Councillor owed nobody an apology for questioning stipends
By Lethbridge Herald on March 11, 2023.
OUR OPINION
John Middleton-Hope owes nobody an apology for questioning whether council members should be compensated for serving on boards, commissions and committees. The public apology issued by the city councillor at Tuesday’s meeting was an unnecessary act of contrition because Middleton-Hope committed no wrong doing.
By stating – in a conversation with The Herald – concerns about renumeration for council on committees since they already receive a salary, he was not saying his colleagues are unethical by accepting payment for serving on BCCs.
He simply stood up for his constituents and fiscal responsibility and questioned the process, not the people benefitting from the process, but the process itself. Nobody was personally attacked in the Herald story and nobody has justification for expecting Middleton-Hope to say sorry.
Members of the public should applaud Middleton-Hope for making public these stipends which many weren’t aware of. And before anyone submits anonymous Roasts saying the public should know council is paid for commitee meetings, it’s not that simple. In our own daily lives, nobody can rightfully assume the public knows everything about the workings of civic government.
Our poll results show the public overwhelmingly agrees with Middelton-Hope.
What Middleton-Hope did was shed light on part of government workings. And it begs questions, none of which merit an apology for asking. One is if councillors are being paid to serve on council, are they indeed double-dipping by being paid to serve on BCCs? Should such service be considered part of their duties as elected officials?
Another question that merits an answer is how many hours are councillors and mayor putting in during an average week fulfilling their elected duties? And that leads to another question – are these positions considered full-time or are they part-time?
If full-time, are the councillors’ wage of $53,349 and mayor’s salary of $130,219 high enough to compensate them for all the work they are doing conducting city business? Consider the compensation earned by Red Deer and Medicine Hat members of government. The Hat’s mayor earns $135,152 while councillors have a base salary of $45,000. The last figures available for Red Deer show the mayor there earns $132,000 plus expenses while councillors take home $69,000 plus expenses.
What is a fair wage for elected officials to do all of their duties while serving their four-year terms? Perhaps a study needs to be done to find out and renumeration adjusted to include the time spent serving on the various BCCs.
If councillors’ work is considered part-time, then taxpayers may look at their salaries and have concerns about a process that has them being paid more for committee work when they already get a wage that many don’t make for full-time jobs. And again the process here is the issue, not the people whose work has them being compensated as part of that process.
That’s what Middleton-Hope was addressing – the process – and he didn’t deserve the humiliation of apologizing for doing his job. That’s what he gets paid to do – represent his community and serve its best interests. No apology warranted.
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So i guess for some they could just go get another job, bearing in mind that for some this is the only job they have had and for others the best job they have ever had. John did nothing wrong except questioning the need for side troughing.