Kingston city councillors have voted themselves a hefty pay raise, but they’ll have to get elected this fall to earn it.
They voted 11-2 at their April 3 meeting to accept pay hike recommendations from the Citizen Committee to Review Council Remuneration.
The ad hoc committee, appointed to review council’s tax-funded pay last summer, determined that the mayor’s annual base pay should jump 23 percent to $116,856, up from the current rate of $94,849. The base pay of a councillor will jump from $30,869 to $40,000 a year – an increase of 30 percent.
“I think it’s the right decision for this city,” said Coun. Rob Hutchison of the proposed increases.
Coun. Ryan Boehme says the higher pay will be an incentive to encourage others to seek elected office. The next municipal election is Oct. 22 this year.
“We’re voting for the next council, whomever that may be. It’s about the people that come after us. It’s about giving them a fair opportunity… getting more people involved and engaged.”
The increases will take effect December 1, 2018 when the next council is sworn into office for a four year term.
“I think it’s a very touchy issue and I’m very comfortable with it,” according to Nick Waterfield, who chaired the eight-member committee.
Waterfield says there are two driving factors behind the committee’s decision to recommend raises that are far beyond the inflation.
Canada Revenue Agency is expected to remove the long-standing tax exempt status that councillors currently receive for one-third of their pay. The generous raises are meant to compensate for the loss of that tax free status. Without the raises, political paycheques would shrink drastically due to the new tax rules, he explained.
The other key reason is that social media has added to their workload.
“In this day of social media, and we have heard this, they can be on-call 24 hours a day and remunerating someone for that role I think is a very fair task.”
Councillor Peter Stroud expressed concern over the optics of councillors voting themselves a raise
Coun. Peter Stroud voiced concerns about the optics of politicians approving their own raises, even if it’s meant to compensate for changing tax rules that could result in the loss of take-home pay.
However, clerk John Bolognone put any concerns to rest.
“Councillors have no conflict of interest. You’re not voting on your own salary, you’re voting on the remuneration for a future council. There is no pecuniary interest.”
Councillor Kevin George, one of two to vote against giving council a raise, confirms he’s retiring from politics later this year
Coun. Kevin George, who won’t be seeking re-election, says he supports a raise for the mayor’s busy role but thinks councillors don’t need any extra compensation.
“I oppose an increase for councillors. I just feel what I receive now is more than enough to compensate me.”
He added the average councillor puts in about 25 hours a week, and the raise is equivalent to earning over $31 an hour for a part-time job.
In addition to higher remuneration indexed to the annual inflation rate, the 13 member council will continue to receive thousands of extra dollars a year in non-statutory benefits such as travel and cell phone allowances and medical benefits. The role of deputy mayor, which is rotated among councillors every two months, will also receive an extra $250 a month.
Waterfield, a local businessman, says the increases given to Kingston’s elected leaders, though situated at the upper range of political pay scale compared to similar-sized cities, are not designed to create “career politicians.”
“It’s not an outrageous amount of money. But it’s also not a career amount of money. This is not something where you go into it at an early age and get elected over and over again.”
He says it’s always tough to find the right balance to not overpay politicians, but not to short change their responsibilities of managing a $380 million annual budget.
“A lot of what we were doing was trying to make sure that anybody could put their name forward and come out with a remuneration to support a lifestyle whether they are in their 20s and just getting started or retired with a pension. It’s a nice balance.”
The committee was also tasked with reviewing the workload of council and determined that no elected position should be made full-time.
Waterfield says there is no clear answer to how many hours a municipal politician puts in every week, but says the streamlining of committees allows more fairness to ensure their time is balanced. As for social media demands, he says that remains up to individual councillors to determine how much time they want to commit to it.
