The timeline is too tight to undertake a review of their salaries this year, Victoria councillors have decided.
The last review was done a decade ago.
Mayor Lisa Helps is currently paid about $102,000 while councillors are paid about $41,000 a year. The remuneration bylaw provides for an annual increase equal to the consumer price index.
City staff outlined options for a review, including establishing a citizens committee, hiring a consultant or surveying other municipalities.
Some councillors felt current salaries are adequate. Others said there wasn’t enough time to complete a review without it turning into a political football: A committee likely wouldn’t report back on the issue until June, just months ahead of the October municipal elections.
Coun. Pam Madoff said that to try to undertake a review in six to eight months with an election looming “would be doing everyone a disservice,” while Coun. Ben Isitt noted the last review was conducted in an election year.
Current salaries were set in 2009 based on recommendations from a 2008 citizens committee.
Coun. Margaret Lucas, who sat on that committee, said the salaries were based on council work being considered a three-quarter-time job.
Coun. Jeremy Loveday, who called being a councillor “a 60-hour-a-week, part-time job,” said it’s difficult for young people, who aren’t established in careers, to consider running for office. He said a review was needed to determine whether the job is paid fairly.
“Looking at the amount of hours this job takes to do well, what the public expects of you, [and] the complex decisions that have to be made, you want to make sure you have good people in the role and you want to make sure you pay them fairly,” he said.
By convention, salary increases after a review don’t take effect until the following council term, so that councillors aren’t voting to increase their own pay.
Waiting until after the October election to conduct a review puts off any potential increase for another four years “or you put the next council in a place where they are voting on their own salary increases without the public having a chance weigh in,” Loveday said.
Coun. Marianne Alto said councillors are currently paid the median salary earned in Victoria.
“I would suggest that, yes, our decisions are difficult and complex, and yes, they’re very time consuming, and yes, it’s I think a falsehood to suggest this is a part-time job,” Alto said.
“At the same time, there are a lot of people who are out there working full time for exactly same amount of money as we’re making. So I can’t support this.”
Lucas said there would be nothing forcing council to accept any recommended increase.
“For me, I want to know. Why not find out whether this has gone from a three-quarter job to a full-time job?” Lucas said.
Ultimately, however, the review was rejected.
