Story:
After much debate, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors voted at their Jan. 27 committee meeting to give themselves a raise of 1.8 per cent, in accordance with the consumer price index rate for 2010, and a per meeting payment increase of 7.7 per cent (from $103 to $111).
Directors also voted to give alternate directors an annual stipend equal to what the standing committee chair receives; $1,270. The argument was made that alternate directors often do the same work as directors when they fill in at meetings; however, they are not paid for that work.
Being paid a fair wage for the amount of work being done was the centre of the conversation as directors noted the increase in workload over the past few years has not been met by an increase in pay. Often directors spend hours before a meeting reading pertinent literature and then hours in board meetings trying to deal with the plethora of requests coming forward.
"If our meetings are five hours, I don't want to be paid $10 an hour. I think that's ridiculous to expect people to sit here and make the kind of decisions that we make for that. I think that's not acceptable," said West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull.
In an effort to cut back on the hours spent dealing with issues at the community services meeting (which has one of the SCRD's heaviest agendas), directors also voted to split the meeting into two sessions - one in the morning to deal with parks and recreation issues, and one in the afternoon, after a lunch break, to deal with anything else on the agenda.
"I you're going to have a five-hour marathon, your decisions at the conclusion of the meeting tend to be less thoughtful because people are looking at the clock going 'I gotta get out of here.' So if you're going to have a meeting, it's best to split it into two, two and a half hour sessions," said Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk. "I like the idea of splitting the meeting. It just comes down to how you're going to compensate for that."
It was decided they would compensate by being paid for each meeting separately, giving directors $222 for the day's two community services sessions, one starting at 9:30 a.m. and one starting at 1:30 p.m.
"It gives people a break in between so you can have more rational thought and consideration," Janyk added.
