City changes application notes on Council remuneration Committee

The official notice for Mayor Lee Brain's Special Standing Committee on Council remuneration has been posted to the City of Prince Rupert website.

And for those with an interest in serving on the committee, there is a new name to forward their application towards, with would be committee members now directed to express their interest in to Corporate Administrator Rory Mandryk.

As we noted on the blog in October, Mr. Brain introduced what he had called a Blue Ribbon Mayor's Select Panel on Council Remuneration during the October 23rd Council session, following it up with an extensive post to his social media account on Facebook, advising any readers that may be interested to forward their names to the Mayor himself.

At the time we observed as to the potential peril from the Facebook only invite approach, considering that the Mayor's salary, as well as that of Council members will be up for review by the committee membership.

With the official announcement of this week, the narrative seems to have changed slightly with the notice from the city website, which outlines how Mr. Mandryk is now serving as the facilitator for applications for those interested in committee participation.

The notice from City Hall also includes the Terms of Reference for the project which can be reviewed here 

The latest information also clarifies how the Committee will go about its work with the membership  to consist of several senior staff employees and up to six selected volunteer community members.

The Community members will be appointed by the Senior City staff, using the same process as they put in motion for other community committees, weighing any direct applicable experience related to the desired outcome of the committee.

The Scope of the study by the Committee will include:

Make a recommendation regarding how to address the impacts of the removal of the 1/3rd federal tax exemption on Council remuneration

Make a recommendation on appropriate remuneration for the Mayor and council members moving forward

Make a recommendation on an appropriate daily Per Diem framework moving forward.

To come to those determinations, the committee membership will review material that includes:

A comparison of other communities

Examine the current practices of remuneration for Mayor and Council within in each comparable community

Examine options regarding how other like communities have addressed the January 1st removal of the 1/3rd tax exemption within the remuneration determination for Mayor and Council

Introduction of a policy to address Mayor and Council remuneration on a go forward basis tied with analysis of future industrial growth and impacts therein to work load on the City.

The time commitment for those who are successful with the application is that of two to three meetings through November and December, the deadline for applications for participation on the Committee is November 15th.

The recommendations from the Committee are to be presented to City Council by December 31st.

The current salary expectations for the Mayor and City Council members can be reviewed from the SOFI declaration of June this year.

In the case of the Mayor and some of the council members there is additional compensation found from participation in Regional District and the Northwest Regional Hospital Board.

For more items of note related to City Council Discussion topics see our archive page here.


Cross posted from the North Coast Review.