Wellesley defers council pay increases until after next election
Consultant found township councillors earning less than similar municipalities
HIGHER PAY FOR WELLESLEY councillors will have to wait until the next term, with the incumbents opting out of a recommendation that increases be phased in starting in January.
A consultant looking into council remuneration found the township pays significantly less than comparable municipalities, suggesting increases be phased in over three years in a report tabled Tuesday night. Councillors instead opted to begin that process in 2019, after next year’s election.
Similarly, a decision on adjusting council pay to compensate for the loss of the one-third tax-free provision will also come into effect effective Jan. 1, 2019, when the federal government has decreed the practice must end.
Looking at pay scales, Barcon Consulting Inc. conducted a salary survey of 12 comparable municipalities. The results suggested Wellesley councillors were paid only 77 per cent of what other councillors received on average, while the mayor gets only 72 per cent of the average salary in similar communities.
Amongst the municipalities surveyed were the townships of Woolwich, Wilmot, West Perth, Norwich and the towns of Erin and Gravenhurst.
The firm suggested Wellesley councillors approve increases to their pay to bring them in line with the average, with the increase phased in over three years starting in 2018.
Councillors took issue with the 2018 option, however, noting they would effectively be giving themselves a pay raise if they began next year.
“I just have a problem
with the years,” said Coun. Carl Smit. “I’d rather we wait until the new council comes in, whoever it is, and start with that.”
Mayor Joe Nowak and Coun. Peter Van der Maas concurred, with councillors Shelley Wagner and Herb Neher not present for the discussion.
“I think when we took on this job three years ago, I think we knew, or we had a pretty good indication of what the pay was going to be,” said Nowak. “And I feel we almost made a contract with the residents ... a verbal contract.”
He said residents likely expected elected officials not to give themselves pay raises after the fact. The councillors agreed to begin pay increase in 2019 instead, and phase them over 2020 and 2021.
Of the municipalities surveyed by Barcon, the average base compensation for mayors was $28,900 versus Wellesley’s $20,800. Councillors, meanwhile, on average received $15,700, compared with Wellesley’s $12,100.
The discrepancy in pay is even greater, however, when ancillary compensations are taken into account. Other municipalities, for example, compensated their members of council an additional $144.53 per day for attending compulsory day-long meetings; half-day meetings were compensated at $91.86.
Moreover, other members of council were reimbursed for mileage at an average rate of $0.51 per km, paid on top of their salaries. Wellesley councillors, by contrast, were reimbursed only for travel outside the region at $0.49 per km. Travel inside the township is already figured into the annual pay, and is given as a flat stipend of $2,220 per year for the mayor, and $800 for each councillor
“So there is no question that compensation for the Township of Wellesley [council members] is significantly below the comparisons,” said Connie Van Andel of Barcon Consulting at Tuesday’s meeting
The consultants recommended the mayor’s salary be increased by $2,700 a year for three years for a total increase of $8,100. Councillors’ salaries will see a yearly top-up of $1,900 over three years, or a total $4,800 for all four councillors. By 2021, the total additional cost to the township would be $22,400.
These wage increases, approved by councillors, would be added on top of the standard cost of living adjustment (COLA). Currently, members of council receive COLA to their salary at the same rate as other township employees.
The pay increases approved by Wellesley council may be followed by a second adjustment, as they changes to the tax-free provision will otherwise reduce councillors’ takehome pay.
The amount of the increase, and the resultant cost to the township budget, will depend on which tax bracket is used as a baseline. Assuming a modest bump in tax brackets would cost less than going with the highest tax bracket and compensating councillors accordingly, for instance.
A separate report produced by Wellesley found that if the current councillors were to increase the pay to cancel out the wages lost to the tax changes, then, based on their current tax brackets, the cost to the township would be an additional $8,900.