Report recommends hefty pay hikes for Fredericton city council

A consultant's report recommends a pay hike for Fredericton's mayor and council that would increase their pay by thousands of dollars per year.

The recommendation was tabled at a special council-in-committee meeting held Wednesday evening.

Kevin Malone, author of the report and former chief civil servant for the province, recommended that compensation for the mayor, deputy mayor and councillors climbto the median level of comparable municipalities in the Maritimes.

That means an increase of 13.5 per cent in the mayor's salary and 29 per cent in the councillors' paycheques.

Mayor Mike O'Brien said the decision wasn't made lightly and he's aware of the optics of council essentially givingthemselves a pay raise.

"It's very awkward," said O'Brien.

"I mean, how many people have to do that?"

O'Brien said he thinks a bylaw should be put in place to deal with council pay increases through an independent body and any increase currently on the table should be deferred until after next spring's municipal election.

A job that's 24/7

Greg Ericson, chair of the cityfinance committee, believes city councillors are underpaid andthe remuneration for council hasn't been "substantially" looked at in 20 years.

"In 20 years the job has changed," he said.

"We have social media now. We have a higher public standard for engagement and that requires councillors to have different skill sets.And to spendtheir time outside of city hall in the community, holding community meetings and engaging with public groups."

He said his role as city councillor requires him to be on call 24/7 and councillors should be paid for that.

Ericson uses an example of returning home from a council meeting at 10 p.m. on Wednesday. After that he responded to issues of vandalism in his ward, which included speakingwith the citizens who found the damage and encouraging them to contact police.

"That doesn't wait for a nine to five response."

Stuck in the middle

The report studied remuneration in Saint John, Moncton, Dieppe, Charlottetown, Summerside and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

The mayor's annual salary would rise by more than$8,000 annually to $79,584; that ofdeputy mayor by more than $8,000 to $38,920and a councillor's pay would climb almost $7,000 to $32,600.

The city first broached the subjectof raising council salaries earlier this year after a federal tax break was eliminated.

Theperk allowed elected officials a one-third tax break on their council salaries. The pay hikes currently under debate were proposed to make council "whole."

Malone said that of the cities he studied for his report, Fredericton was the least transparent.

He said he tried to gather input from all councillors, but only seven of 12 took him up on his offer.

Of those, five agreed to interviews while two would only submit written comments.

The proposedincreases will be voted on as part of the budget process later this year.