Huge pay hike, bonus for city manager
Council heaped a healthy dose of praise on Calgary’s top bureaucrat Monday evening as they overwhelmingly approved a $ 26,775 bonus and $ 10,080 pay raise to acknowledge Jeff Fielding’s performance over the past year.
“To run this very large, 15,000- person corporate requires skill sets which are rare in the corporate world and even rarer in the government space,” said Coun. Richard Pootmans. “I think the compensation and bonusing we’ve discussed are entirely fair and reasonable.”
Council voted 13- 1 in favour of the 8.5 per cent bonus and 3.2 per cent raise, with Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu the lone dissenting voice. Coun. Evan Woolley wasn’t at Monday’s meeting.
Fielding wasn’t in council chambers when the raise and bonus were approved.
Many praised Fielding’s recent handling of the 2016 budget that includes a 3.5 per cent tax hike, or roughly $ 60 on the municipal portion of the typical Calgary homeowner’s property tax bill.
That rate is slightly lower than the 4.7 per cent hike proposed in Calgary’s four- year “action plan” that municipal leaders passed last year, but it translates to an $ 18- million loss in revenue to be covered through efficiencies and savings and without affecting city services.
“When we said we needed to cut our budgets, we always presented a list of things and services that we would have to cut in the service delivery to Calgarians,” said Coun. Andre Chabot.
“Mr. Fielding said there will be no cuts to services and he found $ 40 million in efficiencies,” Chabot said. “I think that’s worth that $ 26,000 investment.”
Fielding replaced former city manager Owen Tobert in June 2014, and brought with him a reputation as an inspirational leader who spearheaded change.
He earned a base salary of $ 315,000 last year, which now jumps to $ 326,080.