Farkas accused of ‘drama’ over transition motion
Councillor again wants to end payment of allowances to city’s elected officials
Coun. Jeromy Farkas is being accused of stirring up some political “drama” over his plans to bring an urgent notice of motion to Monday’s meeting.
The Ward 11 councillor is once again calling for an end to the payment of transition allowances to Calgary’s elected officials. The councillor’s first attempt to bring forward the motion last December ended with the item being withdrawn over a “technical issue.”
Farkas says in the wake of council voting to end the retirement allowance for city workers, elected officials should “follow suit” and end their own transition payments.
“When you have council setting direction on removing a very significant payout for city staff, but keeping our own payment, that sends the absolute opposite message that we should be hoping to send,” Farkas said Thursday.
City council members are eligible for the transition allowance if they retire, are defeated in a municipal election or are elected to another order of government. Amounts vary depending on how long they serve in office. Farkas has said publicly that he will decline the allowance.
But Mayor Naheed Nenshi said that Farkas has been told “repeatedly” by the city clerk that his motion violates a bylaw passed recently by council setting in motion an independent review of council pay and benefits by a citizen committee.
The citizen committee is expected to explore council compensation, including the transition allowance, reporting back to council with recommendations later this year.
In a statement, Nenshi said Farkas could “achieve the exact same result without violating the bylaw” if he waited to introduce his motion once the committee returned with its report later this year. He said Farkas could also make his case directly to the committee to have his proposal incorporated in their recommendations.
“Given that there was a way to achieve his goals without drama, I am perplexed as to why he is complaining about this now,” said Nenshi. “Rules apply to everyone and citizens have continually told us they are tired of councillors posturing, bickering and grandstanding.”
Farkas said he disagrees and will attempt to raise it again at the next council meeting.
The same motion was previously withdrawn from a council agenda last December — at the time, the Ward 11 councillor consented to the withdrawal, suggesting he would “be working on a possible revision” that would be vetted again by council’s priorities and finance committee. But Farkas did not elect to return to the priorities and finance committee to have the motion vetted again.
“I’ve arrived at a difference of opinion with the mayor on whether this motion can actually be tabled at council,” Farkas said. “At this point, the mayor has deemed the motion to be out of order. I intend to challenge that ruling on Feb. 3.
“I’m asking for a fair sounding from council.”
Farkas isn’t the only council member interested in seeing changes made to the transition allowance.
Rather than a wholesale end to the allowance, some council members would like to see changes made to either limit the size of payment or disqualify retirement-age council members from collecting the cash.
The allowance is meant to assist outgoing councillors since they aren’t eligible to collect employment insurance when they leave office and are unable to job-hunt while serving council for ethical reasons.
I’ve arrived at a difference of opinion with the mayor on whether this motion can actually be tabled at council.