Concerns about an increase of people on the City of Powell River payroll earning more than $75,000 a year in 2014 were expressed to city council.
At its Thursday, June 18, meeting, council was asked to approve the 2014 Statement of Financial Information (SOFI). In introducing the motion to adopt the report, Councillor Jim Palm said the document fully explains the financial condition of the city for 2014. He said the external auditor, BDO Canada LLP, sent a representative to present its findings to the city and everything was “pretty well straightforward, we are doing a fine job and we are in pretty good shape.”
Council unanimously adopted the SOFI report without discussion.
At the end of the council meeting, during question period, George Orchiston, a resident who was in the gallery during the council meeting, asked questions about the schedule of employee remuneration and expenses contained in the auditor’s report. The city must report the remuneration of employees earning more than $75,000 during the calendar year.
Orchiston said he has compared the employees earning more than $75,000 in 2013 and 2014 and there had been a change.
“There was an increase from the 2013 SOFI report to the one council adopted tonight,” Orchiston said. “In 2013 there were 31 employees who earned remuneration over $75,000, and in this report that council adopted tonight, there’s 37 employees, for an increase of six, which is an increase of 19 per cent more than the previous year.”
Orchiston said along with that, the remuneration that those 37 employees received increased over 2013 by “a whopping 22 per cent.” That 22 per cent represented $674,000, he said.
“The question for council and staff is: can someone please justify the very large increases in 2014 over 2013, considering one of our strategic priorities is living within our means?”
Shehzad Somji, the city’s chief financial officer, when comparing 2013 to 2014, said there are seven new names on the list. One is a new firefighter who has been added and Somji said he is of the understanding the fire department is still short.
Another addition is the manager of recreation. The position became vacant in early 2013 and the placement didn’t make the $75,000 threshold that year so the individual was off the list in 2013 even though the negotiated salary at that time was more than $75,000. The individual made the threshold in 2014 because they were in the position for the entire year.
Somji said the new director of planning was in a similar situation.
Two unionized staff became supervisors in 2014 and surpassed the threshold, according to Somji.
In 2013 there was not a director of finance on the list. Somji, who is the current director of finance, began his city employment in 2014.
The last position was the superintendent of public works, which was a bump up internally.
Somji said when looking at the net payroll, which was $7.066 million, it’s a five per cent increase over 2013.
Orchiston said after listening to all of that “good news,” his expectation is that next year, that $674,000 would be gone, and that the 2015 SOFI report would be $674,000 less.
