The New Westminster Progressive Electors Coalition is calling for an end to a remuneration policy that sees outgoing members of council take home tens of thousands of dollars in retirement pay.
The city’s current policy, in place since 2010, awards the mayor and council with 10 per cent of their annual compensation for each year on council in separation allowances, up to a maximum of 12 years if they choose to leave or are not re-elected.
Mayor Jonathan Cote, who has been a member of council since 2005 and mayor since 2014, would take home $60,183.28 if he is not re-elected. Councillors Bill Harper, Jaimie McEvoy and Lorrie Williams would receive $36,636.91 each, with Chuck Puchmayr receiving $26,635.85. Councillors Mary Trentadue and Patrick Johnstone would draw $15,927.30 each as a retirement bonus.
But the New Westminster Progressives hope to put an end to this practice.
NWP council candidate Daniel Fontaine said the funds should be spent on something else.
“We think when taxpayers look at these types of pension payouts for city council positions, they look around and they see roads that aren’t well-maintained, they see open ditches in Queensborough, they see services that are not in their community,” he told theRecord. “Our group felt that, as a message to taxpayers, that we’re going to respect the funds they send to city hall, that our local elected politicians shouldn’t be getting that kind of a payout.”
The party is pledging to put forward a motion in council to rescind the policy if elected. If the motion doesn’t pass, they would ask city staff to deposit retirement funds into the city’s rent bank.
“We will voluntarily re-direct any of those funds to an initiative and program that we think will have a much better benefit, in the rent bank versus in our bank account,” he said.
The group also says they will not vote to increase pay while they are sitting on council, but instead vote to determine compensation of future council members, a policy that would only come into effect following the next municipal election in 2022.
But Mayor Jonathan Cote says a previous independent, arms-length review of council compensation recommended separation allowances because councillors do not receive a pension or retirement benefits.
“The policy has been effective in providing an independent assessment of remuneration and has taken council salary out of the hands of elected officials,” he said in an emailed statement. “Conducting another independent review would be costly and would duplicate the work done in 2008.”
Coun. Patrick Johnstone agreed that current policy, including the retirement bonus, was acceptable.
“I guess it comes down to whether you think that people who work for city council are actually doing jobs or not,” he told theRecord. “I honestly think it’s a real job, it’s a serious job. It requires a lot of time and energy, and if we want people to serve on these jobs, we need to compensate them.”
Johnstone said that because elected officials don’t have access to the municipal pension plan, separation allowances make sense.
“I wouldn’t ask a police officer not to receive a pension after doing their work for the city, right?” he said.
