Receipt of a report on pay scales for Weyburn City Council members prepared by MNP LLP, a Western-Canadian headquartered consulting firm, at Council's regular meeting on September 8 is the first step in a process to restructure compensation levels for elected officials.
This marks the culmination of a several year process dedicated to bringing Weyburn in line with other similar sized cities on the issue of compensation for council members.
"This is always a difficult subject. Regardless what level of government you consider, elected officials ultimately end up in something of a conflict as they are determining their own pay levels, "said Deputy Mayor Nancy Styles in addressing the subject on behalf of council.
"After considering this question for some time, council decided to look for an independent, third party to examine pay grids in comparably-sized communities and then to make a set of observations for our consideration," she added.
"We have now received a detailed report prepared by the professionals at MNP and will make the report available to Weyburn citizens through the media and on our city website in hopes of receiving some community feedback or recommendations on how we should proceed."
The primary findings of the report, which explored the way Weyburn handles compensation as well as expenses for council members, suggest Weyburn is significantly out-of-line with other Prairie cities of comparable size.
MNP found that the current compensation level for the Mayor - approximately $27,000 annually (including base salary and meeting per diems) - is roughly 50 per cent below the median found in communities of comparable size. Compensation for individual council members - at just under $8,800 per annum - was more than 60 per cent below the median.
"To put it another way, the current pay grid for elected officials in Weyburn costs an individual resident of the community about 20-cents per month to have a Mayor and four-cents a month for a city councillor.
If we were to adopt the median detailed in this report that would rise to roughly 40-cents a month for the Mayor's position and eight-cents for a councillor," Styles concluded.
Council has tabled a decision on the report in order to provide local residents with the opportunity to express their opinions on the report's findings. The consultation period will last two weeks, until council's next regularly scheduled meeting.
For your input go to www.weyburn.ca, call 306-848-3209 or mail to: City of Weyburn, Box 370, Weyburn, Sask. S4H 2K6. Attn: Mayor and Council.
