Calgary city council agreed with a citizens’ committee to cut the mayor’s paycheque, but overturned other recommendations made by the group.
The citizen compensation review committee suggested reducing the mayor’s salary by six per cent to $200,747 per year.
Absent for Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Naheed Nenshi penned a note to council supporting the reduction of his salary.
“I’ve actually been saying for some years that I thought a previous committee had pegged the mayor’s salary too high,” Nenshi wrote. “Their rationale was that all salaries in Calgary are higher than in other cities – indeed the median family income in Calgary even in this economic downturn is $20K more than the national average.”
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The group also recommended leaving councillor salaries at the current amount – $113,416.
While agreeing to retain the system in which councillors’ pay is tied to Alberta average weekly earnings, council rejected the recommendation of voting yearly on whether to accept the raise or decrease that comes with that system.
One area of the committee’s findings which caused councillors to bristle was a suggestion to eliminate the transition allowance given to retiring councillors or those who fail in their bid for re-election. That allowance is based on two weeks of pay for each year of service, to a maximum of 52 weeks.
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Council members bristled at the suggestion from the citizen’s committee that a term of office was similar to an individual in the private sector who takes a four-year job and receives no payment at the end of the term. The committee felt if a politician loses an election, it’s similar to getting fired with cause in the private sector.
The recommendation to eliminate the allowance was ultimately rejected.
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