Sunshine LIst tops 300 in Vaughan

Payroll ‘leap year’ cited as one contributing factor to increase

Yorkregion.com
March 31, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Vaughan’s former city manager still ranks among the municipality’s highest paid employees despite his abrupt - and largely unexplained - departure in 2013.

Clayton Harris netted a little more than $257,700 in salary and benefits for 2015, according to the latest list of public sector employees earning more than $100,000, released by the provincial government last Thursday afternoon, just before the Easter long weekend.

Harris, who reportedly “retired” suddenly in April 2013, after two-decades working at the city, was Vaughan’s top earner on the so-called Sunshine List for 2014 with pay of $262,400.

Harris isn’t the only one-time occupant of the city manager’s chair to land on the list for 2015.

Former interim city manager Barbara Cribbett took the helm after Harris departed and stayed in the post until her retirement last spring. She pulled down just more than $187,000 in 2015.

Her replacement, current City Manager Steve Kanellakos, was paid nearly $196,000 for the eight months he worked in Vaughan last year.

Kanellakos is vacating the corner office at the end of April to take the top job at the City of Ottawa, where he worked for nearly 15 years before coming to Vaughan.

Not surprisingly, given the rash of senior staff departures in recent years, several other former City of Vaughan employees landed on the 2015 Sunshine list.

Former commissioner of community services Marlon Kallideen, who suddenly departed in January 2014, was paid $214,218 last year.

Former finance commissioner John Henry, who quietly parted ways with the city in 2015, topped last year’s list, racking up nearly $280,600 in salary and benefits.

Vaughan’s former solicitor MaryLee Farrugia and Joe Pittari, former commissioner of strategic and corporate services, both of whom abruptly “resigned” in Feb. 2015, were paid $244,000 and $265,000 respectively.

City officials declined to discuss the presence of former staff members, and Harris specifically, on the Sunshine list.

In response to a question about the matter, directed to Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, the city issued the following statement:

“Organizations are not static and staff changes do occur. However, the City cannot release details about personnel matters as they are confidential.”

Overall, the city had a total of 316 employees earning $100,000 or more in 2015.

That was up by 80 from 2014 when there were 236 city employees on the list.

The increase was driven, in part, by a jump in the number of firefighters climbing up the six-figure salary ladder, which rose to 146 from 105.

Fire Chief Larry Bentley chalked that up to a couple of factors.

First off, he said, 2015 was a so-called payroll leap year, meaning for those collecting a paycheque every two weeks there were 27 pay periods instead of 26 - something that happens roughly every 11 years.

Secondly, he said, the force racked up some overtime last year in order to “maintain service levels.”

If you take firefighters out of the equation and there were 170 employees in the Sunshine club, up from 131 from 2014.

In response to an additional question, directed to the mayor, about the rising number of employees on the list, the city issued the following statement:

“A number of factors contributed to the increase in employees on the Sunshine List including overtime, acting pay, vacation payouts and retroactive payments. As well, there was a pay anomaly in 2015 that resulted in staff receiving one additional paycheque. ...This additional pay pushed some staff over the $100,000 threshold.”

When pressed by The Citizen for a direct response, Bevilacqua provided the following statement by email:

“I am proud of the dedicated and hard-working staff we have at the City of Vaughan. They come to work prepared to serve our residents and make this city a great place to live and raise our families. When one considers the high approval rating that our services receive from citizens, one need not look beyond our professional team at the city.  We invest in our people and the positive results are evident. Our aim is to attract the best and brightest people to deliver the quality programs and services Vaughan residents expect. That’s why the City’s salaries are at the mid-range of municipalities in the area.”