(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Vernon's next mayor and council will be looking at a 13 per cent pay increase come the fall plus a cost of living top-up.

Using a report that lacked important numbers, Vernon's mayor and council voted unanimously on the pay rise which will come in after the October 15 municipal election when a new mayor and council are elected.

The mayor's salary will increase to $108,626 from $96,292 and councillors will get $40,191, up from their roughly $35,000 current rate.

However, the report to council compiled by the Council Remuneration Committee contained few numbers and only listed the formula for how the per capita salary rate is calculated.

"There is no attempt to confuse the public," a City of Vernon spokesperson said in an email when asked why current salaries and projected pay hadn't been listed in the report.

Mayor and councillor salaries are based on a per capita rate of $2.44 per citizen, which remains unchanged. The most recent 2021 census shows Vernon's population grew roughly 10 per cent to 44,519 so the mayor will receive $108,626.

Councillors receive 37 per cent of the mayor's pay. Again, no specific figure is given in the report.

The pay rises are based on a report by the Council Remuneration Committee, a three-person committee from the community chosen by council.

Currently, former Vernon mayor Rob Sawatzky, VantageOne Credit Union chief executive Glenn Benischek, and retired engineering executive and past president of Funtastic Wee Yee sit on the committee.

The report that council voted in favour of also includes a cost of living adjustment but doesn't give any figures, or estimates as to what that may be.

The cost of living adjustment is linked to the B.C. Consumer Price Index, which was eight per cent higher in July 2022 than one year ago.

The committee recommended that remuneration for the mayor and council be adjusted once per year, by the four-year rolling average of the Consumer Price Index.

But the report didn't give any figures or estimates of what this amount would likely be.

"Until Council approves a policy, we don’t have enough data to calculate the figures. That’s why there are no specific amounts in the report," a City of Vernon spokesperson said.

iNFOnews.ca did not receive a reply when it asked how Vernon's mayor and council were supposed to make an informed decision and approve the policy if they were not given any numbers in the report.

Nonetheless, Vernon council voted in favour of the committee's recommendation for the pay rise.

In comparison, the next mayor of West Kelowna will make $88,240 a year, or $2.45 per resident and Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran was paid $110,986 plus $10,696 in expenses in 2021.

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