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Mayors fairly compensated, York University political science expert says

YorkRegion.com
Dec. 16, 2015
Chris Simon

A peppery exchange between Newmarket’s mayor and a failed municipal politician kicked off the final town council meeting of 2015 Monday evening.

In the open forum session prior to the start of the meeting, Darryl Wolk, who ran unsuccessfully for the regional councillor’s seat in last year’s municipal election, accused Mayor Tony Van Bynen of being one of the highest-compensated mayors in Canada.

“You are the fourth highest-paid mayor; the facts are right there on the (town) website,” Wolk said, holding rolled up sheets of paper. “Does it make sense, at a time when we’re considering raising taxes again, to compensate the mayor of a town with less than 100,000 people more than the mayor of Vancouver and, quite possibly, Montreal and Toronto as well? How can you possibly say there’s any system in place that makes any kind of sense?”

The exchange came following the launch of a ‘Council Remuneration’ page on the town’s website last week, which outlines the salary, car allowance, board compensation and other expenses paid out to Newmarket’s mayor and regional and ward councillors in 2014.

According to the town, Van Bynen earned $167,303.60 last year, as well as $9,604 for sitting on the Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution board of directors.

Wolk claims the webpage is a direct result of former mayoral candidate Chris Campbell’s recent launch of a Freedom of Information request on the matter, the results of which should be released later this month.

Wolk also cited a Toronto Star article from April 2015, which listed Van Bynen as the fourth highest paid mayor in the country, though the newspaper has since issued a correction, stating its figures were incorrect.

The Star and other news agencies have reported Toronto’s Rob Ford received $178,884 in 2014, while Montreal’s Denis Coderre earned $160,997 and Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson got $154,346. In The Star’s article, numbers included city and regional government salary and taxable benefits, but excluded compensation for sitting on boards and agencies.

Council remuneration figures are not private documents and can be viewed by the public.

At least one expert in the field, isn’t sure what the fuss is all about.

Mayors in many municipalities, including Newmarket, may actually be undervalued when compared to CEOs of private sector companies of similar size, York University associate professor of political science Robert MacDermid said.

“People who are responsible for a budget of $142 million, what the capital and operating budgets of Newmarket add up to (in 2015), should be compensated fairly decently, and maybe in line with what happens in the private sector,” he said, noting the CEO of a similarly sized, publicly traded private land development company earned $620,000 in 2013. “We’re not going to have competent people running for office if they’re not paid competitive wages.”

Van Bynen also disputed Wolk’s claim that he is one of the highest paid mayors in Canada.

“I don’t necessarily accept all of those facts,” Van Bynen said.

“The real frustration is the amount of time that these non-issues take time away from council and our staff. If we get to an apples to apples (comparison), you’ll find Newmarket stands up squarely as middle of the pack. The salary adjustments are very appropriate given the current economic conditions. They’re driven by a policy that’s well researched. Once every four years, the electorate gets to decide whether they’ve had value for money. This isn’t about the money for me. I do this job for the betterment of the community.”

Comparing remuneration between municipalities can be a difficult task because each jurisdiction tallies salary, benefits and other allowances in slightly different ways. However, the facts prove Van Bynen is not the most highly paid mayor in York Region.

Markham’s Frank Scarpitti earned $219,341 in 2014 and Richmond Hill’s Dave Barrow received $211,573.52 this year. Vaughan’s Maurizio Bevilacqua got $201,323.32 in 2014, while Aurora’s Geoff Dawe collected $142,994.27, according to statistics provided by their respective municipalities.

East Gwillimbury’s Virginia Hackson received $135,334 last year and King Township’s Steve Pellegrini earned $83,704.78. Georgina’s Margaret Quirk will collect $118,316 this year.

Whitchurch-Stouffville’s Justin Altmann ($11,167.11) earned significantly less than his peers last year, because he didn’t take office until December.

Van Bynen said his salary is determined by a council compensation policy adopted by the municipality in 2008. A list of 11 comparator municipalities, which includes Ajax, Barrie, Aurora, Markham, Oshawa and Richmond Hill, is used to determine the Newmarket remuneration.

“We do have a policy,” Van Bynen said. “That’s based on the market value of those positions. It is a fair and objective way of determining what the job is valued at. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Wolk were totally aware of what those salaries were when they applied for the job and they didn’t seem to have a problem with it when the prospects of them gaining the job was not determined.”

Mayors' pay

While each municipality appears to calculate the amount it pays to council members slightly different, here’s an approximate summary of what each mayor in York Region earns:

 

NOTE: The figures do not factor in compensation the mayors receive for discretionary costs such as meals, or remuneration for sitting on boards such as the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority or Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution. Some lower-tier municipalities also allow one-third of their mayor’s salary to be tax-free.

Justin Altmann took office in December 2014; his compensation does not reflect the total amount that would be paid to someone serving in his position for an entire year.

SIDEBAR

Mayors undervalued, underpaid, expert says

While the discussion around salaries for elected officials needs to be open and transparent, it also must have context within the overall budgets of municipalities, says a York University associate professor of political science.

“There’s probably more important things people can be concerned about,” York’s Robert MacDermid told The Era Wednesday.

“Development, the lack of transit, all sorts of other things that really affect peoples’ lives on a daily basis — we fixate on this thing which is really a small budget number in the big picture.”

‘We should realize what a deal we have, not arguing to have it reduced.’

According to the town, Mayor Tony Van Bynen earned $167,303.60 last year, as well as $9,604 for sitting on the Newmarket-Tay Power Distribution board of directors. Most York Region mayors also earn well over $100,000 per year.

“This is not outrageous,” MacDermid said. “When you compare the salary structure to others in the public and private sector, you realize that for this degree of responsibility and work — often politicians who take their job seriously work all the time and people forget that — defend it. (Many mayoral) salaries should be higher; the mayor of Toronto’s salary is not particularly high. We’re talking about a budget of $10 billion and the guy gets $200,000. That’s a tiny salary for that degree of importance. I’d say that’s true for a lot of elected officials. I’m not trying to say they should get paid a million dollars; we should realize what a deal we have, not arguing to have it reduced.” 

Without competitive wages, the democratic talent pool is narrowed, thus allowing mostly only wealthy people who can self-finance themselves — like Toronto mayors John Tory and Rob Ford — to run for office, he said.

“That’s the kind of people we’ll have running our democratic structures if we don’t pay attention to paying decent salaries,” he said.

“Most mayors are not overly compensated, for the size of the responsibilities they have. Their responsibilities are not the same as a CEO, who is appointed by the board and really has no democratic responsibility to the employees of the company. A mayor has to direct the corporation, but also build coalitions and win the votes of other members.

“In a democratic world, a mayor has to build consensus, but that’s an important skill and it’s something people should be rewarded for doing.”