After some procedural confusion, Olds council voted to accept the recommendations of a citizens' committee appointed last March to review council remuneration (money to compensate councillors for time spent on the job).
Dan Daley, one of three committee members, presented the recommendations to council based on the group's evaluation of 13 other communities, with a focus on five to help align the town's policy on council honoraria, benefit, and special service honoraria.
"Council asked, ëshould we be going back to the 2013 level of honoraria or should we maintain the actual current level of honoraria,'" chief financial officer Garth Lucas said, adding honoraria were looked at without seeing what the increase for the cost of living was. That sparked some discussion.
It was recommended that the base compensation to members of council, which is paid as a monthly honorarium, will remain the same at $2,650 per month for the mayor and $1,450 per month for councillors. These numbers do not take into account cost-of-living adjustments that have been allotted over the past four years.
The committee recommended that when extra honoraria are paid for involvement in additional committees or commissions as allowed, that they be forwarded to the town, at which point elected officials would be reimbursed.
Daley, with support from Lucas and chief operating officer Doug Wagstaff, said this would allow for more transparency by allowing the citizens to see a consolidated listing and find fully captured what each councillor receives, instead of having to read financial statements from a collection of commissions.
Coun. Mary Anne Overwater was opposed to this, arguing that transparency already existed. She moved that the recommendations be amended to exclude the change. That motion was defeated.
In addition, the committee recommended increasing per diem (per day) rates to a maximum of $325 for eight hours, as well as discontinuing personal vehicle mileage for the mayor within the community.
All recommendations were accepted, but will not take effect until after the fall election, to prevent council from approving changes that would benefit them directly. The full report can be found in the June 26 regular meeting agenda package on olds.ca.
