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Pay them more – if they show up

April 3, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Todd Taylor

How do you feel about the amount of income that local politicians receive? Do you think they make too much money for what they do?

The average councillor in Orangeville received $28,000 for services rendered over the last year. The complexities and increased duties of the Mayor position translated to a larger salary for him than for the rest of council. The Mayor of Orangeville received $51,000 to lead our town. In addition to the basic salaries, local politicians received a portion of their salary tax free.

In addition to being compensated for council duties, politicians can earn supplementary income if they are a member of Dufferin County Council ($19,000), the Police Services Board ($5,000), and the Orangeville Hydro Board ($10,000). These three boards require members to be fully dedicated, as the content covered is complex and important for our community. It is essential that attendance on these committees be high.

Candidly, I do not think councillors in our town make enough money for what they do. The personal sacrifice that each member makes is significant. Specifically, their personal reputations take a beating in this world of social media. The average citizen is quite comfortable writing pointed comments about their politics on Facebook and Twitter, while “hacks” like me put thoughts in the local newspaper. It can be difficult and I imagine hurtful for the elected official and their families. No sound-thinking citizen enters local politics simply for the money, instead they want to make a difference.

I have stated before in this column that I am fine with town council making decisions that I do not agree with. To me, as long as they have properly researched the issue, can defend their point of view, and display regular meeting attendance, I am at peace with the final outcome. I become annoyed or unsettled when it is apparent that a politician clearly does not understand what they are voting on or disrespect the process by not being present at all events.

I know it would be controversial, but I would like to implement a plan that compensates our politicians for each meeting that they attend. If the councillor is absent, they would not receive pay for that meeting. Currently, politicians are paid whether they attend meetings or not. Many in the private sector would be envious of such an arrangement.

If the pay for attendance scenario did occur, then a few of our local representatives would have received less compensation than what is referenced in this article. As an example, Councillor Nick Garisto missed a significant portion of time during this council term due to illness. Although I think that not all circumstances for missing meetings are the same, I still do not think it is right that Mr. Garisto would receive the same pay as Councillor Don Kidd who attended and participated in every meeting. The majority of councillors are self-described tax fighters; surely it cannot be a good feeling to receive money that was not earned.

During last week’s council meeting, Mayor Jeremy Williams was removed from the Hydro Board. In his place, council voted Don Kidd onto the board. Essentially, Councillor Kidd gained a $10,000 raise while the Mayor took a substantial pay cut. My understanding is that the Mayor’s attendance at Hydro was fine; however there have been issues with his presence on the Police Services Board and County Council.

In 2017, Mayor Williams missed three of the 11 police board meetings while Gail Campbell (who has been ill) was absent for four events. At the time of this writing, there have been three meetings in 2018, of which Mayor Williams has attended one and Councillor Campbell two.  During this term of council there have been 64 county council/general government services meetings, Deputy Mayor Warren Maycock missed seven of these meetings, while Mayor Williams was absent 30% of the time, having missed 18 meetings. One wonders if Orangeville Council was sending a message to the Mayor about his poor attendance on “pay” boards by removing him from the lucrative Hydro board position.

I think it is time for our town to look at meaningful political salaries that would entice a large number of highly skilled people to run at election time. Increasing the compensation would enable young, talented, and dedicated people to apply.

Currently, there is no one on council under the age of 50 and only two of the seven elected individuals are under 60 years of age. In addition, implementing a pay for attendance system would further reward dedicated politicians.

All of us want a productive council; we need to change the rules so that more people have an incentive to participate fully in making our town a better place.

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