Is higher pay the answer?
Ron Bolin: September 21, 2011
The discussion preceding Council giving itself a 24+% raise over the next three years to attract better candidates is one that was only poorly examined at Monday’s FPCOW meeting. Somehow there seems to be a feeling that a few thousand more dollars will not only attract better candidates, but improve the performance of the elected. How much money would it take to attract the kind of board members that we think are needed? What should be their qualifications? As it stands, there is no particular standard set for board membership, nor do the qualifications extend beyond being a citizen, a Nanaimo resident (or property owner) for a relatively short period of time, breathing and getting the most votes by any legal means.
We need to remind ourselves that we are electing the board of our corporation, not its managers. In this regard, I would like to suggest an alternative which was not discussed at Monday’s meeting: that Council act as a board and as such get out of the operations game which they have been led to play. By this I mean that they should stick closely to their policy, procedure and monitoring role and get out of their participation in the various advisory committees, commissions, boards, review panels and working groups. An examination of these on the city’s web site identifies 14 such groups, with 159 members (not counting the City Staff who advise these groups, nor the staff who record their meetings). 26 of these positions are filled by Councillors. As you can imagine, trying to keep up with these groups can prove a daunting task. I would hold that it is also not particularly productive. We should let the appointed volunteers work with City Staff to develop their recommendations and arguments which Council can then approve or deny without prejudice.
Although I recognize that, “This is Nanaimo”, I still suggest that we take a look at the Candidates information provided by Yakima, Washington, a city about 10,000 larger than Nanaimo. It clearly sets out the role expected of a Councillor and indicates that the expectation of time for the job is 15 to 20 hours per week, i.e. a half time job. I suggest that this should be possible in Nanaimo as well. An examination of the Council calendar for 2011 indicates that there are 50 legislatively required meetings (Council Meetings, FPCOW meetings (Finance and Policy Committee of the Whole) and Public Hearings. This works out to just about one meeting per week of let’s say an average of three hours. This leaves some 12-17 hours per week for other related activities such as reading agendas, asking questions, dealing with citizens and examining the operations documents which determine whether the desired policies and procedures are being appropriately implemented by Staff.
I do not mean to imply that our current Council operates on such a schedule but I do suggest that they should. I believe they have let themselves fall into the old trap of letting work expand to fill the time available. It was also obvious at Monday’s meeting that there are some hard feelings about who is pulling their weight in dealing with all the extra committee, etc. work. Not a good situation. I suggest that our readers take a look at the Yakima document prepared for candidates and compare it to our current practices: http://www.ci.yakima.wa.us/council/filing/default.asp
I believe that rather than simply higher salaries for Council members, we could attract board members who are prepared to act as a board, but are not looking to take on a full time job by performing the other roles that Council has devised for itself. Time to rethink. So what do YOU think?
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
“Is higher pay the answer?”
NO! Because . . .
http://members.shaw.ca/urbanismo/city/city.html
and it applies to Nanaimo too . . .
The line below is taken from a news article from May 2011, regarding the increase for Quilicum council.
“In a report to council, chief administrative officer Mark Brown noted the average mayor’s remuneration across B.C. towns and cities is $32,384, while the average for a councillor is $13,699.”
Although Nanaimo may not in the top 5, what salaries were the finance people at City Hall looking at?
Did the average salaries go up that much in BC. Nanaimo mayor makes approximately 78500 and the councillors make approximately 26,000. This salary is well above what Mark Brown from Quilicum is quoted when Quailicum were discussing their salary increases/
Did the city release which city/town/centres were used in comparison?
The top ten civil ‘servants’ at city hall take in over $16 million a year, and we are dickering over the pittance councillors make?? The mayor is well enough paid, some could argue our current mayor is over paid. IMHO this entire council is also overpaid given a few of the royal screw ups they have approved.
However, there is never any real accountability where it counts … when was the last time a city manager was fired for mismanaging a $52 million project??? One gets a half million parting gift and the other gets promoted.
Churchill was right…………..
