Airport advisory committee members won’t be paid
Coun. Wright suggests paying aviation experts $500 for each meeting
There’s likely to be a new committee to advise city council soon on matters related to the Peterborough Airport — but the four citizens appointed to the committee won’t get paid, even though one city councillor advocated for it.
Coun. Stephen Wright suggested at a general committee meeting on Monday that four members of the public — to be appointed to the committee for their expertise in the aerospace sector or in law, for example — be paid $500 per meeting.
Although councillors voted to strike the committee, only Wright was in favour of paying citizen members.
Wright was not asking to pay the council members to serve on the committee: councillors gave preliminary approval on Monday to appoint Wright, Coun. Don Vassiliadis and Mayor Diane Therrien.
But he did want council to consider paying experts to sit on the committee — which, if the committee meets quarterly, would have added up to $8,000 a year that the council hadn’t planned on spending.
City treasurer Richard Freymond said that money could come from someplace such as the city’s contingency fund, or perhaps from any airport projects where money was aside but not spent.
Wright wanted council to consider it an investment, since he thinks the airport will resurge as a massive revenue-generator for the city post-pandemic.
“If we’re inviting some of the sharpest minds out there to help us gain that revenue, then it’s reasonable,” he said, adding that a refusal to pay committee members “is thinking a little too small.”
But Mayor Diane Therrien said that would set a precedent — particularly since people with expertise in various fields work as volunteers for many other advisory boards.
Many boards and committees advise city council on various issues, but city clerk John Kennedy told councillors that set
only two of them pay: the committee of adjustment (which has delegated authority to make decisions on minor variances to zoning bylaws, for example)
and the police services board (which oversees policing).
Coun. Lesley Parnell said she couldn’t support the idea of paying this new airport committee when other hardworking committees don’t pay their members.
“I can’t support adding remuneration to this committee — it’s not fair to the others,” she said.
Coun. Henry Clarke added that the airport had an advisory committee in the past that attracted “excellent” people to serve — people who were never paid for their work.
A final vote is expected Jan. 25 on striking the committee, with an application process for citizen appointments to follow.