Rhino's Ramblings - Are They ????

By Robert Thomas - Opinion/Commentary

It has to be one of the biggest lightning rod issues at Council in the past few months and predictably it has many voters in the community none to happy.

It’s an issue which has more than a few people questioning how Council can approve giving the next elected Council a 20 plus percent remuneration increase. A Council which many watchers of the goings on down at City Hall see as benefitting from. As they likely will be re-elected given the advantage incumbents have over new challengers.

Simply put, despite the fact Council members say they are increasing the remuneration for those elected on November 9th many Council watchers see the seven elected officials as running for re-election.

They are in fact voting their own pay increase no matter how they present it.

Some people new to Moose Jaw civic politics may not be aware of this but the remuneration our civic politicians recieve has been a lightning bolt issue spanning back well over 30 years. We have had direct grassroots democracy when it comes to not only what our civic politicians are paid but also their eventual workload by referendum.

Yes the R word has come up time and again when it comes to what our local elected officials not only get paid but also in their actual workload.

After cutting pay and then trimming the number of councillors from ten to six the R word tried to stike some sort of a balance by increasing the number of councillors from six to eight. But like Council’s remuneration that idea was cut as part of a civic vote.

It is an issue which has come up again and again as successive Councils had members who questioned their workload. It is or maybe was an area only the brave or perhaps foolhardy elected official dare venture into.

To get around this there has in the past ten years been two independent reviews which are suppose to permanently set Council’s remuneration once and for all.

The first independent review was conducted by Bob Linner the former city manager for Regina in 2009.

In his report Linner argured that the compensation for elected officials in Moose Jaw was low in comparisson to what was being paid in other larger centres. Linner argured by increasing Council’s remuneration it would benefit local democracy as it would help encourage the best candidates to run.

Linner based his remuneration recommendations on how the cities of Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina were compensating their elected officials and that is to pay the mayor and council based upon a percentage of what a provincial cabinet minister is paid.

It was to be the be all to end all when it came to compensting our elected civic officials.

But here we are a decade later and the City is right back where it started our elected officials saying they are not compensated enough for their time and efforts.

So in 2019 a new committee was struck as basically a sidebar of the fairness initiative to remunerate Council after the Canada Revenue Agency cut the 1/3 tax free portion of their earnings.

Council voted themselves a top up in remuneration to pay for the lost income tax benefit. Then in more ways than one decided to grab for the golden ring.

So while they were at it they threw in a remuneration panel to take a look at properly compensating Council. In many ways there are those on Council in my opinion who conveniently shifted the blame and public outcry from themselves onto an independent panel.

In the end the latest rendition of an independent panel decided after their investigation the Linner Report was no longer valid and there needed to be a new formula that reflects the workload involved as well as what peer cities pay their elected officials.

The formula they came up with was paying the mayor what an MLA earns and the councillors 33.33 percent of that. It is a formula similar to what Linner promoted but it is also based upon a higher base amount for the mayor.

For the next Council - whomever gets elected in November - the proposed pay increase in many residents' minds is staggering.

Especially given the economic realities out there exacerbated by COVID - 19.

Remuneration Panel member Greg McIntyre (who was the Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce representative) told Executive Committee given the amount of work the mayor must do locally compared to an MLA the remuneration proposed was appropriate. For McIntyre the mayor has more impact than an MLA locally and so justifiably deserves the same amount.

The one thing missing for me in this line of thinking is the same could to some extent be said about the MP and what they are paid and the impact they have on the city.

For many it is a tough sale.

One of the biggest issues many are talking locally with the proposed pay increase is the effect COVID - 19 has had on the local economy. As Councillor Brian Swanson mentioned the people paying the greatest price for the pandemic are lower income people and Moose Jaw has its fair share of lower income people.

It is a theme which Councillor Crystal Froese took when she voted against increasing the remuneration. The pandemic is on-going and there is a good chance a second wave could engulf the province and the city. Economically it is not a good time to be voting to pay Council more money according to Councillor Froese.

The pandemic and its effect is something that more than a few mentioned when it came to remuneration for Council.

But the panel's parameters did not encompass taking the local economic situation into account when making their final decision. There was no mechanism to see if there is fairness in introducing the economic uncertainties.

But with that though it does not mean the panel did not already have any insight into the economic problems facing Moose Jaw?

One needs only to think back to last budget where panel member Greg McIntyre encouraged the City to borrow as part of a report he presented to Council. In questioning surrounding the report McIntyre admitted the regional economy was in recession due to two years of drought. A recession impacting Moose Jaw.

There is however one area the panel did weigh in on and in some ways it is something they maybe should not have. And that is the mayor’s car allowance. In my opinion it is an area the panel should have taken a broader look. A broader look at the provincal and civic legislation.

They can correct me if I am wrong but nowhere do I see in the provincial legislation a mayor must have a driver’s license and a car. It is in some ways an added frill when you really think about it. It prevents someone who may be the best candidate but does not have a driver’s license for running for mayor. In my opinion in many ways it takes a shot at, but not only at, people with physical difficulties running for mayor.

There also was no mechanism where Council’s remuneration is based upon some sort of performance. The comments from residents who took part in an on-line survey about the shape of the roads and potholes in front of residents homes was seen as noise and in many ways greatly discounted their responses.

Despite the immediate economic realities the panel's report was suppose to in many ways pay elected officials appropriately for their efforts to run Moose Jaw without not overpaying them but at the same time encouraging more people to run.

It’s a carrot in front of the cart approach to hopefully get more qualified and new people to jump into the political ring. Something the Linner report was suppose to solve.

The best of the best should have already thrown their hat into the electoral ring given what Linner put forward.

With that said being on Council can be a stressful job. There is a lot of time commitment and stress involved to go out and try to better the community.

Certainly there are rewards to be had which are not financial. Perhaps it is personal satisfaction for helping, being part of a solution all the way up to feeding an ego by being the boss which drives council members to one degree or another.

It leaves me questioning is it all about money or is there some other intrinsic value to be had by successfully running for Council? Is this the true means to get out the best people?

What I personally found highly disappointing is the panel failed to go into any depth into the changing workload for Council. If you take a really good look at it it has in my opinion actually dropped and here is why.

Council no longer meets weekly and are now in a regular twice monthly Council meeting format. Executive is no longer on a separate night.

They also have streamlined and cut committees of Council. They have taken away citizen input and voices which in my opinion was done as a time saving effort. They have ironically already voted to cut their workload at the very time they are saying the committee work is a lot of effort, time and work.

With that said though I am wondering how many residents will notice? Will anybody in the end really care about what is in the process of happening?

Will the entire remuneration issue end later this evening or will it be an election issue in just under four months time?