2010 City of WL Stipend/Expense List

On Tuesday, WL Council will receive a Staff report from the City’s Director of Financial Services (P. Higgins) on the Statement of Financial Information or SOFI for the year ended December 31st, 2010 which details stipend, salary and expenses information for all members of WL City Council and Senior City Staff and other financial information. You can read that staff report with the 2010 City of WL SOFI Report here

For the record:

Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook – Stipend and Expenses:

In 2010 – City of WL stipend of $43,687.92 plus CRD Stipend of $12,126.00 with City of WL expenses of $10,048.87 totaling $65,898.69

In 2009 – stipend of $44,051.96 with expenses of $8,818.24

In 1 year (2010 vs 2009) – stipend was down $363.08 while expenses went up $1,230.63

2010 Stipend/Expenses for City Councillors Barr, Bourdon, Hebert, Rathor, Walters and Zacharias (most to least):

Councillor Tom Barr – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $4,672.89
Councillor Geoff Bourdon – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $3,545.60
Councillor Laurie Walters – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $2,726.23
Councillor Sue Zacharias – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $2,101.31
Councillor Natalie Hebert (nee Montoya) – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $1,925.88
Councillor SPS Rathor – stipend of $15,240 and expenses of $979.61

2009 Stipend/Expenses for City Councillors Barr, Bourdon, Hebert, Rathor, Walters and Zacharias (most to least):

Councillor SPS Rathor – stipend of $15,367 and expenses of $7,878.19
Councillor Laurie Walters – stipend of $15,367 and expenses of $6,209.93
Councillor Geoff Bourdon – stipend of $15,367 and expenses of $5,890.07
Councillor Natalie Herbert (nee Montoya) – stipend of $15,367 and expenses of $4,466.85
Councillor Sue Zacharias – City of WL stipend of $15,367, CRD total stipend of $ 14,128.00 and City of WL expenses of $3,973.73 equals total salary of $33,474.73
Councillor Tom Barr – stipend of $15,367 and expenses of $2,968.92

Councillor Expenses Analysis (2009 vs 2010):

Councillor Tom Barr – expenses up $1,703.97
Councillor SPS Rathor – expenses down $6,898.58
Councillor Laurie Walters – expenses down $3,483.70
Councillor Natalie Hebert (nee Montoya) – expenses down $2,540.97
Councillor Geoff Bourdon – expenses down $2,344.47
Councillor Sue Zacharias – expenses down $1,872.42

Mayor Expenses Analysis for 2 year periods (2003-2010):

Former Mayor Rick Gibson for 2003-2004: Total expenses of $3,101 or average of $1,550.50 per year
Former Mayor Scott Nelson for 2006-2007: Total expenses of $8,464.19 or average of $4,232.10 per year
Current Mayor Kerry Cook for 2009-2010: Total expenses of $18,867.11 or average of $9,433.55 per year

Interesting Notes:

• Total paid to City employees (under $75,000) in 2009 (salary/expenses) - $4,879,775.93. In 2010 – this amount was $5,280,042.39 or an increase of $400,266.46 in a one year period with 12 Staff Salaries having to be reported.  Back in 2003 - only 1 Staff Salary (former Director of Planning and Engineering) was reported and the amount paid to all Staff (salary/expenses) was $4,593,755.83.  An increase in 7 years of $686,286.56

• In 2010 - $111,821.05 paid to United Concrete (wonder how much was connected to the Mackenzie Ave Project?) In 2009 – they received $66,080.69

* Senior Staff  in "$100,000 Club" (close to $100,000 or above $100,000) during 2010 totals 4 -

Brian Carruthers - CAO at $140,342.47
Geoff Goodall - General Manager of Planning and Ops at $115,132.33
Randy Isfeld - Fire Chief at $99,554.45
Kevin Goldfuss - Director of Municipal Services at $106,778.05

Final Conclusions:

While Kerry Cook and Tom Barr’s expenses are up in 2010 vs 2009, the rest of the Councillors’ expenses are down (that’s a good thing by the way) and we’ll have to wait and see if Mayor Cook and Councillor Barr have to answer politically for this in November’s civic vote but certainly it doesn’t bode well for Mayor Cook’s insistence that she plans to run on fiscal responsibility when the Fire Hall Budget was considerably over its’ allocated budget of $6.5 million, Spirit Square Project was over its allocated budget and her Council expenses are considerably higher than the last two (2) City of WL Mayors put together ($7,302 over former City of WL Mayors’ Rick Gibson/Scott Nelson’s expenses combined)

Both Kerry Cook as Mayor of Williams Lake and Tom Barr as General Governance Committee Chair need to explain to the voters' of Williams Lake why their expenses went up in 2010 vs 2009 compared with their colleagues whose expenses went down in 2010 vs 2009.  Failure to do so will, I believe, earn them a frosty reception at the doorstep this fall

It’ll be a very easy time, in my opinion, for anyone challenging current Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook, to legitimately criticize her on her claim that she is fiscally responsible