Chief of staff hired for Richmond Hill deputy mayors, councillor

"Whatever his salary is, trust me, City of Richmond Hill is going to reap reward in multiples of that."

Yorkregion.com
April 1, 2019
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill councillors have created a new position to assist their work, but it's not for all of them.

Mike Makrigiorgos was named chief of staff for Deputy Mayors Joe DiPaola and Carmine Perrelli as well as Ward 1 Coun. Greg Beros, recently appointed as the city's alternate regional councillor.

Makrigiorgos is responsible for providing supervision and advice for the three council members, communicating among councillors, as well as building relationship with provincial and federal government.

Before taking the position in Richmond Hill, Makrigiorgos worked for former Toronto city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti - one of the longest-serving and most controversial Toronto politicians - who lost his spot on council in last October’s municipal election after serving for 23 years.

For more than two decades, Makrigiorgos has worked alongside five different councillors in Toronto, he said.

"We’re very lucky to have him," said Perrelli, who declined to disclose how much Makrigiorgos is paid for the role on privacy grounds. "Whatever his salary is, trust me, City of Richmond Hill is going to reap reward in multiples of that."

Makrigiorgos, who started his new job in mid-March, said he was very excited to work with the three councillors and would like to expand his service to more members on council in the future.

The chief of staff said he was “happy” with the offer made by the three councillors who "worked it out" among themselves by utilizing their budget for administrative support.

Council approved the operating budget for 2019 on Feb. 26 at a special council meeting, which included an increase of $292,000 for administrative support, yorkregion.com reported.

The budget provides an additional $142,000 for DiPaola and Perrelli’s staff support ($71,000 each), and a $25,000 allowance for each ward councillor.
Mayor Dave Barrow previously moved to delete the additional staffing support for the regional councillors, which was voted down by DiPaola, Perrelli, Coun. Tom Muench and Coun. Castro Liu at a budget meeting Feb. 12, yorkregion.com reported.

"In a growing community like ours, with the types of budget we have, the types of capital projects we've got going on, the demand on politicians for strategic direction and everything else is growing every day," said Beros, who initiated the idea of hiring a chief of staff.

This new position is not unheard of among municipalities in the GTA, but a chief of staff often works for the mayor or the whole council.

For example, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti hired Bryan Frois in November 2017 as his chief of staff. He was paid $111,199 last year, according to the 2018 public sector salary disclosure.

But former Richmond Hill regional councillor Brenda Hogg finds it perplexing.

"I don’t understand the title, chief of staff. I needed a fulltime executive assistant only," she said. "To me, that is a few renegade councillors who have found a way around the budget, not hiring personal assistants and getting the taxpayers to fund their political coup."

"It's fallen under the radar, which I think it's a shame. It's wrong," Richmond Hill resident Marj Andre said. "Why now do we need a chief of staff? There has been no real public discourse on why there was a need for this position."

Andre also asked how the councillors would justify the increased council support when council works to keep tax increase low, especially with the cuts on the increase in the operating budget for the library board services and fire services.

"This is a tool that we - me, Joe and Greg – need in order to achieve the goal of bringing tax down and being most efficient. If you want to make cuts, please don’t cut from the tools that I need to do my job," Perrelli responded.

On Feb. 26, council adopted a $217,100 operating budget increase -- 2.4 per cent up from 2018 – for the library board in 2019, which is significantly lower than the a 5.9 per cent hike originally recommended by the library board.

Perrelli noted that after researching and working with city staff, council determined 5.9 per cent budget increase was "unwarranted."

"If they’re telling you they don’t have enough money to do their job, they’re being disingenuous," Perrelli said.

DiPaola has yet to respond to requests for comment.