Jim,the $16 million figure is incorrect.
Wayne: What is the correct figure.
?
Wayne:
You are right, the $16 million is for the approx. 160 non union staff. The top ten total earnings are: $1,593,655.00.
My mistake……
Peter Principal in action!
And what if ALL of us would find we have gone beyond our level of competence should we find ourselves in a place of trying to govern Nanaimo??
We can all find fault (my specialty) with the existing administration, but who would actually overall perform any better???
I can’t answer your question. I know being a councillor is a tough spot to be in. That is why you must always be above reproach. People do make mistakes and it can be easy to sit on the sidelines and comment. I am not convinced that the present council is doing enough for this city.
But having said that, what is the present council doing to actually help this city? Did they do the due diligence and look at the numbers when approving or going for money on all of these projects. Who is being held accountable? These are all things that have been brought up on this blog, but where are the answers? What cities did the city manager use to compare wages and why did council approve 24%. Other cities across Canada are saying the same thing yet they restricted their increases to under 5%, that I could see. Holdom said this is a gift to the next council. What crap. These people coming in now have to decide to keep it o get rid of it. That’s no gift! That’s putting these people on the spot immediately. NO vote for him. I also don’t believe that higher pay will bring better people out. If that were the case then these people would not leave a higher paying job to do a council persons job. It is a no credit job. You need people that have a realistic understanding of what is happening, that can read a balance sheet and not have the wool pulled over their eyes by managment that have their
The mayor and council do not run this city the city Managers are running it. That’s the reality of the situation. I still believe that any council needs to start investigating on their own and not believe 100% what they are being told by senior managers.
Lynn;
Personally I don’t blame the councilors, nor the city staff, but rather a completely apathetic, self absorbed electorate who don’t seem to give a rip what happens!! The system itself also offers little opportunity to do anything meaningful other than vent from time to time, and those is power know it.
Less than 50 people turned up at the Open House for the water treatment plant, less than 30% even bothered to vote last time.
The local press does next to nothing when it comes to holding city hall accountable, they seem content to publish whatever press releases are offered by city hall.
The correct figure, total top ten salaries, is $1,637,747.77
Lynn, council in detyerming their raise looked at 12 cities, apparently of comparable size to Nanaimo. You should be able to get the info now though for a while they were not saying.
In tough economic times or not councils should not be giving themselves any more than the average Citizen would get for a raise. Cost of living increases should be adequate.
I agree with you Gord. there should have been no raise. Tough it out like everyone else in this city.
Gord, I looked on line for comparable cities in BC and I could only find nine cites that were reasonable close in size. This 9 included Nanaimo. The smallest was Coquitlam at pop of 57,431 up to Kamloops with a pop of 87110.
The rest were are much smaller. This figures are 2010.
Jim, it does not sound like this council is doing anything to get their electorate excited about what they are doing or the importance of voting. I read one article from the paper regarding the 24% increase and judging by the comments people were pretty steamed. But by election time almost all will have forgotten I’m sure.
Peoples attitudes when voting is ‘At least we know what we are getting when they vote in the incumbent’. They are afraid that someone worse will be voted into these positions so they settle. If they settle, then they do not vote. I have heard that stated way too many times.
Council showed lack of judgement regarding the increase and this concerns me. If they don’t get it on this item and it is a smaller item compared to others, will the figure it out on the larger much more costly issues. I’m sure if people could see that the mayor is doing something thenthis increase would have been not such a big deal.
Have we heard anything about the mayor talking to the Premier about the unemployment here. I have not heard a word. I have heard the Victoria mayor speak out about why the Premier has not been touring the island. We have the largest unemployment rate and nothing? He should have been able to make the TV on questioning the Premier about this major issue? Even anyone of the councillor could have spoken out. Didn’t hear them either.
So Jim from what I see we have a problem with the council members as well as the public at large.
Lynn;
Don’t expect a whole lot from politicians who have nothing to offer. Personally, except for creating more government jobs funded by more taxes (ask Greece how that works out), the province can not really do anything about creating new jobs. That is a task for the private sector.
