A three-member task force established to make recommendations on Victoria city councillors’ pay and benefits is expected to present its recommendations in the next few weeks.
The task force, made up of former B.C. General Employees’ Union president Stephanie Smith, former city councillor Margaret Lucas and executive director of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre Ron Rice, was established after significant public backlash to city councillors voting themselves a 25 per cent raise this year.
The raise was put on hold after hundreds of people raised concerns about the process around increasing the salary of a sitting council, with many arguing it should not apply until the next council.
As well as putting the raise on hold, council had Mayor Marianne Alto write to the province to ask it to change the council compensation approval process to remove councils from making decisions on their own compensation.
The task force has been meeting and interviewing each member of council and will use the Union of B.C. Municipalities’ Councillor Remuneration Guide and the MNP Governance Review of city council as guides.
At least one city councillor has called the process into question. Coun. Stephen Hammond said he had concerns about Smith’s inclusion on the task force because he had been told the union she presided over had endorsed the mayor and five current councillors — Susan Kim, Jeremy Caradonna, Dave Thompson, Krista Loughton and Matt Dell — in the 2022 municipal election.
Hammond said it could be perceived as a conflict of interest as the councillors the union had endorsed all initially supported the pay raise.
He said that he had nothing against the head of a union being on the task force.
“I would like to think that we could find someone who’s a union representative who has not made a direct endorsement of the very people who put forward this resolution and passed it,” Hammond said.
An archived BCGEU webpage shows the union did include the five candidates on an endorsement notice.
The webpage noted the listed candidates had all applied for an endorsement through their relevant labour council or the BCGEU.
The BCGEU executive committee reviewed potential candidates and chose to endorse them based on their answers, public statements, past actions and community involvement.
A similar page was posted on Coun. Dave Thompson’s webpage with the same information.
Hammond, the only councillor to vote against receiving the task force update report on Thursday, had hoped city manager Jocelyn Jenkyns would look into it and, if required, delay the task force’s work in order to get the public on side.
“Because we have to remember that the reason that the majority of council turned around on this issue was because of the huge tsunami of outrage and how quickly that was brought about,” he said.
Jenkyns told council she didn’t think there was any cause for concern as the task-force members were chosen on their reputation and professional experience.
Coun. Susan Kim said her understanding is there is no conflict of interest because her endorsement as a candidate was from the Victoria Labour Council, a distinct entity from the BCGEU.
“The process in my perception was sound,” she said.
“And I understand that there’s a very superficial appearance of a conflict, but once you kind of dig into it, I don’t see that there is.
“And the unions and the labour movements themselves are not monolithic either. So let’s just move on with our work.”
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