It will be up to the next Campbell River council to decide whether a raise is in order.
The current council decided last week not to tackle the issue after a report suggested a $10,700 pay bump for the mayor and $4,300 for councillors. That would have brought the mayor’s pay to $80,200 and councillors to $34,800.
The staff recommendation was based on a compensation survey of similar B.C. municipalities that had been conducted by a consultant for the City of Courtenay.
Campbell River council decided to receive the staff report but not take any action on pay. It was required to be reviewed under rules set out in 2018 the Council Remuneration Task Force.
Coun. Claire Moglove says the pay is “quite adequate.”
“I will say though that I understand the need to have reasonable compensation, especially if we want to attract younger members of the community to run. Because, if they have a full time job and try to be on council, it’s extremely difficult,” she said.
Mayor Andy Adams says a 32 per cent increase is “not palatable” given the current economic situation, including high inflation and the city in the midst of negotiating union contracts.
“If we go up to what is the current average, then that just raises the bar and it becomes a leapfrogging that happens. Thirty-two per cent increase is much too much…I just don’t think this is palatable,” the mayor said.
Moglove agreed saying that as other municipalities adopt the average then there’s a snowball effect and it’s hard to “get off that type of a treadmill.”
In thanking staff for the report, Mayor Adams said council would “leave that (issue) for another day.”
