Mayor's inner circle approves plan to make city payouts more transparent

City hall is one step closer to removingsome of the guesswork fromthe way Winnipeg discloses public-servant salaries.

Council's executive policy committee voted unanimously Wednesday morning to approvea motionto improve the transparency ofthe city's annual compensation disclosure,whichlistspayouts to all employees who earn more than $50,000 a year in salaries and benefits.

St.James-BrooklandsCoun. ScottGillinghamauthored the motion in July, in the wake of questions about a $567,000 payout in 2015 to former acting chief administrative officer Deepak Joshi. The city could not break down his compensation due to what human resources staff called privacy issues.

• Council mulls more transparent way to disclose public-servant pay
• Deepak Joshi, former Winnipeg CAO, highest-paid city employee in 2015

Right now, the city displays compensation as a single lump sum. Along with lacking abreakdown ofseverance, benefits and regular salaries, this leads to questions about why some city employees appear to make vastly more money than others in the same job classification.

The motion, which still needs council approval later this month, would break down compensation into different categories.

"This is something that's exactly in keeping with the greater openness and transparency that we're showing at city hall," Mayor Brian Bowman said following the meeting.