City management pay cuts weren’t exactly as promoted
On March 30, the first report on the Vancouver city council agenda was the annual statement of financial information. It includes the compensation paid to all City of Vancouver employees who receive $75,000 or more per year.
In a news release the previous week, Mayor Kennedy Stewart described the city’s efforts to cut expenses in response to the pandemic.
According to the mayor, that included “laying off 1,800 staff and directing management and council to take 10 percent pay cuts” last year.
But did those 10 percent pay cuts really occur? Not according to the annual statement of financial information. It shows that compensation to recently departed city manager Sadhu Johnston declined by just 2.25 percent in 2020. His pay fell to $354,698 last year from $362,852 the previous year.
Gil Kelley, the recently departed general manager of planning, urban design, and sustainability, saw his income shrink by 3.82 percent in 2020. It dipped to $280,733 from $291,879 the previous year.
Director of finance, risk, and business planning Patrice Impey had a larger pay cut—4.47 percent. She collected $288,130 in 2020, down from $301,609 in 2019.
The general manager of arts, culture, and community services, Sandra Singh, received a 1.43 percent reduction in compensation—$262,140 in 2020, down from $265,955 the previous year.
The director of legal services, Francie Connell, was paid 1.48 percent less in 2020 from 2019. Her compensation fell from $298,689 to $294,273.
Last October, Global News reported that city managers received “merit-based pay hikes”, with the average being 4.8 percent. These were reportedly for those whose salaries were below the maximum pay range and who met or exceeded performance expectations.
That was according to then–deputy city manager Paul Mochrie, who is now the acting city manager.
Mochrie, by the way, took a 3.78-percent haircut in 2020, with his compensation falling from $288,475 in 2019 to $277,583.
Writing in Business in Vancouver last April, city-hall watcher Mike Howell noted that the pay cut for city management and nonunionized employees was “mandatory and comes in the form of an unpaid day off every 10 days”.
The mayor made no mention in his news release of pay raises for three of the four top Vancouver police brass in 2020.
Chief Adam Palmer was paid $374,673 ($363,216 in 2019)—an increase of 3.15 percent.
Deputy chief Steve Rai received a 0.77 percent hike in compensation, lifting his pay to $278,667. And deputy chief Howard Chow’s 2020 pay of $267,234 was up 1.8 percent over what he received in 2019.
Among the deputy chiefs, only Laurence Rankin saw a reduction, with his compensation falling 3.87 percent, to $254,433, in 2020.
The Vancouver police board pays police salaries with the help of a grant from Vancouver city council. Palmer’s raise and Johnston’s modest pay cut means that the police chief became the highest-paid person on the payroll of Vancouver’s local taxpayers in 2020. He oversees a force of more than 1,300 officers.
When council tried to freeze the police budget this year, the police board asked for a review from the provincial director of police services.
In effect, the police board wants an unelected provincial bureaucrat to override a decision by the elected Vancouver city council. And this comes after the Vancouver police budget increased from about $200 million in 2010 to $340 million in 2020.
The police board described the 2021 budget freeze as a “cut” because it had to absorb salary increases, which meant that it would have to reduce personnel to balance its budget.