SD #27 Trustee Doug Neufeld wants pay raise...

As an update...

Back on Jan 31st - Zone 6 (City of Williams Lake) Trustee Dr. Doug Neufeld brought forward a report requesting that Trustee pay for School District #27 be increased.  In that report - he compared current pay of SD #27 Trustees ($12,500) to pay for the Williams Lake Mayor & the six City Councillor at $43,000/$15,000 respectively.  The request was referred to the SD #27 Board's Policy Committee with a report expected back in 60 days (2 months)

Zone 1 Trustee/SD #27 Board Chair Will Van Osch said on Monday, Feb 6th:

“This time some trustees spoke to the fact that they thought that the remuneration could be higher and a couple of other trustees suggested it might be fine where it is. So what ended up in the end we sent it to the policy committee to determine whether or not it’s an adequate amount of money.”

Meanwhile - Doug Neufeld, in defending his request stated:

Neufeld said he would use his pay increase to buy computers for students, but thought an increase was needed because of all the time the trustees are taking out of their regular jobs to attend school district meetings.

Living in Williams Lake he said he would quite happily meet in the evenings, but he was concerned that if all the meetings they have been attending were held at night it would make for a long day for the rural trustees, some of whom have an hour to an hour-and-a-half drive to and from meetings.

A pay increase might also attract more people to run for trustee at election time, he said, in noting the low interest in the trustee elections last fall.

Since then - I've heard from a few on Twitter who call the move "hypocritical" and "crass" given teachers' are being told to accept a 'Net Zero' contract

Also - the following comments were posted at the Williams Lake Tribune website on this subject:

1) Unions representing school support workers agreed in principal with the Ministry of Education to implement no pay increases for the next two years in the new collective agreement. So if the government is saying no more money to teachers and support staff wages how fair is it that trustees are in favour of giving themselves an increase in pay. Seems hypocritical to me.


2) Not to be rude, but if Doug Neufeld is saying he is going to "use his pay raise" to buy new computers for students, then what purpose does a raise serve? It seems that he is saying one thing "pay me more" but I will be a good guy and give it back (in the form of a tax deduction). Does anyone else see the problem here, or is it just me?

Unfortunately - this is a classic example of "what not to do" after a general election - regardless if you just got elected as a School Trustee, Regional District Rural Director, City Councillor, or Mayor. But this is not the first time an elected official tried to raise their pay immediately following an election in this area. Remember the case in 1999 - then newly elected Mayor of Williams Lake (and current Councillor) Ivan Bonnell immediately moved to increase his pay as Mayor

Should SD #27 Trustees decide to increase their pay later this year (after the report from their Policy Committee) - you can virtually guarantee that you'll see Letters to the Editor in the Tribune/Advisor calling out the Trustees as "hypocrites" given Victoria's demands for a new Teachers' Contract at a 'net zero' level

SBF