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Misplaced priorities
It’s an odd look when politicians appear unaware they are in the business of politics.
County council—made up entirely of elected politicians—spent time last week, eyes wide and unblinking, trying to award themselves a 38 per cent pay hike. A few days later, they listened to a consultant explain that Shire Hall can’t afford what it does now and can’t fix its broken bits fast enough to keep them from getting worse.
Sure, life for many is unaffordable in Prince Edward County. But you know what might make it better: paying council members more. A lot more.
The lack of self-awareness is breathtaking. Some members seem so cloistered in their council bubble that they fail to see the look of horror on residents’ faces. Others— more worryingly—push ahead because they know better than you.
Of course, there is never a good time for elected folks to give themselves a wage hike—but there sure are some bad ones. This is a bad one. Council could hardly have picked a worse moment if they had tried.
Here is why.
This column is on the record as supporting proper compensation for elected officials. Council is vastly underpaid for the work they do—for the role they play. They are the governors of $110 million of annual spending. We put a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. We expect prudence and wisdom—yet we pay them as if they were slinging burgers.
It is a hard job. It is a minimum of 30 hours each month in meetings. Double that spent in preparation (when done properly). Public events. Phone calls. Emails. Texts. Grocery store encounters. Council members are asked to mediate myriad neighbour disputes, ranging from noisy parties to wayward livestock to untended shrubbery encroachment. It is not a part-time job— when done properly.
All this for $29,654 per year—just a smidge over the poverty line according to the Market Basket Measure compiled by Statistics Canada. It is wrong and should be changed.
Rectifying this, however, at a time when many households are grappling with rising costs in their daily lives, requires significant preparation and communication. Not nearly enough has been done so far.
The message has been complicated by the fact that Shire Hall hired a consultant to survey councillor compensation across comparable communities, which revealed that County representatives were close to the median in the comparator group. There were deficiencies in the consultant’s report for sure. But merely turning the consultant around to search for municipalities that pay more was a flimsy play.
Selling higher council compensation to residents and taxpayers might also be easier if there were fewer councillors around the table. Most municipalities with fewer than 100,000 residents manage with five council members and a mayor, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. Some have as many as nine. Prince Edward County has 14 council members.
The question of council size is on the ballot again this fall—for the second time in 16 years. Adopting proper compensation linked to a commitment to a smaller council seems a more palatable tack.
At a minimum, Council must table any further discussion of pay increases until it has made initial strides toward rightsizing municipal operations based on recommendations from a comprehensive structural analysis completed by Municipal VU.
Their report was presented to a committee of council last week. Their overriding conclusion is that the County is attempting to do too much with too few resources. It needs to decide what it wants to be, and get out of the business of being everything to everyone.
Yes, council members are underpaid. But work needs to be done before that is dealt with. Council must make a series of proactive, deliberate decisions about the business it is in. It must reduce the scope and scale of its activities. There is no more money to be drained from taxpayers.
Fix your house. Then we can talk about compensation.
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