Despite a report recommending that the position of city councillor remain part-time, an attempted amendment came close to re-classifying it as full-time.
Council voted on Monday night to amend its policies on council remuneration to reflect the recommendations of the council remuneration review committee. Its final report was presented to and accepted by council at the beginning of February.
Coun. Len Bracko asked for the description of a city councillor as part-time to include the words half and three-quarter time so future city council candidates had a better idea of how much work the job entails.
"We need clarification to those who run to know how much time it takes," Bracko said.
Before municipal elections, candidates are given a booklet that outlines possible time commitments.
Coun. Malcolm Parker took Bracko's change one step further, trying to amend one of the policies to prescribe a specific range of hours a councillor might have to work, which he proposed would be 35 to 40 hours.
"I'm trying to align what we're saying here with what we tell people when we give out the handbook," Parker said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse felt embedding a specific number of hours in policy might be overly proscriptive, a point city manager Patrick Draper explained might be valid.
"If we're getting up to 35 and 40 hours, that is broaching a potential for full-time implications," Draper said.
Parker's amendment was subsequently defeated, but the wording suggesting by Bracko was passed.
Changes
The recommendations, which were accepted as proposed by the review committee, ties councillors' pay to 35 per cent of the mayor's, which becomes $90,000 after the committee proposed scrapping the mayor's $1,800 vehicle allowance. Councillors will now receive a salary of $31,500, up from $29,500. Future increases will be tied to the Average Weekly Earnings Alberta.
Council's benefits, however, do not include Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) coverage.
The issue of per diems will still require some clarity, which the remuneration committee called for in its report. Specifically, Crouse pointed out there was no specific mention of who had the authority to approve per diem submissions.
"What's ambiguous is, approved by who and if it's really an approval by mayor or council,"
Crouse said he and Draper would sit down to discuss how to further clarify the per diem policy.
Crouse made it clear to councillors that under the policy, duties or events a councillor attends as part of business can be refunded, but any extra tickets for spouses are on councillors' own dime. Any per diems paid to councillors for attending meetings of the Sturgeon Foundation, the Capital Region Board and the Alberta Capital Region Wastewater Commission are refunded back to the city by the three groups.
