(by Newsdesk) The Town of Gibsons has given chief administrative officer (CAO) Emanuel Machado a 10-per-cent salary raise. His salary jumped from $123,384 to $135,722, retroactive to January 1, 2017. How does this compare to other communities?
The increase comes as mayor Rowe says there is no longer enough money to maintain local roads to their previous standards, stating that the town faces “extraordinary pressures” to maintain infrastructure.
“I don’t have a solution for the roads,” the mayor told council on May 2. “Quite simply, the choice that your council had to make is either we abandon road maintenance altogether or we find alternative solutions.”
Several streets have already lost their pavement to chipseal — a thin layer of tar covered with gravel.
Mayor Rowe told the Coast Reporter on June 9 that the town’s CAO had not had a raise, other than standard cost-of-living increases, in five years.
“We hired a consultant to look at comparable communities and determined that our CAO was seriously underpaid … and even with this boost, quite frankly, he’s still below a number of other communities’ [CAO’s]..”
A request by The Coast Clarion for the consultant’s name and a copy of the report was refused.
“The consultant’s report was provided to council in confidence and contains methodology, analysis and options,” corporate officer Selina Williams replied in an email. “To ensure the consultant’s interests are protected under the Act (sic), I will require an FOI to review the document and determine what portions are releasable to the public.”
The Coast Clarion has made the Freedom of Information request.
The Coast Clarion contacted a number of B.C. communities with similar populations to request salaries of CAOs and remuneration of mayors and councillors.
CAO salaries
Population Operating funds (2015) CAO salary
Gibsons 4,605 $1,935,023 * $135,722
Oliver 4,928 $2,155,449 $85,460
Creston 5,351 $5,401,128 $123,158
Armstrong 5,114 $1,477,116 $127,952
Duncan 4,944 $4,434,113 $129,017
Osoyoos 5,085 $8,731,508 $145,000
Fernie 5,249 $3,390,017 $160,000
Sechelt 10,216 $5,607,162 $154,563
* The amount of operating funds affects the workload of the CAO.
Rowe told the Coast Reporter on June 9 that “with a lot of municipalities in B.C. and across the country recruiting new top management, council also had its eye on the need for stability in the executive team. There’s very serious competition throughout the province for qualified administrative staff and chief administrative officers, so for us to be able to attract and retain good, qualified people, we have to be prepared to pay a salary that’s going to be reasonable.”
Machado has been the town’s CAO since September 2012. From January 2011 until September 2012 he was manager of sustainability services at the District of Sechelt.
The Coast Clarion also examined remuneration of mayors and councillors in comparable communities.
Remuneration of mayors and councillors
Population Operating funds (2015) Mayor Councillors
Gibsons 4,605 $1,935,023 $32,147 avg. $15,800
Oliver 4,928 $2,155,449 $26,792 $14,289
Creston 5,351 $5,401,128 $27,461 $13,369
Armstrong 5,114 $1,477,116 $22,893 $13,027
Duncan 4,944 $4,434,113 $27,165 $16,460
Osoyoos 5,085 $8,731,508 $27,142 $16,543
Fernie 5,249 $3,390,017 $28,532 $15,285
Sechelt 10,216 $5,607,162 $42,277 avg. $21,97
Mayor Rowe did not respond to The Coast Clarion’s request for clarification.
It’s definitely difficult attracting and retaining qualified staff in a town of our size. We are seen as a stepping stone to a job someplace bigger. But a 10% increase in addition to CoL? Yikes!
I know from personal experience that the stipend paid to Mayor & Councillors is grossly inadequate IF they work as hard as they ought to at the job. Doing the Mayor’s job PROPERLY requires a full-time commitment. But our current one does the minimum, so his compensation is more than adequate for a (very) part-time position.
Regarding Oliver, I doubt any local government in the province pays its CAO only $85,000. Almost all BC local governments make their statement of financial information (SOFI) available online. And a useful aspect of this information is it compares apples to apples, unless of course a CAO has been hired partway through the year or has had to go on leave, etc. It’s also not technically apples to apples to compare the new Gibsons rate to 2016 or 2015 salaries from other communities. When the SOFIs come out next year some of those other salaries may increase, too. These are recently reported 2016 SOFI numbers:
Osoyoos $160,515
SCRD $159,941
Sechelt $154,563
Oliver $150,362
Tofino (not on the list but much smaller than Gibsons) $145,844
Creston $135,192
Gibsons $121,599 (going up an additional 10% this year)
(The other communities listed in the article are either close to the SOFI number or are difficult to report this year for other reasons–Fernie for example had a CAO turnover.)
The Coast Clarion looked up the SOFI numbers for 2016 and then contacted each town to ask if the CAO had actually had a raise since January 2017 other than the customary 1.9 per cent cost of living increase. The numbers differ from Silas White’s numbers.