With the exception of the mayor, Chatham-Kent councillors haven't seen a pay increase since 2004, but that could change with a majority vote on Monday.
The Citizen Review Committee convened in October and November last year and suggested to raise the honorariums of CK's mayor and council, which will go to a vote at the January 21 meeting. The committee was established in 2001 and is comprised of independent, neutral citizens who review such things as the honorarium, benefits and travel training for the municipality's council.
According to Cathy Hoffman, general manager of corporate services with Chatham-Kent, the reason the committee suggested a pay increase is because the federal government eliminated tax-exemptions for the payment of municipal councillors.
"We think about providing compensation for time spent and costs incurred that mayor and council do as part of the work that they do in the community," Hoffman said. "It's important to try and maintain rates of compensation that will continue to engage people and have a diversity of candidates who are going to want to participate on council."
Hoffman added councillor pay in Chatham-Kent hasn't increased since 2004, yet an increase has been voted down multiple times.
The suggested increase for the mayor is from $93,605 a year to $110,000. Councillors currently get $27,700 and if Monday's motion is approved, that will increase to $32,000.
Hoffman said council will vote on the mayor's increase and council's separately. It will take a majority vote for both motions to pass, and if they do, council and the mayor will be compensated retroactively from when they officially took office in December last year.
Hoffman added the decision isn't necessarily as cut and dry as approving the whole increase or denying it. Hoffman said council can decide to make amendments to the recommendations as well. As an example, in 2017 the committee suggested the mayoral honorarium be increased to $103,000, but council voted against it 9-8. Instead, they decided to increase the pay to $93,605.
At the same time, the committee recommended the councillor honorarium be increased to $31,000 but the motion was defeated 10-7. It was then suggested by council to increase the honorarium to $28,937 which was defeated 12-5. The outcome was no increase to the councillor honorarium.
Hoffman said the honorarium increase isn't a suggestion from administration but municipality staff help and support the committee anyway they can. Administration helped the committee gather data on how Chatham-Kent's rates compare to what other municipalities pay its councillors. She said the committee went with the average household income to help calculate what to raise the honorarium to, after considering how the elimination of the tax-exemption would affect councillors.
"It is taken from the BMA Management Consulting study from municipalities," Hoffman said. "[The committee] uses that for the marginal rate. Because each councillor makes a different amount of money, their individual tax rates will vary one to the other."
The annual financial impact to taxpayers would be a total of $97,326 if the suggestions are approved as is.