Economy is in free-fall.
Population is in decline.
Property taxes are on the rise.
Services are being cut.
Capable managers suddenly depart.
And the top managers at City Hall are rewarded with a big raise.
Who thinks this is OK?
The top managers at City Hall
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Don’t forget the $$money that was spent that the City hadn’t collected yet.
Is the City’s 2010 employee/wage & benefit list out yet? The local papers used to publish it each year.
Not sure. Another poster seems to be dialed in better than most. Perhaps this poster will shed some light.
… forget about the papers … that kind of information is more likely to be HTMF exclusive. Attached is the relevant page from the auditor’s 2009 statement of financial information. I haven’t had time to figure out how to convert it to an image for easier viewing.
Also attached is the same report for 2008 … makes for some interesting comparisons. Some employees appear to have received rather handsome pay rises.
Wow! Pretty handsome salaries for employees of an economically ‘depressed’ town.
Curnes and Rodin went up by 21K and 24K respectively?!?!
Gak!!!..that’s a big chunk of change for two guys on a single year increment…in a recession.
[quote=“BTravenn”]
… forget about the papers … that kind of information is more likely to be HTMF exclusive. [/quote]
Paper might not run a story, but could they stop someone from running a full page ad??
papers always reserve the right to choose what they wish to have appear in their publications. Not to mention the slant on positives and such lately, then again it’s pretty positive for the folks at the top of the salary slide.
If enough people think this is an issue, it will become an issue.
During downturn periods, it becomes the practice to accentuate the positive. This is not a bad thing as homeowners don’t want to see their property values plummet and attracting newcomers to the community is more difficult if the optics aren’t pleasing.
However, allowing questionable practices to continue under the guise of promoting the positive, isn’t in anyone’s best interest…well, except for those few who benefit, of course.
The Northern View has posted a small item on the salary disclosure, it appeared on their website overnight.
Council reacts to payroll, taxation in financial statements
By Shaun Thomas - The Northern View
Published: June 15, 2010 11:00 PM
The City of Prince Rupert released its 2009 Statement of Financial Information and audited financial statements as part of the agenda for the June 7 agenda, and it proved the catalyst to much discussion amongst council members.
According to the statement, 38 City employees made more than $75,000 last year, with 10 employees making more than $100,000 in remuneration and taxable benefits. Leading the way in that regard was former fire chief Ron Miller at $142,406, followed by City Manager Gord Howie at $136,639 and Chief Financial Officer Dan Rodin at $133,599. But the amount of increase some staff received caught the attention of councillor Anna Ashley.
“I went back and looked at the Statement of Financial Information for 2008 and I compared it to 2009 and what concerned me is that there seemed to be a lot of increases in terms of wages. I understand there are wage increases due to various things, it could be contractual obligations, it could be because of benefits or due to sick leave and retirement being paid out, but I was concerned when I looked at it,â€
I took the documents and OCR’ed them, so that they are text, not graphics. Uploaded to dropbox and used Google Viewer to show them below.
I wonder why the city posts them as graphics files – don’t they know they are not searchable, and that Google doesn’t index them?
If it doesn’t show up for you, reload the page. If it still doesn’t work (like if you’re using Internet Explorer), click on these links for the direct Google page:
2008 Salaries: bit.ly/ajKXFc
2009 Salaries: bit.ly/aUIpZV
Is there any justifiable reason for why these salaries jumped by this increment?
They asked real nice…
I’m not sure why I missed Ron Miller’s $35K jump in salary…that seems fairly substantial.
What also gets me is the way there are 16 more people in the $75K club in 2009 than in 2008. I assume that most of these got contractual increments that boosted them onto the list and indeed several are in the $75K to $80K range, certainly a generous salary for virtually anybody employed in this town but as someone wrote earlier in a different thread: it’s hard to ever roll back wages. Gord Howie seemed to go back a grand last year, which seems odd…
but I wonder about those now in the $75K club who weren’t on it last year and are now way up there: Mike Bruce…$88K to wave people on and off the ferry? To occasionally clean the ice?
I don’t get it. My property taxes go up to pay for these guys’ 25%-35% increases?!?!
With regards to the guy on the ferry - probably due to experience and time served. In theory, we pay well for his skills in case there is an emergency. Then, in theory, his considerable experience should be an asset. All theoretical of course since I am not familiar with the person. And for the fire chief - the fire department took plenty of cuts and lost some valuable members. Perhaps this is a reflection of a reduction he took at the time. I’m happy to have the fire department - I think they deserve what they get. Once again, they are experienced and there are times when that level of skill means life over death.
Here is an excerpt from a June 9 Daily News article where CFO Dan Rodin is reported as saying that the higher payroll costs resulted from a number of City employees receiving pay raises ‘pursuant to collective agreements’ … but the union members only got a 3% increase in 2009 … while a number of employees, including Mr Rodin, appear to have received considerably more than 3% increases.
…
City expenses reported
By Monica Lamb-Yorski - Staff Writer
For Monday evening’s council meeting Chief Financial Officer Dan Rodin submitted a Statement of Financial Information for the year ending December 31, 2009.
…
A second schedule detailed City employees’ remuneration and expenses for those earning above $75,000. At the top of the list was retired Fire Chief Ronald G. Miller’s at $142,406 and $677 in expenses.
Second was Rodin, who earned $133,599 and received $2,899 for expenses, while retired General Manager of Public Works Bob Thompson was paid $126, 594 and $819 in expenses.
The total of salaries and taxable benefits of those earning over $75,000 was $3,549,715 and $59,195 for expenses. The total for all other employee salaries and taxable benefits was $9,919,707.
When questioned by Councillor Ashley, City Manager Gordon Howie said most of the employee expenses fall under car allowances.
Ashley also voiced concern that the totals for remuneration far exceeded those of 2008, where salaries above $75,000 totalled $2,051,102, around $1,500,000 less than 2009, and the salary payments to those under $75,000 were $9,060.072, around $900,000 less than 2009.
In 2009 there were 38 employees receiving over $75,000 whereas in 2008 there were 22 employees on that list.
Rodin told the Daily News in 2009 the increase is due to a number of City employees receiving pay raises pursuant to collective agreements.
“If we assume a 3% pay increase, then at the bottom of the range, if someone last year was earning $72,815, this year they would earn exactly $75,000. At the top of the range a person who last year earned $74,999 would now be earning $77,248. There are six people on the list who earn an amount between $75,000 and $77,248, that might have gotten on the list simply due to a collective agreement pay raise,â€