In 2009, most salaries of Chatham-Kent’s Executive Management Team increased 7.3%. This comes in the middle of the worst recession since the ’30s, with local unemployment rating the highest in Canada. Since Randy Hope took office, the Sunshine Club expanded from 21 to 74 staff paid over $100,000 per year. In 2006, these salaries totaled “just” $2,419,639 – by 2009 they were $8,502,625!
I propose implementing an immediate wage freeze of these Sunshine Club salaries until such time as Chatham-Kent experiences the growth and success necessary to sustain reasonable cost-of-living increases with no tax impact. This goes for my mayoral salary also.
This information was obtained from the province’s Public Salary Disclosure lists.
It’s no wonder taxes are up. I believe this salary increase is symbolic of the disconnect taxpayers are feeling. With 60% of our families lucky enough to have jobs living paycheque-to-paycheque, this was not the time for huge executive raises. Chatham-Kent is in crisis mode, where the need to reign in escalating costs and tax increases has never been greater.
It is not too hard to see where this is going if we don’t tie salary increases to municipal performance. While I’m sure we have some very good people on staff, that kind of increase far exceeds the rate of inflation, and is not needed by anyone in the Sunshine Club in view of how mere taxpayers are struggling.
This increase happened right under Mayor Randy Hope’s nose despite his election promises to “restructure Chatham-Kent’s financials”. Neither Hope nor Councillor McGregor brought a single motion forward to clamp down on excessive wage increases. Indeed, it appears none of our council or media even noticed this huge one-year jump in wages.
I propose implementing an immediate wage freeze of these Sunshine Club salaries until such time as Chatham-Kent experiences the growth and success necessary to sustain reasonable cost-of-living increases with no tax impact. This goes for my mayoral salary also. I’ll also read my reports to make sure council knows what exactly is being approved.
Today, I received a response to an information request I submitted to the municipality a week ago.
When I asked for the council motion where this increase happened, I was informed, “Council approved rate increases for the non-union group for 2009 of 3%. This would not include individual salary adjustments relating to pay equity, step increases, internal equity, etc.”
My calculations based on the Sunshine Club lists show the non-union increase from 2008 to 2009 to be fairly consistent at 7.3% across the board, with some exceptions topping at 17.9%.
Currently, I’m probing this further and looking for the council minutes to make sure there wasn’t a mistake in the information I was provided. There is no way overtime, individuality or pay equity could account for so many administrators receiving exactly 7.3% in wage increases.
We really do have a problem if council only approved 3% and they got 7.3%. Stay tuned as I verify these figures and investigate further.
Comment by Austin Wright — September 29, 2010 @ 11:08 PM
Response from Chatham-Kent:
If the pay periods are a moving target, then salaries aren’t annual. Many companies, including my own, have used a twice-monthly pay period to solve the extra-pay-period anomaly.
Nevertheless, if we recalculate this increase as advised, it’s still 3.3% which is more than 3%. I’m glad everyone worked hard enough to get a step increase, but when 14% of our workforce are jobless, I’m not sure how this constitutes overall success.
I have issues with the accounting methods, because this still had to be paid through taxes. Once extra budget is allocated to salaries for the 27th week, how easy is it to remove?
Several times, I’ve asked for the council motion where this was approved, but that has not been answered.
Whatever the figures, my position stands that while Chatham-Kent taxpayers are hurting, we need to suspend wage increases. The 2009 cost of living only rose 1.3% except for CK taxpayers.
Comment by Austin Wright — October 4, 2010 @ 7:30 PM