Rapid Response

Municipality Misled Me

October 22, 2010 - On October 21st, the A-Channel news stated that the mayoral race was between Randy Hope and Tom McGregor, and proceeded to promote Hope's campaign for free with a clip of … read more

Wallaceburg Forum Notes

October 19, 2010 - The Newspaper today did not appear to describe the same forum I attended last night. They gave Randy Hope 9 cherry-picked paragraphs of rhetoric dedicated to his responses, making it … read more

Plan for Prosperity

October 16, 2010 - I am pleased to release my Plan for Prosperity - a comprehensive platform of ideas and solutions designed to accelerate our economic development results. If I'm elected mayor, I won't need … read more

Mayor Hope Fell for Exaggerations

October 13, 2010 - With Victor Boutin poised to make another campaign stop in Chatham on behalf of mayor Randy Hope's "Vote Hope Or Else I Take My Millions And Go Home" tour to … read more

Everlast Condo Not Shovel-ready

October 5, 2010 - Since Victor Boutin of Everlast Group announced a $50 million condo/hotel project in downtown Chatham which he made blatantly conditional on Randy Hope's re-election, I've been searching for information. I … read more

Corporate Election Interference?

September 30, 2010 - It's deja vu - a potential investor has politicized a major development announcement with an endorsement of Randy Hope, promising to take his millions and leave if Hope loses. This … read more

Hydro Costs Poised to Skyrocket

- A major issue facing families, seniors and businesses is the escalating cost of electricity. Smart meters were installed under the promise of saving us money, yet most customers will have … read more

Executive Salary Increase

September 15, 2010 - 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 … read more




Executive Salary Increase

Category: Rapid Response — Austin Wright @ 10:39 PM

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.

2 Comments

  1. 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

  2. Response from Chatham-Kent:

    I am not sure where you are getting the information that EMT received a 7.3% increase in their 2009 salary, unless you are going off the March 31, 2010 Annual Salaries Report in which information was provided that there were 27 pay periods in 2009, as opposed to the more usual 26.

    Council approved a cost of living rate increase for the non-union group for 2009 of 3%.

    Council has approved a Non-Union Compensation Plan where positions are evaluated and salaries assigned to positions with step increases. Each step has a % increase. A member of EMT upon receiving a successful job performance review would be eligible for a step increase and a cost of living increase.

    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

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.