A committee struck to determine how much the members of council and Mayor Roy Ludwig should be paid over their four-year term has completed their report.
Two-thirds of the remuneration committee were before council at the May 6 regular meeting. Shirley Thera and Tim Perry delivered the report which recommends a 10 per cent raise for the six councillors as well as the mayor. Committee member Dale Wetsch was not present at the meeting.
If passed, the mayor would receive a $3,000 increase each year and see his overall salary rise from $34,1999 in 2013 to $43,200 when his term ends in 2016. The six councillors was get a bump of roughly $1,000 per year, rising from $11,403 in 2013 to $14,400 by 2016.
In delivering the report, Thera, who is a former member of council herself, said the committee used Weyburn, Melfort and Humboldt as comparables since the three communities are most similar to Estevan in terms of council proceedings, committee structure and pay structure. On a per capita basis, Melfort paid its councillors and mayor $3.60, Weyburn, $2.77 and Humboldt $5.11 while Estevan was $2.52 per resident.
"Estevan as you can see is quite well below the average below per capita," Thera said.
In determining the increase, Thera said they used the average per capita to bring the salaries in line with the other communities and a scale for small increases over the next four years. The raise would take place on Jan. 1 of each year.
"If you look at the end result, the 2016 recommended salary increase is actually where some of the cities are now," she said. "By the time this council gets to 2016, if Melfort, Humboldt and Weyburn give their council and mayor increases, we will probably be the lowest again amongst the four by the time we get to 2016."
Thera noted they also took into account the workload of council which has increased since the last review was done in 2009, adding that members now work an average of 40 hours a week compared to the previous average of 29.
"That shows the workload for council is heavier than it was even three years ago and we expect that between now and 2016 it will increase."
Perry added the recommended salary increase was not unanimous, as Wetsch did not feel a raise was warranted.
"His view was that he didn't think that council was doing a good enough job to deserve a pay increase," he said. "(Perry and Thera) are in agreement that it is not whether you are doing a good or bad job, that is for the voters to decide at election time. If you are not doing a good job they will vote you out and if you are doing a good job they will keep you in. That is the time to decide whether you are doing a good job or not, this was the time to decide what your remuneration should be."
It was also noted that Wetsch proposed that council should keep track of their hours and submit time sheets on a monthly basis. Although they didn't include that in their recommendations, the committee left it as an option for council to look at.
The issue of missing meetings was also included in the report. To ensure accountability, the committee determined that if a member missed a regular or special meeting they would be docked pay. For the mayor it would be $400 per meeting while councillors would be docked $200 a meeting. A similar recommendation was made in 2009, but council elected to go with a sliding scale. The committee felt that wasn't effective and put forth the proposal again.
The committee also recommended that the usage of cellular telephones and other electronic devices be banned from council chambers during meetings. Thera said that some residents have noticed councillors using phones during meetings and felt that was taking away from their focus. Ludwig informed Thera that council has already passed a similar motion to ban all but the iPads used during the meetings.
Council voted to accept the report but did not hold a vote on whether or not to pass the recommendations.
