London, Ont., city council’s strategic priorities and policy committee (SPPC) has approved temporary raises for the deputy mayor and budget chair roles.
The original motion from Mayor Josh Morgan proposed a 12.5 per cent increase in pay for the deputy mayor and a 10 per cent increase for the budget chair to match the increased workload that comes with the roles.
A passed amendment to the motion raised the budget chair’s increase to 12.5 per cent as well.
Council voted 9-5 to give the raises, with councillors Anna Hopkins, Corrine Rahman, David Ferreira, Jerry Pribil and Sam Trosow voting against.
In the original motion, the mayor said he will be increasing the workload of the positions as well, with the deputy mayor taking on the responsibility of chair of SPPC and the governance working group (GWG) and the budget chair will be responsible for chairing the audit committee.
“It’s my desire to properly compensate people for the work they’re doing as well as the work that I anticipate adding to their plates,” Morgan said at a SPPC meeting Tuesday.
“I couldn’t possibly add that additional work without coming before council to ask if they would be supportive of a temporary increase (in) compensation through the rest of this term.”
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Having filled both roles himself, Morgan adds that the voluntary roles bring “hundreds of hours of extra work,” and that he sees the positions evolving as the term continues.
Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis says that while he’s happy to do the duties that come with the deputy mayor role, he can’t continue to do it without “some form of recognition.”
“I can’t keep making sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice and continue to just have it expected as just part of the job,” Lewis said.
“For the first time in eight years, I am not involved in managing or helping coach a minor hockey team, something I love to do. The duties of the city that I was asked to take on require me to give more time and energy.”
Council was unanimous in recognizing the amount of work the roles both bring, but some wanted more discussion when it came to the matter of raises.
Trosow made it clear that more discussion was needed before the temporary raises could be put in place.
“I think it’s important that the governance working group be directed to review this issue…and have some further discussion about it. I don’t like the idea, especially when the budget is on the table itself, to be making ad hoc changes to this”
Ward 11 Coun. Skylar Franke put forward a motion to defer the matter to the next meeting of the GWG.
“This goes to March, we have a discussion and we say, ‘Spot on, this is excellent’…and then at that point, we’ll have had a thorough discussion, we’ll be able to understand the rationale and percentages, as well, perhaps at that point, we could also do a bit of the larger review.”
The motion was defeated 8-6, with councillors Rahman, Pribil, Ferreira, Hopkins, Trosow, and Skylar Franke the yea votes.
Ward 3 Coun. Peter Cuddy likened the roles to those of a corporation, with the deputy mayor and budget chair being the second-in-command and chief financial officer respectively and compared the compensation to that of a mid-level manager.
“You couldn’t hire somebody to do this job for what we pay them. These are the people that are making the decisions that are leading us under the mayor. To deny this is embarrassing.”
Morgan admits that the compensation proposed is nowhere near a “fair” point, but that the raises go a small way to recognizing the workload Lewis and Peloza took on.
“I feel this is a short-term recognition of additional workload that is probably not accurate compensation of what needs to be done in the long term.”
The raises are subject to review when the GWG next meets on March 25.
Both the raises and responsibilities will be subject to final approval at the next city council meeting on Jan. 23.
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