Penticton city council gives itself a pay increase

PENTICTON – Penticton city council agreed to first, second third reading and approval to a recommendation that will see their remuneration envelopes get a little larger at today’s council meeting.

City council passed a staff recommendation to implement recommendations for increased pay for the city’s six councillors and mayor.

Council called it “a tough decision” when they agreed to recommendations from a task force committee that will add $9,893 annually to the mayor’s pay and $2,000 annually to a councillor’s pay at the June 18 council meeting.

Council agreed to form a citizen’s panel last year to review remuneration after changes to the income tax act eliminated a municipal politician’s tax-free allowance.

Human resources manager Kerri Lockwood said in a report to council today, Aug. 6, eight of the committee’s 11 recommendations were being implemented with today’s council meeting, which would also see rescinding of the 2002 meal expense policy and 2004 vehicle mileage policy, to be replaced with a new meal and travel reimbursement rates policy.

The three remaining recommendations, which included setting up a separate budget line for in-town council expenses, reporting of council attendance at meetings, and exploring making a recommendation to the Union of B.C. Municipalities to study future remuneration matters will be addressed in future proceedings.

The task force’s recommendations are expected to add $35,849 to this year’s city budget.

Not all councillors were in favour of the raise. Councillors Campbell Watt, Julius Bloomfield and Frank Regehr opposed the increases in June but only Regehr opposed today’s recommendation, which was made without any further discussion.

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