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Houston still seeking task force members

The task force will examine council’s remuneration
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The Council Remuneration Review Task Force is to consist of between five and seven members who would volunteer their time to review council’s annual remuneration. Houston Today file photo.

The District of Houston is still seeking community members to form a task force that would examine the remuneration for the mayor and council members.

Earlier this year council directed staff to seek expressions of interest from the public for the so-called Council Remuneration Review Task Force.

Although advertisements were placed in the Houston Today, no community members have expressed interest in participating.

The task force is to consist of between five and seven members who would volunteer their time to review council’s annual remuneration. The goal of this review is to provide a set of recommendations on what would be an appropriate level of remuneration for council. The committee’s term is expected to be no longer than four months.

District staff will now proceed with advertising on social media and plans to provide information to council during an in-camera meeting at a later date.

Although a bylaw passed in 2010 sets out that the remuneration paid to mayor and councillors will be increased by the B.C. Consumer Index each year, earlier this year council decided to waive their remuneration increase.

READ MORE: Council waive their own pay increase

The most recent B.C. Consumer Index available shows an increase of 2.1 per cent, which would’ve brought the mayor’s remuneration to about $16,114 and councillors’ stipend to approximately $8056 annually.

This was not the first time that a Houston council has waived their pay increase. In fact, there has been no increase to Houton’s council remuneration since 2010. Currently, the mayor’s stipend is $15,783 while each councillor is paid $7891 annually.

In Burns Lake, a municipality of similar size and population, the annual remuneration for the position of mayor is $17,762 while each councillor is paid $8373 annually.

Houston council has included funding in the 2018 budget for a review of council’s annual remuneration. Their intention is that recommended changes be made effective for the new council elected in the 2018 general election.

The remuneration levels do not include expenses such as travel and accommodation incurred by the mayor and council on District of Houston business.

If you are interested in participating in this task force, you can submit your name, contact information and a brief description of prior work and volunteer experience you wish to highlight to the attention of Houston’s chief administrative officer Gerald Pinchbeck - by hand at the municipal office; by mail to PO Box 370, Houston, B.C., V0J1Z0; or by email to cao@houston.ca.

- With files from Rod Link


 

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