A City of North Battleford committee will soon be formed to conduct a review of the policy setting indemnities for mayor and council in North Battleford.
According to City Manager Randy Patrick, a policy is already in existence but it was never actually employed because, in his words, it “doesn’t make sense.”
The previous policy had tied indemnity levels for council to a percentage of the salary of the city manager.
But according to Patrick, that could easily be abused. All council needed to do was vote to raise the city manager’s pay, and they would automatically be giving themselves a pay raise as well.
“We wanted to change that policy, make it current, make it up to date, make it reasonable and have a lot of public input into it so council can get some good recommendations on what that policy should say instead of what it says currently,” said Patrick.
A committee of five people, including two former councillors and three members of the public, will be struck to review information collected by administration on the issue, including what other communities are doing for compensation levels. That committee would then bring recommendations back to council.
Council approved the resolution to go ahead with the review of the policy. That process is to begin, according to Mayor Ryan Bater, “as soon as possible.”
