It's easy to criticize politicians when they give themselves raises. After all, who of us have that power to be able to approve our own pay hike, particularly one of the significance that Cochrane's mayor and council approved during budget deliberations Nov. 28. Cochrane's six councillors will go from a base salary of $18,707 (not including allowances, which bumped that amount up to around $25,000) to $27,967.
It's easy to criticize politicians when they give themselves raises.
After all, who of us have that power to be able to approve our own pay hike, particularly one of the significance that Cochrane's mayor and council approved during budget deliberations Nov. 28.
Cochrane's six councillors will go from a base salary of $18,707 (not including allowances, which bumped that amount up to around $25,000) to $27,967.
Mayor Ivan Brooker's salary will jump from $68,502 to $83,086, and 18 per cent increase from 2014-15.
Though this remuneration retooling may seem excessive and irk many Cochrane residents, we have to ask ourselves if this pay increase was a long time coming and if in the long run, it will benefit the town of Cochrane.
How?
First off, council was faced with the recommendation to increase its pay a couple years ago when the Mayor and Council Remuneration Task Force advised a jump in salary in 2012.
Council rejected this recommendation, and they did so for one very simple reason...an election was looming and there was an outgoing mayor.
Saying ‘no' to an increase in pay was a simple decision for former mayor Truper McBride to make. Not only did he know he wasn't going to be running in the upcoming municipal election, he also knew it was an easy way for him to go out with the public's approval on this matter.
Was it, however, a mistake?
McBride did not hide the fact that one of the reasons he did not run for another term as mayor was because the position did not offer enough money.
Cochrane is an expensive place to live, and whether we like to admit it or not, money is an important issue, particularly when a family with children and a mortgage have a lone earner.
For Cochranites who were McBride supporters and would have liked to have seen him run for another term and continue doing what he was doing, is it not fair to say that he may very well have been lost due to the low salary (compared to other mayoral positions in the region) our mayor was being paid?
Unlike a council position, being the mayor is, to say the least, a full-time job.
It is not a 9 a.m.-5 p.m. position, where the clock stops when you punch out. It requires several hours during evenings and weekends.
And like most political positions, it comes with little fanfare and the responsibility of making big decisions.
Will paying our mayor $83,086 a year entice more smart, qualified and innovative people in our community to run for the position?
If we look at the previous salary of $68,502 and assume the mayor puts in around 50 hours a week, which is a fair assessment to make, would someone want to take on that responsibility for $26 an hour?
Again, it's easy to criticize this point of view. Who on earth would defend a politician's salary this day and age?
True.
With federal and provincially-elected officials flying all over the world at leisure, collecting huge payouts when they retire, hiding tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that they buried for their own personal use, it is hard to sit here and say that a pay hike is justified.
But Cochrane is growing. Whether residents like to admit it or not, it's not the ‘wee town by the Bow' any longer.
It takes a qualified, intelligent person who is willing to put in the time and effort to work hard at managing a growing ‘city'.
When you look at municipalities in the Calgary region, mayors are garnering anywhere from $75,000 to $85,000 a year. Many of us would like to make that kind of money, but just as many of us wouldn't touch the position of Cochrane mayor with a 10 foot pole.
Cochrane will need people to step up to the plate, and paying them fairly is one way to help ensure someone will do just that.
