By Herald on April 8, 2021.
Dale Woodard – Lethbridge Herald
The majority of Lethbridge city council believe they should be financially compensated between nomination day and election day.
At their Tuesday meeting, city council defeated a motion stating during the newly established cancellation period of Sept. 20 (nomination day) through Oct. 18 (election day) that city council members cease to be publicly remunerated, unless a public emergency or event requires city council to reconvene at which point council membersâ remuneration would resume at the established rate.
The motion was defeated 7-2 with council members pointing to the ongoing work they do away from council chambers.
âThe role and responsibility I agreed to when I put my name on a ballot, regardless of whether you voted for me or not, the responsiblity as outlined by this very sacred text goes beyond this once-every-two-weeks meeting,â said councillor Jeff Coffman. âI understand why this motion is in front of us, but it underlines the very work some of us are trying to get other people to engage in.â
Coffman added his day is not filled with sitting in a council meeting.
âMy day is filled with dealing with constituents and I have a number of constituents who I didnât call after the last motion that council is not meeting because constituent work is part of what I do, helping people navigate City Hall and navigate processes and bring things forward. There things Iâm working on that I may or may not see after the election and theyâre still important and significant to our community. So itâs important and significant that that work continue.
âThat work will continue up until the day of the election. In fact, I think, re-elected or not, my committment is to Oct. 31.â
Councillor Ryan Parker echoed Coffmanâs sentiments of working right up to Oct. 31 and the work done away from City Hall.
âHow many times have we returned phone calls and emails and met with citizens and how many times have you guys gone to Costco, even during the pandemic, where people pull you over?â he asked. âPeople need to talk to us and we do our work outside of council chambers. If anything, council chambers is nice because now we can just focus on a certain subject, but there are so many things that make us, as a member of council, we have so many different styles and ways or doing it.â
Parker said he still wanted the meetings to occur in September and early October.
âBut the vote was taken. We could reconsider it, and hopefully we will. I donât think we should be punished because weâre still doing the work even though those two meetings arenât occurring. When you were first elected and you go through your orientation, you werenât elected for 47 months, you were elected for 48 months. I donât want us to forget that.
âThere is so much stuff that happens behind the scenes with numerous committees, so I donât expect that on Sept. 1 the mayor is not going to return phone calls, that the mayor isnât going to go go functions and isnât going to cut ribbons or meet with business executives or citizens or take complaints regarding something happening in our community. Just like the rest of us. We still are going to do our work. I just think some of us are disappointed that those other two meetings wonât be there, but that doesnât justify this resolution.â
Councillor Joe Mauro and acting mayor Blaine Hyggen voted in favour of the motion.
âThe more I think about it the more this resolution makes a lot of sense to me simply because council chose, by a vote, that we were going to stop council meetings,â said Mauro. âWe are going to stop councilâs work. That was voted on and that was approved, which therefore tells me we are saying that during the campaign, the last month of this term, we are no longer working as council because it gives council members that want to run again an advantage over anybody else putting their name forward. I think that was the intent and even though I voted against it because I felt we should get paid because thatâs what weâre elected for, I see the validity of that, because council members would be in an advantageous position during the campaign.
âHaving said that, because council voted in favour of it, I donât understand why weâre questioning this particular resolution. If weâve chosen based on the past resolution that weâre not working any more as council and weâve eliminated council meetings, we shouldnât get paid and that makes total sense to me. I know itâs a small drop in the overall operating budget of the city, but I think itâs fact and itâs appropriate. Weâre not working, we shouldnât get paid.â
Mayor Spearman said even though heâs not running in the next election, he did commit to doing his job until the end of his term.
âIf there is an important new investor coming to town, Iâm happy to meet with them,â he sid. âThe mayorâs job is a full time job and I will continue to serve with passion and vigour until the new mayor is sworn in. There are documents that have to be signed and other things that happen on a daily basis that involve the mayorâs job and just because weâre not having council meetings doensât mean I shouldnât ben compensated for the work I do.â
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