Current councillors and all future St. Albert councils will have the power to review the pay of city elected officials following a change to the city’s policies on the issue.
On Monday night, council opted to strike a council remuneration review committee for 2015 and to change its policy so that such a review will occur once a term instead of once every two terms.
That means reviewing the policy will be a task set before every council in the future instead of every second council. The last review committee was formed in 2011 and included five St. Albert residents.
Coun. Tim Osborne initiated the change. He said it was a response to the recent controversy over expenses, which revealed some inconsistencies between city policies.
“What I’m trying to do here is clear up the areas where there’s inconsistencies and move forward with some public input,” Osborne said. He added there’s also confusion over the pay council members receive for committee meetings.
It’s clear the role of councillor is evolving, he said, and that waiting eight years between reviews is likely leaving it too long.
Coun. Gilles Prefontaine echoed that sentiment. He said from a human resources perspective, it would be “completely unacceptable” to only look at such policies every eight years.
Prefontaine added that eight years ago there wasn’t a Capital Region Board – something that now has several committees that require participation from St. Albert councillors.
The motion to convene a committee in 2015 and to amend the policy to require a review once a term was separated into two parts at the request of the mayor.
Coun. Sheena Hughes said the controversy over expenses this fall wasn’t from lack of clarity in the policies.
Coun. Cam MacKay noted that council pay was reviewed just three years ago and said he has mixed feelings over the idea of looking at it again in 2015.
“We are remunerated for what we do but I believe the community expects this to be a partly volunteer position as well as being partly remunerated,” he said. “We’ve already got a reasonable process in place.”
Coun. Cathy Heron said the policies are confusing. For some committees she is reimbursed, but others she’s not. She also added up her hours in September and found she was putting about 30 hours a week into various council duties.
MacKay was the only vote against convening a committee in 2015. For the second part of the motion, which would change policy so the review occurs every term, he suggested an amendment to limit the review’s scope to just procedures and policies around expense claims.
He said the public is satisfied with the amount council members are paid. As of April 1, 2014, councillors are paid $35,125 a year and the mayor gets $100,358. That doesn’t include meeting pay or retirement contributions.
Current council policy calls for that pay rate to be adjusted each year based on the average annual percentage change in the Alberta Weekly Earnings Index.
MacKay expressed concern that the committee would look at changing councillor positions to full-time. Currently only the mayor is considered full-time, while councillors are part-time.
MacKay’s proposed amendment was voted down, and Osborne’s original motion to change the review to at least once every term was passed.
Coun. Wes Brodhead said if they are going to establish a committee, that committee should be able to look at the big picture and the role of council.
“The reality of it is we’re not a small community anymore,” Brodhead said.
