A discussion on Town of St. Paul council remuneration at council’s regular Nov. 14 meeting saw some differences of opinions, with Mayor Glenn Andersen suggesting councilors may want to have individual budgets to restrain spending on attending conferences.
Council remuneration came up for its annual discussion during the meeting, with Coun. Don Padlesky saying he had studied a grid comparing communities with one another in terms of what they pay council.
“Some are higher; others are lower. I would be comfortable with just staying where it is,” he said, of St. Paul’s honoraria of $2,600/month for mayor and $1,500/month for council.
Coun. Dwight Wiebe noted that councilors did not put any increases in last year, and questioned whether council wanted to put a freeze in for two years. He suggested that “the honorarium go up by $100 for mayor and council, but the meeting rate stays the same.”
“I would be with Coun. Wiebe to add an extra $100,” agreed Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski.
Mayor Glenn Andersen said he personally agreed with Padlesky, adding he felt that “we’re at the high end,” compared to other municipalities for compensation for meetings. Council is compensated $225 for meetings that are four hours long or more, and $135 for meetings less than four hours, according to the agenda package.
In 2014, council remuneration was at $135,590 from the start of the year until Sept. 30. In 2015, that rose to $183,345, while in 2016, the cost increased to $188,500 up to Sept. 30, according to information from administration.
Andersen pointed to the rising costs of having councilors attending conferences, with some councilors wanting everyone to attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conferences, instead of just having the mayor, CAO and two councilors attend as has been done in the past.
“You guys keep saying, ‘Everybody should go to FCM, everybody should go to FCM,” he said. However, with next year’s Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference taking place in Ottawa, the cost for mayor and council to attend for four or five days would be $32,000, he said, not including meals or taxis or shuttles from the airport.
“It’s expensive to go for sure.”
Andersen suggested that each councillor could have a budget for attending conferences, and choose which ones they would want to attend, whether it’s provincial or federal meetings for municipalities or for conferences related to the various boards they sit on.
Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski said he wasn’t in favour of this suggestion, saying that if a councillor expended their whole budget on attending FCM, for example, “you can’t go educate yourself on your own committee. And that’s wrong . . . We’re beating ourselves.”
Coun. Edna Gervais said she couldn’t understand how other boards or councils manage to set aside money for training and getting ideas for grants and funding, and St. Paul can’t do the same.
“It’s an investment, is what I’m thinking,” she said, noting she heard about Concerto and Eco-West funding for green municipalities through attending a conference.
“And it’s all for the benefit of our community,” added Coun. Judy Bogdan, noting there’s no way to tell if a particular conference will be useful or not. “Sometimes you hit a really hot conference, and sometimes you get a lemon.”
Kwiatkowski said he felt that because this year was Canada’s 150th birthday, it would be an “exceptional FCM (meeting) in Ottawa; and again because of 150, I think we should go.”
Andersen said that council couldn’t decide on a whim to change policy based on one year’s FCM, a statement with which Coun. Norm Noel and Padlesky agreed.
Bogdan and Wiebe both said they were in favour of the individual budgeting idea, but Wiebe said he was sure what a fair dollar value would be.
Council decided to table the discussion and research further, while also getting input from CAO Holly Habiak, who was not at the meeting.
