Who Decides How Much the Mayor Gets Paid?

For years, the salaries—officially called “honoraria”—paid to the mayor and council have been based on the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Council Remuneration. This committee has been scrupulous in explaining the criteria it follows in making its recommendations. In general, it looks at what eighteen other, similarly sized cities pay their elected officials, and aims to place Guelph’s representatives roughly in the middle of that range. Guelph’s mayor and council have invariably accepted the committee’s recommendations. At least, they did, right up until the council meeting held on June 25. At that meeting, council took it upon itself the task of setting the mayor’s salary.

The point of having a citizens committee is precisely to avoid the conflict involved when mayor and council decide for themselves what their salaries should be. So what made this year different?

Some background information may be helpful.

The mayor’s salary has risen steadily over the past eight years. The yearly increases, on the recommendation of the advisory committee, have been aligned either with the CPI or the increases given to city staff, whichever is lower. In January 2011, at the beginning of Mayor Farbridge’s second term, the mayor’s gross salary was $88,984. In January 2015, when Mayor Guthrie took over, it was $101,393. At the beginning of this year, the salary was $116,390. And if the committee’s recommendation had been accepted, the mayor’s salary beginning in January 2019 would be $122,724.

Here’s what changed: up until this year, thanks to a federal government dispensation, one-third of the mayor’s salary has been tax-exempt. Beginning in January 2019, that exemption ends. In effect, the mayor is looking at a pay cut.

The citizens advisory committee knew about the loss of the tax exemption. It polled the comparator municipalities, asking what they were doing in response. Fifteen of the eighteen replied, and four indicated that they would be bumping up their mayor’s remuneration by anywhere from 10 to 25 per cent. Given this information, the committee concluded that the mayor’s salary, at the recommended rate of $122,704, fell within its guidelines. In its own words:

The Committee reviewed all the relevant information and recommends maintaining the gross salary (job rate) at $122,724, with no adjustments to offset the tax change. The 2018 job rate is currently at the 65^th percentile of the comparator municipal group which is higher than the target position. To maintain the 2018 net pay amount of $102,767 in 2019 (offsetting the tax change), the gross job rate would need to be increased by 24.3% to $152,500 placing it at the 77^th percentile.

At the June 25 council meeting, Councillor MacKinnon introduced an amendment to the motion regarding acceptance of the committee’s report. He said the council was the victim of federal downloading. As reported in the Tribune, he explained: “Whether there is a federal or provincial law that changes us, we often make the changes.” Councillor Downer agreed, explaining: “We’re in a situation where the data is not complete through no fault of theirs [the committee’s] because some communities have not done their process yet.” In essence she advocated anticipating a change that was sure to come, rather than wait and then catch up.

This view was not unanimously endorsed. According to the report in the Trib: “It feels as if we’re challenging the criteria that the committee used, we should send it back to the committee with different criteria to use,” said Councillor Gordon. “If we are rewriting the rules for them, then we’re ignoring what they did. It’s going behind their backs.”

The vote to ignore the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Council Remuneration, and bump the mayor’s salary up to $152,500, split 8 to 5, as follows:

In favour: Mayor Guthrie and Councillors Gibson, van Hellemond, Hofland, Billings, Piper, Downer, MacKinnon.

Against: Councillors Bell, Gordon, Allt, Salisbury and Wettstein.