Gibsons council voted three to two this week to defeat a motion and further discussion on a proposed stipend increase.
Despite the best efforts of mayor Barry Janyk and Coun. Andrea Goldsmith, councillors Tucker Forsyth, Kenan MacKenzie and Angela Letman voted against the idea.
Janyk brought the idea to council on Aug. 16 when he presented councillors with a detailed report outlining his rationale for an increase.
In his proposal, the base stipend for a councillor, currently at $8,070, would go up to $12,000 in 2006. A committee chair stipend would be established at $1,200, RRSP contribution established at $2,500 and a conference attendance fee for such things as UBCM at $800. Under this proposal, a councillor would see a total increase of $8,430 next year.
The base stipend for a mayor is $16,140 in 2005. That would be increased to $25,875 in 2006. The RRSP contribution and conference attendance figures are the same as above bringing the total increase to $13,035.
Before presenting his report, Janyk cautioned that this was just a starting point and these figures were not written in stone.
"These are my thoughts in print. I want to make it clear, that whatever decision is made it will not determine whether I seek re-election or not," said Janyk. "I feel the role of council and mayor has evolved. The roles have dramatically expanded in the past five years. I believe it is appropriate for the sitting mayor Ñ with nine years council experience, almost six as mayor, to draft a rational overview to petition the community to consider a fair compensation package given the present and future demands of the positions."
Letman, Forsyth and MacKenzie all argued that it was not a good idea to explore this now, what with the municipal election looming.
"With all do respect and I don't take this the wrong way, I have a lot of respect for the time and energy you put into the job," said Forsyth. "You certainly have done more work than I did as mayor and would do if I was to ever run again as mayor. I think some of that work though is unnecessary. I think the stipend as it stands is comfortable. This is a bad time to do this. If a new council comes in and they want to explore this, let them do it."
"I ran for office to serve the community not for a job," added MacKenzie. "I think we're well reimbursed and we don't need to deal with this right now."
Janyk and Goldsmith argued that this could very well be an election issue and could persuade people to run for office if the compensation package was better.
Goldsmith suggested a motion to move the discussion to the committee level where it would give more time for further study and allow members of the public to attend to voice their opinions, but the motion was defeated later in the meeting.
Council did pass a motion to receive the report. It's unclear if the issue would come back to council at a later date.
