34 East Gwillimbury staff make the Sunshine List in 2018
CAO Tom Webster was the town's highest paid earning $224,589 in 2018
Yokregion.com
April 18, 2019
Simon Martin
The 2018 Sunshine List saw 34 town of East Gwillimbury staff members make more than $100,000.
The town’s top earner was CAO Tom Webster who hauled in $224,589 in 2018 which was an increase from the $217,270 he made in 2017. Over the last two years Webster has received a 9.8-per cent increase in his annual salary which was $204,522 in 2016.
The raise can be traced back to 2016 when East Gwillimbury council approved a two-per-cent cost-of-living increase for town staff after a market compensation review. Details on the contents of the market compensation review were limited.
There was a one-page backgrounder on the town’s website, but the full report was only discussed in closed session. The backgrounder said the overall impact of the salary for town staff was approximately a three-per-cent increase in compensation. It went on to say that 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 because the review has not been made public. The adjustments from the market review were to 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 at the time of the study was much smaller than the municipalities compared.
Richmond Hill’s population is 216,000; Newmarket's is 85,920; Aurora's is 60,434; Whitchurch-Stouffville's is 45,335; Milton's is 102,920; Halton Hills' is 56,809; and Caledon's 74,534.
Other notable salaries in 2018 were Treasurer Mark Valcic at $184,339, Town Solicitor Dean Horner at $181,535, General Manager of Environmental and Infrastructure Services Mike Molinari at $175, 918, General Manager Parks, Recreation and Culture Aaron Karmazyn at $174,881, Fire Chief Phil Dawson at $175,107 and Mayor Virginia Hackson at $127,368.
