Published Jun 19, 2024 • Last updated 15 hours ago • 3 minute read
Essex County council is seen during 2024 budget deliberations at the Essex County Civic Centre on Jan. 10, 2024. Photo by Taylor Campbell /Windsor Star
A move by Essex County councillors to give themselves hefty pay raises — and make it retroactive — has triggered a wave of criticism on social media.
“If you want informed councillors to make good informed decisions, then you need to pay them for their time,” said Warden Hilda MacDonald, who’s also mayor of Leamington.
“I know it’s a tough time and it was a tough decision — but you get what you pay for,” she told the Star.
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Following the recommendations in a consultant’s report, the warden’s own base pay rate remains the same, at $92,987.
But the annual salary for a county councillor — paid on top of what they earn for sitting on municipal councils — jumps from $13,211 to $31,302 per year — more than $18,000 extra or a 137-per-cent hike.
The deputy warden’s salary goes from $16,164 to $40,938.
The pay hikes are also retroactive to January 1, resulting in a $292,056 shortfall in this year’s already-approved budget. The deficit will be covered by drawing from the county’s rate stabilization reserve fund.
Council voted 10-4 to adopt the new compensation scale that includes the raises intended to keep local pay comparable to rates paid elsewhere.
“This isn’t about making money, but people’s time is valuable,” said MacDonald. “I believe it is deserved. The council members at this table are very engaged, attend events, and they are always prepared.
“They give up time with their families and jobs to take part in these decision-making initiatives.”
Some of those around the council table — all Essex County mayors and deputy mayors — have seen the early social media reviews and probably recognize the bad optics.
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“The public doesn’t like it and they’re ready to stone us,” said Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy, one of county council’s 14 members.
“It’s very uncomfortable for council members to ever ask for a wage increase,” she told the Star.
“I have a seat at the table now and that seat deserves to be compensated comparable to other positions — not more, but not less,” said Bondy, who has become the target of repugnant online messages.
“Pay raises for the councillors and deputy warden have not been addressed since 2008,” she said. “There was never a comparable done, except for the warden.
“We had a huge pay discrepancy.”
ML Consulting was hired in January to undertake a market study of council remuneration. It concluded that the base salaries for the local deputy warden and councillors were significantly lower compared to elsewhere.
That hasn’t stop area residents, however, from expressing strong opposition and even disbelief online regarding the pay increases.
“Way to show financial restraint,” wrote one person on Facebook. “I’m not arguing the worth of councillors that put themselves out there for the residents, but a phased approach would have been a better approach.”
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“I didn’t realize you could be compensated for being ‘scrutinized’ by the public,” another social media user posted. “I think their execution of this was very poor.”
Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue was one of four councillors who voted against the pay hike motion after speaking out about the way the politicians gave themselves a raise.
“That is what I find irksome — I just can’t do it,” he told the Star.
“Everybody knew what the pay was going in and ran for the position anyways,” he said. He intends to take the difference and donate it to charitable causes in Amherstburg, Essex, and Toronto.
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Prue also criticized the decision to have the pay hike made retroactive to January, calling it “poor.”
“The next thing is that they took the money out of reserves,” Prue said. “I told them if they had not done it retroactively and waited until the next budget, it would have been more more palatable to me and everyone else, but they wouldn’t do that.”
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