Executive committee rejects 13% pay hike for councillors, mayor

Members of Toronto’s executive committee have rejected a salary increase for councillors and the mayor of nearly 13 per cent in favour of smaller raise.

Two options were considered before the vote. The first option was to allow a 12.9 per cent pay increase for councillors, which would raise their salaries from $105,397 to $119,025, and a 12.7 per cent raise for the mayor from $177,499 to $200,013.

The second option, which the committee approved Wednesday, was to hold pay raises to the rate of inflation, which is about two per cent.

The matter will be voted on by council on May 6 and if approved would go into effect Jan. 1, 2015.

The salary hikes generated considerable debate among committee members and the three residents who spoke against the bigger pay increase.

One resident, who thought a 2-per-cent increase was fair, warned the committee, “This is gonna kill your re-election possibilities if you do it.”

The second speaker, a female retiree on a fixed-income, said the 13 per cent increase was “outrageous” and “self-serving,” adding “this sense of entitlement has to stop.”

The third speaker who lives in Regent Park strongly advised the committee to defer the matter indefinitely. “Send it to outer space,” he said. “And let voters tell you what you deserve.”

Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti proposed two motions. One was to refer the matter to July and appoint a three-person citizen panel to look at councillor compensation and if that motion failed that any councillor who finds $100 million in savings would be entitled to the proposed raise. Both motions were rejected by the committee.

Mayor Rob Ford voted against Mammoliti’s motions and voted in favour of the rate of inflation adjustment.

“If you want more money you’ll have to go to another level of government,” said Ford who said in his campaign kickoff speech last Thursday, “Your tax dollars will be used for the good of all and not just a few.”

Coun. David Shiner also said he would not support anything other than a cost-of-living increase.

Coun. Peter Leon said, “I could not accept the large increase that’s been suggested. It’d be excessive and unfair in the economic conditions we live in now.”

The larger salary increases were being considered because of a consultant’s survey of 16 municipalities, which found Toronto councillors were among the lowest paid at the 37th percetile of comparable cities.

A panel had recommended that their salaries be raised to the 90th percentile but council later voted to consider salaries at the 75th percentile. That would bring their current salary from $105,397 to $119,025 for councillors and from $177,499 to $200,013 for the mayor.

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