It’s an election year!

That was the comment I heard most last night at the special council meeting at Town Hall.

The meeting started early yesterday and I missed the first portion of the towns report on the potential changes to the official plan.  That in itself is a large post and I will endeavour to get that up as soon as possible.  You can find information on the official plan from the town’s website here.

The second portion of the meeting was the towns report on the Boyne Survey.  Again, a lengthy post and I will come out with more details soon.  Here is the link to the town’s site for more information.

The item that quite frankly, I thought would be lost in the shuffle was a report from staff on the application for market adjustments in pay for non union town employees.  This category includes town council and if it had passed as written, it would have been the fourth salary increase in four years for town council.  Members of town council are included in this category and according to Mayor Krantz last night, they are caught in a “lose-lose” situation. 

You would’ve had to be under a rock for the last 2 years to NOT notice our economy wasn’t doing so well.  Many people have lost their jobs, and companies were closing their doors including major employers in Milton.  Yet through all of the cut backs and job loses, one industry managed to make MORE money over these 3 years.  The public sector.

Milton CAO Mario Belvedere outlined to the gallery and to council last night the methodology of how these pay increases come about.  A citizens committee reviews the salaries and benefits of similar sized cities and towns in the GTA (when you look the report in detail you will see exactly which ones) and then comes up with an increase for Milton.  Some of these municipalities have increased the salaries of non union employees by over 3 % and some a little lower, so Milton chose 2%.

The idea behind it is employee retention.  The fear of someone quitting the town of Milton and going to work for Ajax or Mississauga is so strong they want to ensure they are paid well to keep the quality of workforce here in town.  Don’t get me wrong…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. 

The staff at the Town of Milton is top notch and probably the best at what they do. 

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say they should be paid more for what they do.  Unfortunately we are faced with something called an economic reality…the bottom line.

There are those who feel that council members should be paid more for what they do.  Most of them being members of council.  The job of town councillor (of which I am running for) is a part time position but I am under no illusion that it will be part time hours.  My eyes are WIDE open on this.  Dealing with the public, going out to events, answering emails and phone calls takes time.  I work full time, as most council members do, and that keeps me busy.  My two children and wife will also keep me busy, but they understand what I’m doing and are fully supportive.

Town councillors in Milton are among the lowest paid elected officials in Ontario.  Should they get more?  Possibly.  Can we do it now?  Quite frankly, no.

Again, its that nagging little thing called the bottom line that SHOULD stop a lot of spending like this.

Councillor Greg Nelson put forward a motion to pass the 2% increase for non union employees and exempt the increase for town councillors.  This as you would assume caused a lot of discussion.  Jan Mowbraysaid the increase was so small (according to her numbers it amounts to $43 / month) then why bother making the changes.  My response would be, since its so small town councillors wont notice the difference.

Councillor Schau commented that she’s worried that given the lower than the average salary might deter some good candidates from running in the election.  Candidates, like myself, should go into this with eyes wide open.  I’m not looking to run for a part time position for the pay.  That isn’t the motivator behind my candidacy.  If it was then I should just quit.  The salary for the town council position is roughly $27,000 per year (with some of that being tax free).  If someone is running for this job for the salary….they’re running for the wrong reasons.

Its about leadership.  Just imagine if a motion like this was put forward at the beginning of the term?  What would our numbers be like if the 3% from 2008 and the 2.5% increase from 2009 were limited to say 0.75% or 1%?  How much money would the town have been able to save?  “Nickels and dimes”, as they have been described my some members of council over the years, add up.  Would a limited pay increase caused a massive exodus to other towns and cities from staff workers?  Highly unlikely.  But the “nickels and dimes” would have added up to savings.  Voters in town would have seen council take a leadership role and feel that the bottom line was being addressed.  Only a few current council members actually take note of costs of items that pass every month.  It should be the majority of council looking at the bottom line.

With people in the private sector having to deal with salary cut backs and no increases to their salaries, its hard for them to accept the almost automatic pay increases of public sector workers.  This doesn’t help increase their confidence in elected officials.  It’s just one of the factors behind record low voter turnouts the last several years.

As I left someone made an interesting comment saying that no one on council brought up the provincial governments recent freeze on public sector salaries (albeit the provinces “freeze” has more holes in it that a sponge).  Discussion was had on the issue for about 10 minutes and eventually passed and will be finalized at the next council meeting.  This means our current council has only had 3 pay increases in their last term instead of 4.

Regular readers of my blog will know I’ve talked about the other pay increases ad nauseum here and here.

There will be those who say the pay increase was small and wont amount to much, but for me its about leadership and confidence.  My only issue with it, it took 3 years and the fact its an election year to finally bring it out.

Milton needs to elect leaders around the council and we have an opportunity on October 25th to do that.  If you are one who believes it needs to change, it’s up to do get informed, ask questions and get out and vote.  mike@mikecluett.ca if you have any questions.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.