City councillors are underpaid by comparison to their provincial peers, so they've ordered a study into a system for fair remuneration.
"It would be to look at peer municipalities, of a similar size" said Kathleen Soltis, head of the Corporate Services Department at City Hall. "We would get a sense of what they pay their mayors and council members for that work."
Informal indications show Prince George pays its mayor of the day "in the ballpark of our peer group," Soltis said, but the stipend council members receive is "well below" the others around B.C.
P.G.'s council remuneration system has not had a review in more than a decade. Currently, the mayor's position is itself a full-time job, while councillors typically have regular jobs and do council work on the side.
Each year the city's elected officials are given a small cost of living raise in accordance with the wage policy set up in 1999.
This year they will get a two per cent increase, bringing the mayor's full salary to $92,787.89 and the councillor's stipend to $23,888.22.
"They got moved up to the low side of where they needed to be, by comparison, when the 1999 study was done, but over time different municipalities made salary choices based on things not linked to inflation or averaging with their peers, so their compensation packages are much higher and ours has gone along at a much slower pace," said Soltis.
Comparing council remuneration to the rest of the province is a little discomforting to one local, who said during The Citizen Coffee Talk it may cause remuneration to just keep increasing.
No matter what wage system is adopted, it will not take effect for this council. It was the recommendation of the city's Finance and Audit Committee that no matter what recommendations are made, the members of the current council should be disqualified. Council accepted this recommendation, stipulating that any changes should be saved until 2012, after the next municipal election when, in theory, they might all be replaced by others.
Mayor and council are also paid small amounts to offset the cost of their travel when it is for municipal duties, but this is dependent on the general budgeting process.
WHO DECIDES THE PAY GRADE?
Unbiased Prince George residents will study the issue of remuneration for Prince George's municipal elected officials over the next two to three months, said Kathleen Soltis, Corporate Services director for the City of Prince George.
"It will be done by members chosen from the community, so it is a group that represents the public," said Soltis.
"The Finance and Audit Committee will decide how the public members are chosen, but the intention is for a broad representation: someone representing labour, someone representing business, someone who sat on the previous committee that looked into this, someone familiar with how councillors work."
It is expected there will be "probably four or five members" of this study group, said Soltis.
In 1999 the members of the committee included Lynne Fehr, Ken Mac Adam, Dave Wilson and Horst Sander.
They, and a similar committee in 1992, stressed the importance of B.C. communities of similar size having a similar compensation package for their elected officials.
