Brampton councillors freeze their own pay as ‘sunshine list’ grows

The number of city staff earning six-figure incomes rose by 38 per cent last year, adding to recent criticism from councillors.

Thestar.com
March 30, 2015
By San Grewal

Brampton’s “sunshine list” of staff who earn $100,000 or more grew by 38 per cent last year over 2013.

The provincially mandated listing of six-figure public sector salaries was released Friday, two days after angry councillors confronted senior city staff over a burgeoning payroll they said is out of control.

“Jim McCarter cautioned this Council to look at better managing our operating expenses,” Mayor Linda Jeffrey said in an email to the Star on Monday, responding to the release of 2014’s sunshine list. “The fact that two-thirds of every tax dollar spent on City operations goes to pay salaries is staggering.”

Jeffrey was referring to an independent financial report in January by the province’s former auditor general, which found 94 per cent of the increase in Brampton’s property tax revenue over the past decade was eaten up by a bloated staff payroll.

The sunshine list shows that 435 employees with the City of Brampton and its agencies made $100,000 or more in 2014, compared with 315 in 2013.

Moved to set an example, Jeffrey successfully brought forward a motion, by a unanimous vote, to freeze councillors’ salaries in 2015 and to put an end to an archaic practice that allowed them to claim one-third of their earnings as tax-exempt. The freeze will go to full council for final passage next week and would take effect immediately.

“This will set the tone for future discussions while at the same time demonstrating to city staff that we won’t ask them to do something that we ourselves wouldn’t participate in,” Jeffrey said in introducing the motion. “Although (dropping the tax exemption) won’t deliver a savings impact on this year’s budget, it will send a message that we heard from the electorate in the past municipal election.”

One of Jeffrey’s first orders of business after winning the October election was a $50,000 reduction to her own salary.

The timing of the sunshine list release couldn’t have been worse for Brampton’s executive leadership team. Two days earlier, senior staff led by former chief administrative officer John Corbett challenged McCarter’s findings and ignored council’s instructions to build a wage freeze for non-union staff into this year’s budget. Instead, they argued at a budget sub-committee meeting that Brampton’s payroll is simply keeping up with the city’s growth.

Corbett’s contract was terminated later in the day, but not before Jeffrey said senior staff seemed “entitled” and out of touch with Brampton taxpayers, many of whom are still struggling with the effects of a recession that hurt the city’s manufacturing base.