Mayor Gregor Robertson and his 10 city councillors should know by June of this year whether they're not earning enough money, too much money or just the right amount.
That's because all 11 politicians unanimously agreed Tuesday to have an independent panel review their salaries — and those of park board commissioners — to see whether they're being fairly compensated.
But amid the debate and considerable media attention paid to the issue this week, there was no mention that city council already received a pay raise this year — and the year before and the year before that.
Every January, as per a policy established 20 years ago, a pay raise for council kicks in at the beginning of each year. This year it was 0.82 per cent, last year was 3.24 per cent.
In an email exchange with the city's communications department this week, it acknowledged that the salaries of the mayor and councillors posted on the website did not reflect the pay increase.
The accurate annual salaries are $155,612 for the mayor, $68,551 for councillors and an additional $2,852 per month for the deputy mayor, a position held by Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer for this year; the mayor's salary was $149,503 in 2013 and the councillors' rate was $65,860.
The city says the increases are based on a formula that involves calculating the average weekly rate for B.C. Up until last year, the calculation was based on a formula recommended by an independent panel in 1995 that decided councillors' salaries should reflect what the average full-time employee in Vancouver earns. The salary would be adjusted annually to track changes in wages as reported to Statistics Canada, with the mayors' salary at 2.27 times that of a councillor.
Last year, however, wage data was collected under the voluntary National Household Survey, which replaced the mandatory long-form census, causing Vision Coun. Raymond Louie to speak out last year on whether the new data was truly reflective of all wage earners.
Response rates to the survey, as Louie learned in reading an analysis by University of Toronto professors, varied by location, socioeconomic status, cultural origin and family status, with people with higher status jobs and higher incomes responding more than single parents and renters.
Council's move to review its salaries was mentioned by the mayor in December and came in the form of a motion Tuesday drafted by Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs, who said it was in response to the evolving and increasing responsibilities expected of council and park board commissioners, including Reimer and Louie appointed deputy mayor and acting mayor.
"If people are doing more work, normally they get more pay but none of us wanted to make that call on what that should be and how it should be done," Meggs told reporters after Tuesday's meeting.
In Toronto, city councillors earn $105,397 per year while Mayor John Tory will collect $177,499 this year. In Calgary, Mayor Naheed Nenshi pulls in $216,401 per year and his councillors earn $115,297. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson's salary is $176,145 and his councillors earn $99,994.
In the case of Toronto and Calgary, Meggs said it's difficult to compare the salaries of councillors because those cities have ward systems, where councillors have their own staff. Vancouver councillors represent an at-large system and don't have full-time personal staff to help respond to emails and requests for meetings.
"We don't have the ability, in my view, to do the job that people expect of us in terms of replying to correspondence and things like that," he said. "Our clerical staff are wonderful but there's not enough of them."
NPA Coun. George Affleck, who operates a communications firm, said he will wait for the conclusions of the independent review of the salaries but said he is "comfortable" with his earnings as a city councillor.
Affleck said he is "the least paid councillor" in Vancouver because Robertson appointed all his Vision councillors to the Metro Vancouver board, where they earn more money as directors. Louie, for example, is vice-chairperson of Metro Vancouver and earns more than $35,000 per year in that job.
Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr said she decided to run for council, not for the money, but to work on behalf of residents. Carr said the job of a councillor is "more than full time work" and is swamped with requests from people requiring her help.
Meggs' motion, which Carr helped draft, asks for the independent panel to consider adding more staff to help councillors respond to citizens' needs in a more "appropriate and timely way."
The mayor, who said he puts in 80 to 100 hours a week in his job, wouldn't say whether he or his councillors should be paid more and will leave that answer to the independent review. He did say, though, the job of councillors is more involved than it was 20 years ago when the last compensation review was conducted.
"Certainly with email, with cellphones, with social media and with the engagement we need around the city and the neighbourhoods, it's important that there's and independent look at compensation," Robertson said.
Park board commissioners earn $8,000 per year and their compensation packages will be part of the review because the Vancouver Charter mandates council to establish the salaries.
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