Council to vote on compensation package recommendations

Cold Lake’s Elected Official Compensation Review (EOCR) Committee provided Council’s Corporate Priorities Committee with a recommendation for what the Mayor’s and Councillors’ compensation packages should look like. 

The recommendations were debated and discussed at Council’s September 17 Corporate Priorities Meeting. The EOCR Committee was comprised of two elected officials and four members of the community appointed by council. 

“The Elected Official Compensation Review’s report is available as part of the September 17 Corporate Priorities agenda package and is worth the read for people interested in the issue,” Chief Administrative Officer, Kevin Nagoya said.

“Overall, council’s Corporate Priorities Committee signaled that they were supportive of the proposed changes and were willing to bring it to a vote at the next council meeting.” 

The EOCR Committee came up with its recommendations after assessing Cold Lake’s current compensation package against those provided by other municipalities in the region, and also against pay packages for municipalities throughout Alberta. It found that Cold Lake was consistently towards the bottom of the list when it came to the compensation provided and recommended several changes as a result. 

If approved at the next Regular Council Meeting, the Cold Lake elected official’s compensation package will see the base compensation for Mayor increased from $63,566 to $71,165, and the base compensation for Councillors increased from $29,405 to $32,800. 

The per diem rate that elected officials claim for attending approved meetings, events and functions other than regularly scheduled council meetings, would increase to:

• $150, up from $125 for 0-4 hours. 
• $300, up from $250 for those running from over 4 hours to 8 hours.
• An additional $50/hour for those lasting over 8 hours, up to a maximum of $450 per day, with this provision excluding community social events. 

Per diem rates can be claimed for attendance at conferences, courses, workshops and seminars, council appointed board meetings, special council meetings, community social events, and meetings held farther than 40 kilometres outside of the City of Cold Lake. They are not claimed for Regular Council Meetings or Corporate Priorities Meetings.

“It is important to have a fair and equitable package to compensate elected officials for their time, while balancing the fact that there is an impact on the City’s budget,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. “Fair pay and compensation ensure that a diverse range of people can consider running for council, and that will ultimately make our municipality stronger. This is a public service, and there is a significant amount of work involved – both of those facts need to be recognized.” 

The committee also recommended additional changes to the compensation package, including: 

• A 10% increase in the amount that can be reimbursed for meals. If passed, the amounts would be $15.60 for breakfast, $20.40 for lunch and $32.40 for supper, up from $13.80, $19.55, $28.75, respectively.)
• A 25% increase in the milage reimbursement, up to $0.64 per kilometre from $0.51 per kilometre for travel to approved functions outside of Cold Lake. 
• A new $1,000 annual health and wellness benefit per elected official. 
• A new vehicle allowance of $100 per month for travel within Cold Lake. 
• A new allowance of $250 per year for municipally branded clothing.
• A new allowance of up to $500 a year to purchase tickets for partners or spouses to accompany officials to approved events and functions. 
• A new allowance of up to $500 per year to hire a driver if needed to travel to bonified meetings and conferences. This would be a top up to the per kilometer compensation for travel when using a personal vehicle to attend these functions.  
• A new allowance of up to $200 per month to hire care for a dependant if needed during approved municipal meetings, events and conferences. 

If approved with no changes, the financial impact to the City of Cold Lake will amount to a total of $32,717 for the increase in base pay and $42,950 for the benefits and expense reimbursements, if used completely by all elected officials. 

“We appreciate the committee’s work on this file,” Copeland said.

“It can be an awkward conversation to talk about compensation for elected officials, but they were very thorough in their review and comparisons, and fair in their findings. If passed, these changes would put Cold Lake in the middle of the road when it comes to compensation packages of similarly sized communities.”  

The proposed changes to the City of Cold Lake’s elected official compensation package will be voted on at a future Regular Council Meeting.