CALGARY -- A volunteer committee tasked with taking a closer look at the pay of city council met Wednesday afternoon for the first time.
The five person citizen committee will spend the next year studying the salary, pension, benefits and other perks of councillors and the mayor, who earn $113,325.63 and $200,586.40 respectfully.
A previous volunteer committee made several recommendations to council in 2017, including cutting the mayor’s salary, which council voted in favour of.
“I recognize that this can be a hot button issue for folks," said committee chair Scarlett Crockatt. "That’s not a reason to do it.
"This is important to our community," Crockatt added, "that our city councillors and the council overall is an important contributor as it sets things for our city. My goal is to balance the perspectives in conjunction with my committee members and do what we think is best for the community and use as many external sources as we can.”
The group will spend the next few weeks getting up to speed and plan to meet next month.
It’s slated to present recommendations to council in about a year.
