Limit salary bumps for staff, council

Editor: 

At the all-candidate meeting in New Lowell I asked those running what they would accept as their salary in light of the loss of the previously available 30 per cent tax-free component.

The responses provided a very good insight into the moral compasses of incumbent councillors, none of whom pointed out to electors that a company had already been hired to review council salaries and that the process was already underway. New candidates, two of whom were not aware they even got paid, expected (and were happy) to provide their time as a public service for free!

One week before being sworn into office as mayor and just after the previous council voted in the new wage structure for councillors, we have Mr. Measures stating that “it’s a full-time job with part-time pay” – Why did he not make that concern for the workload and salary known before asking to be elected?

The mayor and deputy mayor have two income streams, one from Clearview and the other from Simcoe County, in 2017 our Mayor was paid $16,264 (+ $3,272 in “expenses”) and Deputy Mayor Burton got $15,779 (+ $3,407 in “expenses”). Depending on their attendance at county the mayor will be getting over $53,000 and his deputy over $43,000 plus expenses and health benefits. Not bad for what really is a part-time job,

Linking council salaries to staff increases is one way that council can drastically increase their incomes (since they vote upon staff increases outside of any Union contracting) without it looking like they are voting themselves a raise. The beneficiaries of this taxpayer largesse will be both the “million-dollar staff club” and the nine council members (most municipalities in Ontario have five councillors including the mayor and deputy). Once again all discussion of these matters took place in-camera (in the presence of the four newly elected councillors), hiding behind the “excuse for a closed meeting” that they were also determining staff increases which are apparently now already known and yet will not be publicly disclosed until the next budget almost a year from now.

In 2016-2017 CAO Sage was given a 6.89 per cent increase and has received a total of 22.95 per cent in increases from 2014 to 2016 – Is this going to be the standard upon which future Clearview council salaries will rest?

If this new council wants to establish any basis for future trust in this regard, they should limit the remuneration increases for both senior staff and councillors to the same standard that the federal government uses for seniors’ pension and benefits.

I hope all of our residents have a very prosperous New Year, our mayor and council certainly will!

Peter Lomath, 

Creemore.