Council discusses pay raises at the June 11 meeting.
Image Credit: SOURCE/Screenshot of City of Kamloops live video feed.
June 24, 2013 - 3:26 PM
KAMLOOPS – City council decided earlier this month to give themselves a raise and to form a citizen task force to provide recommendations as to what councillors should be paid.
A total of five members will be selected for the task force, which is being asked to look at annual remuneration, annual and monthly allowances and indemnities, annual adjustment calculations, benefits and ongoing review structure and schedules.
It is expected recruitment for the group would take place between June 26 - July 12 and then applications will be reviewed and task force members selected by July 26. A minimum of three meetings will take place through the end of September and shortly afterwards a report will be presented to council.
Council asked for the task force when a consensus could not be reached over the issue of councillor raises earlier this month. Councillors Nancy Bepple, Nelly Dever, Tina Lange, Arjun Singh and Donovan Cavers had asked for the initial staff report during a May meeting, following a motion by Bepple. The report came back earlier this month and showed Kamloops council is the lowest paid among a survey of 12 other similar sized cities.
The same five councillors agreed to a $1,000 pay raise and the creation of a task force two weeks ago after a round of three other attempts at pay raises were voted down. An attempt to table the issue and another to create a task force before any raises were issued were also voted down.
Mayor Peter Milobar and councillors Pat Wallace, Marg Spina and Ken Christian did not agree to the initial report or the raise and task force creation. Though they all had different reasons for voting against a raise they all agreed this is not the time for a raise.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2013