milton town councillor mike cluett

From The Milton Canadian Champion.  I’ll post more details and my comments later.

Citizen-based compensation committee could be formed

Committee would make recommendation about town council members’ salaries

With the salaries of elected representatives being a sensitive topic for councillors and the public alike, the Town is hoping to de-politicize the issue with a citizen compensation advisory committee.Monday, the administration and planning committee approved the formation of the committee that will review councillors’ and the mayor’s salaries and recommend an increase, if warranted. Milton council will make the final decision on the committee Monday.

“I’ve been dealing with these kinds of things on and off and they’re never the easiest to deal with,” said Mayor Gord Krantz. “If you and I get one per cent, or half a per cent or a 50 per cent raise, you can turn it back in to the Town or take it and give it to your favourite charity,” he suggested, explaining council doesn’t have to accept a raise.

Krantz warned he wouldn’t want to see a councillor oppose a pay hike, and later accept it. “That’s when you become hypocritical and that has happened in the past.”

In July, council and non-unionized Town staff received a two per cent salary increase as part of their yearly wage adjustment.

The annual pay increases are to ensure Town staff and council salaries remain competitive and keep up with inflation. In 2010 council voted to freeze their salaries.

A council compensation review, undertaken every few years, ensures the salaries of Milton’s councillors and mayor are in line with those of comparable municipalities.

The last review in 2007 led to a hefty increase — the mayor’s salary increased from $49,133 to $60,480 and the rest of council saw an increase from $21,096 to $25,096.

Ward 6 Councillor Mike Cluett, who in the past has criticized council’s yearly raises, [ SEE MY PREVIOUS BLOG ENTRIES ON THE SUBJECT ]said it’s important Miltonians understand it’s residents, not councillors, who would determine how well council should be compensated through the review process.

“I don’t think there’s a prevailing feeling in the public that we’re overpaid…but I think we should take the citizens’ committee recommendation seriously, but remembering that it is an advisory committee and we can accept whatever the pay increase may be, we can take it back or we can try to defer it to a future date of council. That’s something we might want to consider.”

Ward 4 Councillor Rick Malboeuf said he would be pleased to see salary recommendations taken out of staff and council’s hands.  

“I’ve been through this process before and my advice is to stay as far away from this issue as possible,” he said to fellow councillors.

Currently, the mayor earns $65,128 a year and councillors earn $27,025. Krantz and regional councillors Colin Best and Tony Lambert also earn around $41,000 for sitting on Halton regional council.

The compensation committee would be made up of four members from the Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee, and the president of the Milton Chamber of Commerce would chair the group.

Each member of the committee would receive $300 per meeting — a maximum of three meetings will take place totaling $4,500 — and they would be expected to make a recommendation to council in January.

The meetings would be open to the public, however, no delegations to the committee would be allowed.

Town staff surveyed council salaries in 11 other municipalities and the results would be presented to the committee.