Councillors agree to 3.2 per cent pay hike Dec. 20, 2011
City councillors voted 5-2 to accept a 3.2 per cent raise at council on Monday night.
Now it will be up to each councillor to
decide whether to pocket the pay, give it back or donate it to charity.
Mayor Rick Goldring and councillors Rick
Craven (Ward 1), John Taylor (Ward 3), Paul Sharman (Ward 5) and Blair
Lancaster (Ward 6) agreed to the increase.
Councillors Marianne Meed Ward (Ward 2) and Jack Dennison (Ward 4) said no.
The mayor explained his reversal from his
position of a year ago, when he, along with councillors Meed Ward,
Taylor and Dennison turned down a 0.8 per cent increase, saying it was
time for a raise.
“Put into context, there was no increase in
2010, no increase in 2011, an increase in 2012, so that’s an average of a
little over one per cent for the three years.
I just think you can’t go three years in a
row without adjusting it,” said Goldring in an interview after Monday’s
meeting.
The mayor said he wants to have another look at how council salary adjustments are determined.
“We have a system that citizens have derived
that provides an annual adjustment in members’ of council wages and
that was derived in 2006.
“We have to review it because I don’t want
to be in a situation a year from now where we’re dealing with the same
formula in the same circumstances where we’re dealing with the same
three per cent. I would have a whole tonne of difficulty on that, so
that’s why I want to get ahead of it and have a citizen’s committee
review it, sooner as opposed to later,” he said.
Lancaster, in spite of voting to accept the recommended raise, hasn’t made up her mind.
“I haven’t decided if I’m taking the raise.
We can or we cannot take the raise. Before, we couldn’t, we didn’t have a
choice,” she said.
Lancaster indicated, “I also believe if you
do not pay people appropriately, you will lose people. And so, that’s
all part of the decision-making, and that’s why the citizen’s committee
voted the way they did.”
For Taylor, to take or not take the pay
increase will be a decision he will make with his better half.
“I have the right by notifying the human
resources department to refuse the raise or donate it to charity. I
haven’t quite made up my mind yet because I haven’t discussed it with my
wife and she might have something to say about it,” he said.
The mayor’s salary will increase from
$116,161 to $119,878 and council salaries jump from $50,688 to $52,310.
All members of council also receive $43,000 for sitting on Halton Region
council.
CUPE Unset With Council Jan. 25, 2012
With all the
unionized workers working for the City of Burlington having settled
their contracts, with a reasonable increase in their salaries of 1.5 per
cent, 1.9 per cent and 1.9 per cent each year in a three-year contract,
it is with awe that I heard councillors increase their salary by 3.2
per cent and also voted an additional 3.2 per cent for their seats on
the Region. When I went to school that is a 6.4 per cent increase while
non-unionized staff were held to zero per cent and the unionized
workers were reasonable in their demands.
It also astonishes
me that they announced their increase after all the contracts were
settled. Great politics. We, the transit workers at Burlington Transit,
are hard-working people who wake up early in the morning to get people
to work. We do not like to be taken advantage of by politicians who take
us for granted.
The trust we had
in management and the politicians of the city when they said these are
tough times, we took into account when negotiating a contract. The
increase in which the councillors have given themselves is like a punch
in the stomach.
On another matter,
we had a meeting with the mayor regarding an automated stop call system
which assists the elderly, blind and physically-challenged passengers.
We thought we had a
productive meeting and listened to the mayor who said there was no
money in the capital budget this year or next year (2012). A week later,
all of a sudden council found $5.8 million in a capital reserve fund
for the pier.
All we were asking for is a system that helps us drivers help the travelling public. Another smoke and mirrors job.
But here is the kicker. A consultant was hired to develop a master plan for transit. Cost is probably in the area of $100,000.
On the steering
committee are councillors who don’t support transit, like Councillor
Paul Sharman. This master plan is a waste of time and money. Drivers
have given advice to management on how to improve the system for years
but nothing has been done. It’s status quo. The system is running late,
connections are missed, complaints have risen and nothing has been done.
Other systems in the GTA have improved their service. Just look to the
neighbour to the east. Oakville increased its service by 23 per cent and
increased its ridership by that much. This city has done nothing.
As the movie Field of Dreams quotes — “Build it and they will come”. The city should look at building the transit system and expanding it. But council has not the will to do it except to make a few happy.
As the movie Field of Dreams quotes — “Build it and they will come”. The city should look at building the transit system and expanding it. But council has not the will to do it except to make a few happy.
Bob Dorosch, Mississauga, Chief Stewart CUPE Local 2723
