Georgetown tightens honorarium rules for councillors who don’t show

Truancy from council meetings will hit elected officials in the wallet this year as town council votes to implement a new honorarium bylaw.

Finance chairman Mike Gallant says the new bylaw will be divided into two sections with councillors receiving about 75 per cent of their pay as a base allowance and the extra 25 per cent paid on a performancebased assessment.

“There’s nothing onerous about it,’’ said Gallant. “It’s just to ensure that elected officials who attend all their meetings get all their pay and those that don’t will get nicked a little. I think the general public believes meetings are an important part of a councillor’s portfolio and they should be here.”

Council approved the first reading of the new bylaw this week. Honorariums remain at the current level with no increase, and a final reading is expected in February.

“For example, an expense claim filed bya councillor to at- tend an event or meeting out-of-province without council approval might be denied,’’ he said.

Gallant noted there are situations where some elected councillors throughout the province must travel to other parts of the country to seek out employment or others head south fora few months inthe winter.

But those missed meetings, he said, will be docked from the pay cheque.

“This would be the type of situation where a councillor might not receive his entire annual honorarium,” he said.

A councillor in the Kings County capital earns about $2,800 a month and those who don’t miss a council or special meeting will earn that. Those who fail a perfect attendance record won’t.