Meaford Council has given initial approval to recommendations from the Council Remuneration Committee that will see pay increases for the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The committee, which is made up of three Meaford residents, Miranda Lahtinen, an experienced forensic accountant, Ted Mallett, a past vice-president and Chief Economist with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and current Director of Forecasting with the Conference Board of Canada, and Phil Cant, a retired CIBC District Manager, made a presentation to Council during their November 15 meeting.
For five months from May through October, the committee convened with a mandate to provide an independent review of the compensation for members of Council.
The committee’s presentation noted that while remuneration for regular council members is in line with 17 comparator communities, Meaford’s mayoral position remuneration of $32,200 is 26 percent below the median ($43,730) of the 17 municipalities the committee used for comparison, and Meaford’s deputy mayor position pays $26,200, compared to the median of comparator communities of $29,270, nearly 11 percent below.
The committee recommended establishing firm ratios between councillor, deputy mayor, and mayoral remuneration that would see a councillor paid $25,000 per year, with the position of deputy mayor to earn 125 percent of the councillor remuneration, which would equal $30,700, and the mayoral position would be paid 185 percent of the councillor pay, which would equal $45,400.
The committee noted that had these remuneration rates been in place last year, it would have added just $16,000 to the municipality’s overall operating budget.
“Members of the committee were committed to ensure that the compensation provided is fair and reasonable and will attract a diverse and representative pool of candidates from the Municipality of Meaford residents wishing to seek election to council, and is seen as fair by tax payers,” noted committee member Phil Cant during the presentation to Council.
Council approved the recommendations during the November 15 committee of the whole meeting, and will have a final vote on the recommendation at their next regular meeting of council.
