Mayor admits his salary is ‘a bit too high’
Council to debate lowering pay
Mayor Naheed Nenshi has long thought his salary is too high and he’s “totally fine” with a citizen committee’s recommendation that whoever wins the mayor’s seat this fall take a six per cent pay cut.
On Monday, council is set to debate chopping the mayor’s salary from $212,870 to $200,747 effective after the election — one of five recommendations from a group of volunteers that spent six months reviewing council pay.
Nenshi told reporters Thursday he donates 10 per cent of his salary to charity every year because he thinks he’s paid too much.
“I’ve been saying for some years that the previous citizen committee, I thought, had pegged the mayor salary a bit too high,” he said.
“But, I also wanted to respect that it’s a volunteer committee and councillors shouldn’t set their own salaries up or down, which is why every year, I’ve donated a big percentage of my salary to charity because I did think it was too high.”
Nenshi expressed support for another recommendation from the council compensation review committee that would see the transition allowance for elected officials eliminated going forward, a move the Alberta legislative assembly made in 2012.
At current salaries, a council member serving a four-year term receives eight weeks in transition allowance, or about $17,000, while the mayor gets $33,000 to a maximum of one full year of pay for councillors and the mayor.
Current councillors and the mayor would still be paid the transition allowance they’ve earned when they leave office, but no new money would accrue for any official elected in the October 2017 election, under the committee’s recommendations council will vote on Monday.
“I actually didn’t know the extent of this transition allowance until very recently,” Nenshi said. “I’m not at all upset about getting rid of it.”
Nenshi said while he supports removing the monetary allowance, he will suggest to his council colleagues there’s a need for specific policies regarding what transition looks like for incumbent council members who lose an election.
“This is something that’s been bugging me for awhile,” he said. “We’re not very humane with people who are leaving office at the last minute, in terms of helping them work out their benefits, helping them figure out outplacement work, even giving them assistance in cleaning up and moving out their offices.”