Colwood council has unanimously agreed to give themselves a generous bump in pay — though it comes in lower than what was previously planned.
Following the recommendations of a human resources consultant hired by the city, Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi’s yearly salary will increase to $55,785 from $35,436, while councillors will jump to $27,892 — half the mayor’s new pay — from the current $17,718.
Staff has been directed to draw up a bylaw that will be adopted in the next few months. The increases are retroactive to Jan. 1, and pay will increase annually based on the consumer price index for Greater Victoria.
Consultant Jo MacDonald said the new pay formula was based on remuneration for 20 local governments in B.C.
She was directed by council to suggest salaries that put Colwood in the 50th percentile of those municipalities, which included Central Saanich, Comox, Duncan, Esquimalt, Gibsons, Ladysmith, Langford, Metchosin, North Saanich, Oak Bay, Parksville, Port Alberni, Powell River, Qualicum Beach, Saanich, Sidney, Sooke, Victoria, View Royal and White Rock.
MacDonald said comparative factors included population and geographic area, population densities, operating budgets and annual expenditures and service responsibilities.
The new salaries came in lower than those suggested in a motion passed last summer by the previous council, based on recommendations of a citizens’ committee.
Based on Colwood’s population of about 19,000, the citizens’ committee proposed raising the per-resident stipend for mayor from $1.74 to $3.22, which would mean the mayor’s salary would increase to $61,054.42 and councillors’ — kept to half the mayor’s compensation — to $30,527.21.
The committee of the whole motion passed 5-2, with Kobayashi and Coun. Cynthia Day opposed.
The mayor and council were set to get their raises in January.
But in December, a few months after the civic election, when Kobayashi successfully unseated Rob Martin as mayor after campaigning in part on quashing the remuneration formula, council repealed the pay increases and brought in the consultant for another look at compensation.
Kobayashi was noticeably uncomfortable with giving himself a raise.
“This was an intense discussion … this is the only place I know of where you can approve your own wages,” he said. “It’s the weirdest thing. Municipal government is different to me. It’s never a win-win situation. But in good conscience, I know we followed a darn good process.”
He credited MacDonald for using the Union of British Columbia Municipalities guidelines on pay increases and said it was “much more professionally done” than the previous council’s method of a citizen task force.
“The numbers, thank God, were less than recommended before from my perspective,” said Kobayashi. “It’s a difficult thing to go through. In the future I think we should always use a consultant to help us.”
The pay formulas will be reviewed in the third year of each council’s four-year term to maintain a competitive structure with other similar municipalities, according to Monday’s motion.
The pay increases will cost an extra $81,000, which could be drawn from a 0.45% increase to property taxes, or come out of surplus funds, said Colwood staff.
Day noted that even with a slight increase, Colwood’s current projected property tax increase of 6.43% in 2023 would still fall below the inflation threshold of 7%.
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