East Gwillimbury council gives itself, staff 2% raise in private session

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 29, 2016
Simon Martin

Some East Gwillimbury council members are questioning a decision to give council members and town staff a 2 per cent raise behind closed doors. Minutes from a special council meeting held Oct. 4 show the council approved the 2 per cent cost-of-living increase to town employees and themselves after a market compensation review.

The decision was made in closed session but the minutes from the meeting revealed a 3-2 vote, with councillors Marlene Johnston and James Young against the motion. 

“That’s why I didn’t support it. I felt the results should have been public,” Coun. Marlene Johnston said. “The vote should have occurred in public session.”

Young didn’t want to comment on whether the meeting should have been held in public or private, but said he voted no because he didn’t support the cost-of-living increases across the board.

Mayor Virginia Hackson said the decision was made in closed session because identifiable individuals were involved. Hackson said the market review showed the cost-of-living increases hadn’t kept up with inflation. “We have to make sure that we are competitive in keeping our staff,” Hackson said. “The discussion was not about council remuneration.”

Hackson said that issue won’t be discussed until after the electoral review that council is going to make a decision on in the coming months.

A recent look at councillor salaries in the northern six municipalities of York Region showed that East Gwillimbury councillors were very highly compensated compared to surrounding municipalities.  Newmarket leads the way with a councillor salary of $48,655 per year, followed by East Gwillimbury at $43,800, Whitchurch-Stouffville at $34,322, Aurora at $28,611, King at $26,123 and Georgina at $25,547. 

The data led to some interesting questions: Why does an East Gwillimbury councillor make $15,000 more than one in Aurora, or close to $20,000 more than one in Georgina? 

In closed session, council also approved an increase in the annual car allowance of 10 per cent. Hackson received a car allowance of $8,910 in 2015, and each councillor received an allowance of $4,445.

Because the town made the decision in closed session, details on the contents of the market compensation review are limited. There is a one-page backgrounder on the town’s website but the full report is not public. The backgrounder said the overall impact of the salary for town staff is approximately a 3 per cent increase in compensation. The backgrounder also said the market review identified specific positions that required a salary adjustment to ensure competitiveness within the market comparator group. These town staff positions remain unknown at the moment because the review has not been made public.

The adjustments from the market review will be phased in over three years.

The municipalities the market review used as a comparison for East Gwillimbury were Aurora, Newmarket, Caledon, Richmond Hill, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Milton and Halton Hills.

East Gwillimbury’s population of 25,000 people is much smaller than all of these municipalities.

Richmond Hill’s population is 216,000, Newmarket 85,920, Aurora 60,434, Whitchurch-Stouffville, 45,335, Milton 102,920, Halton Hills, 56,809 and Caledon 74,534.