St. Albert city council has postponed discussion of how council members are compensated, after one report recommended changes that could cost $80,000 more each year.
Legislative initiative coordinator Ryan Osterberg presented an administrative report at the Nov. 21 meeting, reviewing the recommendations including the council remuneration committee’s final report.
The committee report came in Sept. 9, and the committee subsequently disbanded. That report provides several recommendations for changes to council compensation, including increasing the pay for councillors and the mayor and changes to how per diems and expenses are calculated.
The overall cost of the changes recommended in the committee report would be roughly $80,000 per year, including the increases to base salary and the elimination of per diem payments. Council has postponed discussion of remuneration until 2017.
Osterberg explained administration looked at the pros and cons of some of the recommendations included in the committee report, but only includes one specific recommendation – not adopting the draft policy document the committee provided.
“Some of the changes being proposed don't necessarily line up with the wording of the policy they've recommended,” he said.
Other than the one recommendation, the Nov. 21 administration report only looks at some of the potential impacts of the report’s recommendations, without advising for or against any of them.
Administration pointed, for example, to the logistical challenges with eliminating council per diem payments, or the potential inequity resulting from changes to how the city provides contributions for retirement purposes.
“We didn't want to step into the politics of council remuneration, which is why we only suggested that one recommendation be held,” interim city manager Chris Jardine explained.
But several council members expressed concerns about why their proposed changes weren’t included as motions for debate this week. Coun. Cathy Heron said she had provided notice of motion immediately after council received the committee’s report.
“You told me to wait for the admin analysis of the report, which came today so I had assumed my motions would come today as well,” she said.
Coun. Bob Russell expressed concern about some of the specific changes with respect to the city providing equipment for councillors to use, such as printers and paper.
Chief legislative officer Chris Belke explained council cannot make changes to the report the committee made, but rather can recommend which of the committee’s recommendations are implemented, and whether to alter those recommendations.
Coun. Sheena Hughes moved to postpone debate on any remuneration changes until January, with council members providing proposed amendments for debate by early December. Council unanimously approved that plan.
Jardine said it was unlikely anything would come back to council before the new year, given the time-consuming budget process this month followed by the holiday season in December.
“It's a challenging time of year. I think best-case scenario is you're looking at the end of January to have something turned around.”
The matter is expected to come before council again the standing committee of the whole meeting Jan. 16, 2017.
