salary increase.
“I do believe we have an obligation to approve this report because the unionized staff have already received their raise in March,” said Mowbray, arguing she didn’t want to create a problem of inequity between the Town’s workers.
The councillor was referring to three three-year agreements recently bargained by the Town. The 29 unionized staff of the Town’s fire department will receive annual 3 per cent pay hikes this year and the next two years. The 27 staff in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers negotiated annual 2.5 per cent hikes over the same time period, as did the 37 library staff represented by CUPE.
Tim Foran can be reached at tforan@miltoncanadianchampion.com .
Comments
8 Responses to “Milton Councillor's Give Themselves a Pay Increase”
[…] Another Milton blogger, Mike Cluett, blogged about the councillors increasing their salaries yet again. I won’t repeat anything he said. You can read about it in his own blog post. […]
2010 – Town of Milton Municipal Election Info — November 2010 The next next municipal election in the Town of Milton will take place in November 2010. Candidates for Milton Council or local school boards can register with the Town Clerk as of January 1, 2010.
Come 2010 Residents of The Town of Milton will give this Council a 100% Boot out of office.
It’s Time for change.
The Mayor and Council has lost control of Town staff.Do what they want.The Town’s sunshine list keeps growing 100 K Club.Total House cleaning is required in 2010.Start telling your friends you must get out and VOTE in 2010 start talking today.
Lets give Milton back to the people not the old boys net.
Milton Council Watch
P.S. Council Report Card is in and guess what they all failed the public.
I realize that I’m in a minority, but personally I feel like we, as society, are shooting ourselves in the foot when we try to underpay our politicians. It doesn’t take too many lines to connect the dots between “why don’t we get many good people in politics” and “politicians don’t deserve a raise”.
The reality is that the people who I want to be leading our society bear certain traits that make them valuable, including:
– strong personality with the natural ability to lead
– smart and able to quickly read trends
– ability to nurture relationships
– ability to manage money wisely
– ability to effectively prioritize
Essentially, I want someone who would make an excellent high-level corporate manager. Of course there are times when people like that are either so civic minded that they don’t care that they’d be taking a 50% pay cut to serve. But the far greater majority likely have to weigh the options of getting into politics against the reality of maintaining a lifestyle on behalf of their family.
Just my $0.02.
I agree. Let’s pay them a fair salary. The process should be more transparent than it currently is. My biggest concern is that when the salary for a term on council is increased BY that council it directly affects that council. All pay increases should be made effective the date the new council is elected. In this case December 1, 2010. Thanks for posting! – Mike
[…] do the right thing; I’m just not sold on people voting on their own pay. I do agree with Peter Near’s comments but I cannot agree with the policy of establishing one’s own pay. There are better ways to […]
In one of my volunteer positions on a board of directors, we have to vote annually on the salaries of the executive team of the organization. I cannot imagine these people voting on their own salary. It would not be right. I trust that they would do the right thing; I’m just not sold on people voting on their own pay. I do agree with Peter Near’s comments but I cannot agree with the policy of establishing one’s own pay. There are better ways to accomplish a fair pay structure for politicians at any level of government.
I also find myself wondering if there is any end to the game of pay parity with other municipalities. This smells of being a self-serving fantasy that does nothing to control salaries, and provides endless justifications for raising them. Yes, everyone deserves a fair pay. No, if wages are slightly better somewhere else, these folks aren’t going to jump ship and go work for another municipality that isn’t hiring anyway.
It’s time for a better system.
Chris Newell
http://MiltonBlog.ca
I’m glad someone is saying it Mike. That’s the kind of common sense thinking we need on council. While I’m not ready to call for the Mayors resignation, I do think some of them need a wakeup call.
Any increase in pay should be effective the next council. Period. Anything else is just politics as usual.
I know you’re moving Mike but I still want a lawn sign if you’re not in my ward.
I agree David that the mayor should not resign over this. In fact, as I see it, he is the only ally that fiscal responsibility has on council at the moment.
At present, it seems that our current council is trying to out-do Toronto’s council in insane and reckless spending.
Here’s just a few examples:
1) Raises for themselves just 2 years after giving themselves another raise?
2) $1 million dollars for a glass wall on the new town hall? Buying that glass wall from Europe when that money could have at least employed Canadians?
3) Flushing MILLIONS of dollars down the toilet with a bloody transit system that almost nobody rides!
4) Raising our property taxes 3 years in a row?
5) Right now we have a councillor whose pet project is the homeless; even though there are no homeless in Milton.
I’ll leave you with a final thought.
When asked recently by the federal government what they would like to spend their share of the stimulus money on, what do you think our council said? Wider roads? Better infrastructure? More parking at the GO station? More police to help keep our growing community safe? Stimulus to get more businesses to settle in Milton so less of us have to commute?
Hell No!
Our council, asked for money to spend…..on an Arts Centre.
Great post Paul. I’d like to offer one comment on it, regarding your #5 – according to social agencies, there is a growing population of teens living on the streets in Milton. Now, if that one councilor were to turn their attention to ending the need for the food bank . . .
Chris Newell
http://MiltonBlog.ca