Jasper’s municipal directors and managers are in for a pay raise.
After hours of deliberation, four out of six councillors voted in favour of a salary increase for the municipality’s non-union staff Aug. 19. The increases will be split over three years and will bring Jasper up to speed with the salaries of other municipalities in the province.
Although approved, the motion came with a caveat: the policy for salary reviews will be re-examined, and likely amended, before the next salary review takes place in 2016.
Couns. Rico Damota and Brian Nesbitt were opposed, raising concerns about the methodology used in Strategic Steps Inc.’s salary survey, which concluded that the Municipality of Jasper’s directors and managers are paid, on average, 14 per cent less than their counterparts in comparable communities in Alberta.
“I’ve really struggled with this one as I read council’s policy and administrative procedures—I don’t think we’re basing the salary increase on the whole picture,” said Nesbitt before the vote.
The salary survey—which was the basis of the proposed increases—took into account the salaries of municipal employees in comparable jobs in comparable Alberta communities and then created salary schedules for each position to determine what each staff member should receive as an increase.
Damota agreed with Nesbitt’s discomfort, expressing his concern that all of the relevant variables weren’t taken into consideration in the survey.
“Personally I don’t think that what’s presented is entirely palatable overall, other than for the people who might be receiving the compensation. I just want to make sure that it’s fair to the whole community.”
Despite his concerns, Damota was quick to note that he values the hard work of the municipality’s staff and that he believes those workers deserve fair compensation for the work that they do.
Despite their concerns, Damota and Nesbitt were defeated by Couns. Vonna Arsenault, Helen Kelleher-Empey and Dwain Wacko, as well as Mayor Richard Ireland. Coun. Gilbert Wall was absent.
The motion will see the town’s directors and managers’ salaries increase incrementally over the next three years in order to reach the 2014 market standard. That won’t be reached, though, until 2016.
“People are working behind market rates throughout this,” said Peter Waterworth, chief administrative officer for the municipality.
The increase will come into effect July 1 of this year and will equate to $30,872.55 in the 2014 budget.
The municipality evaluates the wages of non-unionized staff—directors and managers—every three years to assess changes in the market. Last year, administration requested that the evaluation be postponed by one year, so the Services and Structural Review could be completed and taken into consideration as part of the evaluation. The delay also allowed for an update to the municipality’s job specs, so that the most up-to-date information could be used by the consultants.
When speaking in favour of the motion, Arsenault said she doesn’t think council will look back with regret.
“I agree, we need to study the policy, but I just can’t really envision in these three years us saying ‘oh my god, we made a huge mistake allowing that.’
“I find it pretty palatable and I’m pretty impressed with our directorship and I would like to remunerate accordingly.”
