More discussions about the remuneration for directors at the Cowichan Valley Regional District will take place in September.
The board held a lengthy discussion on the issue at a special governance committee meeting on July 16, but no final decisions were made on the controversial topic.
Ian Paydli, the CVRD’s senior manager of human resources and assistant general manager of corporate services, prepared a report in which he asks directors to consider 10 issues related to their pay, including the method of determining remuneration, their meeting schedules and how they relate to pay, and attracting different demographics in regards to pay.
After more than two hours of discussions and not even getting halfway through the issues, the directors decided to continue the conversation at a meeting on Sept. 3.
Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples said she doesn’t think there’s any rush to make any final decisions on the issue, and she would rather take the time to discuss it thoroughly.
“I know it takes courage to have this discussion about our own wages and our own worth and value,” she said. “These positions were volunteer for a long time and that is exactly why we’re going through these long decades of trying to change that. My time is valuable as all of yours should be and that’s something that we have to keep mind as well. If we devalue ourselves and our time, we devalue the positions that we sit in and that, to me, is disrespectful of the work we are doing.”
Currently, the remuneration for electoral area directors in the CVRD is $51,536, $22,704 for municipal directors, which is in addition to their pay from their municipality, and $34,647 for the chair of the board, which is on top of their pay as a director.
The issue of remuneration for directors in the CVRD has been contentious for years as the board is required by the province to decide its own pay, which many regard as a conflict of interest, and the fact that directors, specifically electoral area directors, have different workloads.
As well, there are concerns that the low remuneration directors receive and the long hours the job requires discourage many good director candidates from running for office.
Saltair/Gulf Islands director Jesse McClinton asked why directors across the province should be the lowest paid employees in local government.
“My suspicion is that this is the only paid position that becomes politicized and, typically, the pressures of the public, I think, put downward pressure on the compensation for this role,” he said.
“I think we need a step change in how we go about compensating ourselves.”
Cobble Hill director Mike Wilson said there is no denying that directors have long working hours, have complex decisions to make, and have large volumes of documentation to read, but they accepted that when they took the oath of office.
“Every single one of us made the conscious decision, a conscious choice to our residents to ask them to elect us as their area director,” he said.
“Let me be clear, I am not opposed to fair and equitable reward for the work that we do, but I am opposed to any motion that does not adhere to the Union of BC Municipalities' council and board remuneration guide which is unequivocal in stating that local government should consider establishing an independent task force to review elected official remuneration. This ensures credibility and protects officials from conflicts of interests.”
