Last night Milton Town Council approved a citizens committee & staff recommendation to increase the salary of councillors by $5000 to be phased in over a three year period. First third retroactive to Jan 1, 2012 and the other two thirds on Jan 1, 2013 and Jan 1, 2014.
As Ive stated many times as private citizen, and here again, and then as a candidate for public office and as an elected official, I am not in favour of increasing our salary for the current term. There was a motion put forward by myself and Councillor Rick Malboeuf last night asking for an amendment to the recommendation to in essence “defer” the increase until the next council. This way our current council wouldn’t benefit from a decision like this and be as transparent as possible.
This motion was voted down 8-2, with myself and Rick Malboeuf being the only to support the amendment.
You can follow some of the discussion happening on the Hawthorne Villager here. Many on that forum are in support of such an idea, and oddly enough some of my fellow councillors, while they were private citizens, agreed with me.
Now dont get me wrong. The increase is small in the grand scheme of things. I do believe that politicians at all levels should be paid fairly for their work. There are some days I joke to myself “they dont pay me enough” but I knew that going into this job.
The process was designed to “take the politics out of it” but as council raised their hands to increase their own pay, politics jumped right back in. I have informed the HR department of the Town of Milton to not apply the salary increase to my pay. Its a choice I made last year at this time, when no other councillor did the same. I haven’t accepted a pay increase because I feel so strongly that we shouldn’t be doing so. You can see in the chart below that my salary for 2011 was the same as in 2010.
This amount is small $5,000 per councillor but amounts to a 17% pay increase for us. Granted its phased in over 3 years but it still amounts to the same.
What each councillor decides to do is up to them. I have been consistent through this process from day one and I plan on continuing to be consistent with my belief that this is YOUR money and we should treat it as such.
Now if I chose to run for the next election in 2014, I will accept the salary as it is. I will let the voters decide whether or not I deserve an increase in pay. That’s how it should be done.
I’d appreciate your feedback and comments here or on Twitter at @Mike_Cluett
I’ll see you at the doors.
Mike…
First of all I want to say thank you for everything you do. You are so active in our town with different events, and communicating in such great ways and you really are an asset to our town.
I would want you to have that increase because of all the hard work you do. I admire you for standing up for your beliefs and support you 100%.
Reading the Villager today I found it funny that those who said yes last night to it, are now saying no. You have been consistent on this from day one and I really hope others follow your leadership.
Thank you Mike.
Ward 6 Resident & Hubby
I agree with Dee all the way. Youre stance makes me proud I voted for you before and will continue to vote for you every time you run.
Mike for MAYOR!! 😀
Hey Mike,
I agree with Dee and want to thank you for everything. You’re hands down the most transparent and active councillor I’ve ever seen and are great a communicating with the residents.
Do you deserve an increase? Sure, I think so. But I also agree in that I don’t think it’s right that the council votes on whether they should get a pay increase. If you asked the general public whether they deserve a pay increase, would there realistically be anyone who would adamantly decline it?
That being said, again I do think you do deserve the increase but I can’t say the same for the others and should be based on performance of each individual councillor, as reviewed by the committee.
Thanks again for everything!
Bravo! Its this type of leadership that restores faith in the process and politicians after all the mess you see in all levels of government. Its sad that others don’t see this and share your beliefs despite claims of leadership from them all on their websites and elsewhere.
We’d happily welcome you to ward 5 anytime!
There are some other comments on
Zeeshan Hamid’s blog:
http://zhamid.ca/blogpost/council-salary-potentially-going-up/
I agree with Mike on this one. It seems like common sense but I dont know why the others said no. Granted the amount is small and overall wont be a huge impact on taxes but to me its about doing the right thing.
Thank you Mike. I live in ward 8 but I’d vote for you for sure. Maybe you can run for regional council and get rid of Tony. THAT would be great. When is the next election again?
Thanks everyone for the comments. I really do appreciate the feedback.
As for next election…its in 2014. Thanks for the support 😉
I just read through my copy of the Champion this morning and all I can say is WTF?
There is no mention of Clrs Malboeuf and your motion to defer the increase to the next council AND to top it off they quote TONY LAMBERT? I was watching the meeting online and he voted FOR the increase!!!!! He said nothing during the debate, didnt support the amendment and HE’S the one quoted?
Talk about your BS!!!! He’s so full of it, its not even funny.
Big oversite by the Champion if you ask me. BIG!!!