Author: Laurie Watt

Barrie Mayor Dave Aspden would like to see a thorough review of councillors’ jobs and pay.

He said he’s paid well enough, with his $86,000 salary (one-third being tax-free) and his $6,000 annual expense account, but he can’t say the same for his council colleagues, who are paid $28,623, along with a maximum expense account of $3,000.

“Are taxpayers getting their value from 10 councillors (who are paid) part-time remuneration? It’s a little more than part-time work. That’s one of the issues council has to deal with. Previous councils could have dealt with it, but didn’t,” he said, as councillors debated establishing a council compensation review committee.

Aspden noted the $3,000 expense limit is proving difficult for some councillors. “It’s 100-per-cent not workable. Some people will attend something and not have enough to attend something else that’s very important to them.”

That’s what happened to Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard. Newly elected, he registered to attend an emergency preparedness conference in Ottawa last January; the bill rang in at $2,100 and ate up most of his yearly expense money.

Brassard later said he couldn’t afford to attend an Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, nor could he produce and distribute a ward newsletter.

Council later ordered the mayor – who attended the conference free because of the number of people the city sent – to credit Brassard and fellow Coun. Jerry Moore with a third of their $1,675 registration fee. Both Brassard and Moore have met with other levels of government on behalf of the city and were on the verge of running out of money before the summer recess.

A council committee is preparing to examine issues such as whether professional development conferences should be taken out of a councillor’s budget or billed against another budget line, whether phone expenses should be allocated to councillors and whether the use of city resources (including staff, rooms, vehicles) should be billed against councillors.

As part of his mayor’s open houses, Aspden takes staff with him, and he has taken fire trucks and buses to community locations such as Sears and Wal-Mart.