CITY IGNORES GOOD ADVICE
It was widely expected that city council would accept a recommendation to trim the mayor’s salary by six per cent. What’s surprising, however, is that council has rejected other common-sense advice provided by its compensation review committee, which consists of five volunteers with backgrounds in human resources, business and law. The group had met 12 times since their appointment in October 2016, begging the question why city politicians would waste the volunteers’ time, as well as that of city staff who assisted them.
The group had recommended council put a stop to the generous transition allowance that city politicians receive when they leave office. The amount grows at the rate of two weeks’ pay for each year in office, to a maximum of 26 years of service (and one full year of pay). The money is paid out even if politicians choose not to seek re-election.
The committee’s argument in calling for the end of the transition allowance was sound.
“From the moment they are declared elected, politicians all have four years notice of expiry of their term of service,” the members wrote, adding that a similar provincial allowance for MLAs was eliminated in 2012.
“Elected office for limited terms is not analogous to an indefinite worker being suddenly laid off in the employment context.”
The transition allowance, the committee added, has no equivalent in the usual working world, where employees voluntarily leave their positions or are not deemed sufficiently effective to maintain their jobs. The committee concluded council members are fairly compensated for their service, pointing out the city makes a substantial bi-weekly contribution to their pension plans.
Adjustments to council’s pay will continue to be based on changes to the average Alberta weekly earnings, but city politicians rejected the recommendation they vote annually to accept or decline the modification. Some politicians argued such a vote would be “a race to the bottom” — which is hyperbole when you consider councillors are among the best paid in the country at $113,416 a year. The committee felt an annual vote would allow council to react quickly to changing economic conditions and to follow the will of voters, instead of simply relying on a statistical calculation. As perhaps a sop to the committee and Calgarians, council has agreed to vote once per term on pay changes.
Council’s failure to embrace the wisdom expressed by the compensation review committee is truly regrettable. They should avoid such a charade in the future and save everybody a lot of time and money.