Dave Mabell
LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Should the mayor get $250,000 a year, plus? Do aldermen deserve $141,000?
That's what they're paid in Calgary, but the cheques are rather smaller in Lethbridge. And they don't include a free car or a vehicle allowance - perks that have some Calgary politicians in a tizzy.
As of December, aldermen here were getting a little less than $31,500 per year, including a base salary of $20,995 and nearly $10,500 in tax-free "unvouchered allowances." For the mayor, it was a base of $62,892 plus an allowance of $31,446.
There's an annual cost-of-living adjustment, points out Mayor Rajko Dodic. It's based on a formula suggested by a citizens' committee and accepted by council about 10 years ago.
The top-up is based on the consumer price index and any change in the city's average annual income - with both figures generated by Statistics Canada. They're added together, Dodic says - and then council gets 50 per cent of that increase.
Last year, he says that amounted to a 2.55 per cent adjustment.
Every three years, Dodic adds, council takes a look at what other mid-sized Alberta cities are paying council members. Is Lethbridge close to the provincial average?
"We'll be doing that this year," he says.
The last time, in July 2009, council learned its pay package was close to the lowest in Alberta. While Fort McMurray paid the highest mayor's salary that year, $109,172, they ranged down to $62,500 in the bedroom community of Airdrie, north of Calgary.
For council members, the range that year went from $32,150 in Fort McMurray to $23,500 in Airdrie. Salaries paid to council members in Calgary and Edmonton were not listed.
After debate, council of the day voted to give itself a 23-per-cent boost.
For the hours they put in, Dodic suggests, aldermen on today's council are anything but overpaid. In theory, it's a part-time job with an expectation of about 20 hours a week.
"I can tell you, a number of them put in way more than that."
Once the city's population reaches 100,000, the citizens' panel recommended back in 2002, council should consider paying aldermen on a full-time basis. While other mid-sized cities like Red Deer and Medicine Hat weren't doing that in 2009, council learned the County of Strathcona - governing the "hamlet" of Sherwood Park, and reporting a population of more than 85,500 that year - had already ruled all council members should be paid as if they were full-time personnel.
Although they represent fewer voters, Dodic says council members here are asked to address the same problems as their counterparts in the province's major cities.
"The issues facing a city the size of Lethbridge are the same as in the cities 10 times our size."