Council salaries to roll back 2.49% in 2017

[speedog]

Story here, no doubt there's an anti-Nenshi/anti-Druh angle to be spun off of this. There just has to be.

[colinxx235]

IIRC didn't they approve a 3.8% raise last year when the downturn was already active?

I thought I read an article before that the mayors salary increased 23% between 2010 to 2016 and council member 19% over that period.

Curious how they came to the figure of 2.49% average decrease, something tells me the Calgary number of average decrease is more than 2.49 but who knows

Oh and obligatory #fucknenshi

[phreezee]

Challenge accepted! colinxx235 wins.

[Masked Bandit]

Well, according to this article , the mayor's job only paid $177K when Nenshi got elected in 2010. Having a small rollback at this time when so many families in Calgary are hurting hardly seems noble.

Whether or not the $218K is a fair salary is a whole other conversation. You would need to pretty much hold the job yourself to truly know the balance of the actual workload versus all the pay, benefits & perks.

[speedog]

Originally posted by Masked Bandit
Well, according to this article , the mayor's job only paid $177K when Nenshi got elected in 2010. Having a small rollback at this time when so many families in Calgary are hurting hardly seems noble.

Whether or not the $218K is a fair salary is a whole other conversation. You would need to pretty much hold the job yourself to truly know the balance of the actual workload versus all the pay, benefits & perks.

He can have it for $218k as far as I'm concerned.

[ercchry]

Explains this I guess...

http://www.calgary.merx.com/public/s...91063/abstract

Might as well spend even more money on figuring how much money to pay these idiots

[schurchill39]

2.49%? Thats cute.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by speedog
He can have it for $218k as far as I'm concerned.

I agree. I've been critical of Nenshi, I've also given him praise where I think it's deserved ie)His comments regarding the Province suing itself over PPA's. But I wouldn't take his job for that, I'm no Beyond Baller and that's certainly more than I make now, but just the amount of time spent in the public eye and all the time at varying events having to interact with that many people is enough for me to not want the position.

[spikerS]

I fucking hate Nenshi with a passion, and I have since day 1. I think he is a horrible Mayor and totally underqualified in every sense to be a mayor IMO.

Nenshi has caused so much controversy in the past. He can't keep his mouth shut, and most of the time has no clue what he is talking about.

A 2.49% wage reduction is a joke. With the economy in shambles, and most people being laid off, or taking wage rollbacks int he 40% range...it's a slap in the face to the average Calgarian IMO. Hell, even I have been hit. While not taking a wage rollback, my wages are now frozen for the next 2.5 years.

I have a feeling how they are going to play this into a PR move and say that even they are tightening their belt, oh woe is city council...

Taxes are going up, and yet, the City has a WHOPPINGly HUGE savings fund...

Calgary posts $86M surplus in 2015

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...2015-1.3492998
Remember Nenshi crying about how there wasn't money to pay for services and needed the big property tax hike?

or

As Calgary taxpayers scrimp, city racks up $2 billion in reserve funds

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/12/11...-reserve-funds

$2,000,000,000!

yes, a 2 followed by NINE 0's!

And yet, we still fucking scramble to get up Nenshi's ass! HIKE PROPERTY TAXES! The city can't spare a fucking nickel!

Lets just do a little math here...

$2 billion dollars in a savings account. TD is currently advertising 0.5% on a balance of $5k or more...lets make that a simple interest rate too for easy sake.

2,000,000,000 X 0.5% = $10 Million per year in interest... And if that is all we are getting for a return, the financial guys at city hall need to get punted!

/rant

Seriously, city hall needs a shake up badly, and the old crew needs to go and put some people in there with brains, not with social media skills.

[kertejud2]

Think of it this way: if you were a CEO of a company and racked up $2B in cash with a $86M operating surplus during an economic downturn, would you expect to be paid more than $218K a year?

Seems like a bargain if you look at it from the 'the city should run like a business' camp.

[rx7boi]

Originally posted by schurchill39
2.49%? Thats cute.

Agreed haha. Seems like an insincere gesture at best.

A rollback of 2.49 per cent on a councillor's salary is $2,888, while for the mayor it is $5,428.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by kertejud2
Think of it this way: if you were a CEO of a company and racked up $2B in cash with a $86M operating surplus during an economic downturn, would you expect to be paid more than $218K a year?

Seems like a bargain if you look at it from the 'the city should run like a business' camp.

Dafuq?

The city is NOT a business. FULL STOP. If anything, it is a not-for-profit that is designed to help a city through forced donations.

The rainy day fund is mandated to be at 5% of the city budget, and is currently sitting just below 16%, more than 3 times that amount mandated.

You watch the stock markets. When a company posts profits close to the foretasted projections, their stock goes up, it is a sign of good management. When it doesn't meet those projections, the stock gets sold off, and the value takes a dive. What can be even worse, is when profits far outshine the projections. Investors will run even faster as it reflects incompetence in their management system unless there is a very good reason for it like selling off items or property, or something similar.

[spikerS]

I just think this is nothing but a slap in the face. It's a fucking election year, of course they are going to try and show how awesome and prudent they are. Its a token gesture at best, and in 2018, they will give themselves a 12% raise to make up for it.

[kaput]

.

[austic]

How can you be upset about saving money and increasing a reserve fund? really?

[A790]

Originally posted by austic
How can you be upset about saving money and increasing a reserve fund? really?

Where'd the money come from? Taxes.

[austic]

Originally posted by A790

Where'd the money come from? Taxes.

I would rather see them creating a fund to deal with issues that may arise than blowing it in other areas.

[speedog]

Originally posted by spikerS
I just think this is nothing but a slap in the face. It's a fucking election year, of course they are going to try and show how awesome and prudent they are. Its a token gesture at best, and in 2018, they will give themselves a 12% raise to make up for it.

Is the Council Compensation Review Committee being disbanded because it's been that committee that has been determining the council's wages and benefits and not the council themselves?

[kertejud2]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by spikerS
[B]

Dafuq?

The city is NOT a business. FULL STOP. If anything, it is a not-for-profit that is designed to help a city through forced donations.

The rainy day fund is mandated to be at 5% of the city budget, and is currently sitting just below 16%, more than 3 times that amount mandated.

It's a mandate for a MINIMUM of 5%, with a recommended (but definitely not binding) goal of 15%.

Councilors wanting to scrape away at pretty much acts the same as a symbolic (but still not good enough) salary cut to buy some good will before the election. Bigger reserve fund means better borrowing as well and the city has some big infrastructure projects coming this way where a 'too big' reserve fund is a pretty good thing to have.

Hell, spend it all on putting the LRT underground while the Green Line is getting built, would do more for the people than a green bin rebate.

[Xtrema]

I smell union contract negotiation coming up?