Politicians like to make lots of noise and lots of promises, but if you’ve been paying attention, they really don’t know anymore about it than you and I.
I agree that it is the business sector that will eventually create the jobs, but it is the government that will make the the province city whatever appealing to the business to come to the community. The problem is how to do this wisely.
That is where the tax breaks and other goodies end up coming in. And it will be up to the Economic Development group to sell the City of Nanaimo to the business communities, They just can’t give away the farm.
So the government has to create the environment so the business will come.
What kind of business do you see coming to Nanaimo? Do you think that our tax base is the only thing keeping them away now??
There is a symbiotic relationship between councillors and city managers. City managers went to bat for councillors; they came up with those nice numbers that they always seem to have at their fingertips. Poor, oppressed councillors are earning 24% less than their counterparts in the comparably sized metropolis. Can’t tolerate this gross injustice.
But Jim Taylor is quite correct that the council raises are small potatoes. The symbiotic realtionship (and the much bigger numbers) kick in when city managers come up with facts and figures telling us that they are also vastly underpaid compared to their counterparts in that other metropolis. How will city councillors be able to say no to the people who threw them a few extra pennies.
Many towns and cities in the deepest, most conservative south of the United States offer all sorts of real value incentives to industries looking for a place to do business. These incentives include free land, tax holidays and outright grants. This shows the futilty of the Nanaimo’s Economic Development Corporation which essentially will have nothing to competitive to offer other than a few glossy pamphlets (which invariably paint a glossy but not very accurate picture of Nanaimo).
I think industries that are not having to worry about major transporation costs, unless inthe transport business. any research, high tech industries, Software development, transportation, consulting, entertainment and biotechnology.
I can say what all is good to provide for incentives, but whatever is offered the city should be protected.
I am not really in favour of offering monetary incentives to get businesses to relocate here. When you do businesses come, grab the money and then run. I’m just saying that the Nanaimo’s Economic Development Corporation with nothing to offer other than a pamphlet is not in the game. I would save one and half million and get rid of the Economic Development Corporation. If the Chamber of Commerce want this type of body, let them pay for it. The best economic development comes from within a community – small businesses which become bigger businesses. If the City of Nanaimo want to help that process along they will stop micro-managing small business to death.
The City needs to do many things differently, micro managing may of course be one of them. I am not saying that incentives can or will be offered, but it is not unheard of. If this is one of the routes that the city feels it must go they need to make sure there are protection clauses in place for the city.
From what I read, oversite on the part of the city is very poorly done. Nanaimo needs an Economic Development Board. This board needs the ability to do their job and work to build the city. Obviously the other Development area did not know what they were doing. I hope the person that has been hired is very qualified and is given the opportunity to do her job. The city is supposed to be paying for this expertise so let it happen.
I would like this person to brings in some new blood to the Board. I believe that there are probably a number of people working for the city that are well past their prime, that are not able to work with the changes that the Board will need to make.
We need people from other communities coming in to help build our economy. They need to shop here and leave their money here, as many people from Nanaimo do for other communities. This is only one small part of a much bigger picture though.
I also believe a complete review of the city organization and structure, job responsibilites must be reviewed. By ensuring our city is running lean and mean will only show that the municipal government is doing all it can for the city. As people retire or leave the city a review should be done to see if positions can be amalgamated.
Although I have not been happy with a number of decisions that I have read the council members have made; I also know that it is the City’s senior managers who are providing the background information to council and they have their own agendas as well. If the city stops the micro managing then what are the staff going to do. All these rules and regulations the want in place help to keep them in their jobs. To stop this we also need a change in some staff at City Hall. How do we know that they are really earning their high 5 and 6 figure salaries. What kind of yearly reviews do they have? What key indicators do they need to reach so they get their increases? If they continually don’t reach their objectives do they get to keep their job anyway? Do they have objectives?.
For this upcoming election we must all be vigilate with our votes and ensure the people voted in are earning their new raises, if they so choose to keep them.