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Rick, could you please clarify then, did you abstain in those two votes or did you vote in favour of the committee recommendation? If the former, then you accomplished your wishes. If the latter, then you are fooling yourself and you had an active (if moot, based on the numbers) hand in voting yourself that raise.

That said, personally, while the optics are bad, it's not a huge sum of money in aggregate so I have no issue with it, but now I do expect better results from councillors. The "there's no money to do this" argument, where concerned with town expenditures, should no longer fly since obviously the councillors felt there was room in the budget for additional expenditures.

That's for clarifying that Mike. I think it's important you did.

I fail to see how you can deduce Zeeshan wants a raise based on his post. Quit trying to stir the pot.

While I lean towards Mikes recommendation and am dissapointed in other councillors for voting it down, I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt. So before we bring the torches and pitchforks, I would like to hear from our more vocal councillors on this site (Zee, Rick, Tony) as to why the voted down the reco provided by Rick M and Mike.

I really cant believe the votes didnt go unanymous to support the raise starting with the next council. Im so disappointed reading this. Definitely not at Rick and Mike who both showed they represent the people and our best interests. To me this is a bigger issue than a councillor being pulled over intoxicated.

Sometimes a councillor's gotta do what a councillor's gotta do.

Seems to me that, by this vote, council has given up all credibility in keeping a lid on staff salaries through the budget process.

Cluett has it right and I've agreed with this stance for years -- councillors should absolutely NOT be able to vote themselves a raise. The optics just aren't good and I would love Milton politicians to take a stand on this and potentially begin to set a precedent here.

I get that you want to attract good people, yada, yada, yada, but the salary is set when they get elected -- when they choose to run, they know what the pay is. Any increases should be approved for the next council and then it provides incentive for the sitting councillors to work hard, do a great job, in order to be re-elected to take advantage of the increase. Makes complete sense to me and hats off to Rick M and Mike for doing the 'right' thing.

And an 18% raise to boot?! Again, bad optics when many have been experiencing pay freezes or very low increases in recent years.

I'm now waiting for a Sandman 'pigs at the trough' post, which I would 100% agree with in this case.

Disappointing.

When we put our names forward to run for council we knew what the job paid and we agreed to accept the job for that salary. What council did last night was in my opinion ethically and morally wrong.

The average salary increases for the public sector is approx. 2 % while private sector increases have averaged below that or in some cases have been 0. So how can we justify giving ourselves a 15% increase. This increase on top of the 17% increase approved by the previous council means Milton Councillors salary would have increased by more than 35% by the end of this term.

The last election saw 7 new councillors elected, everyone of us at one time or another while we were campaigning criticized the decision of the previous council who gave themselves that 17% raise. Now here we are 18 months later and 4 of those newly elected ( Sharon Barkley was away ) councllors voted in favour of giving themselves a raise. Last night they did exactly what they had criticized previous council of doing. Another example of politicians saying one thing to get elected and doing the opposite after . This is why so many people have such a low opinion of politicians.

As for the argument that if we paid our politicians more we would get better qualified people seeking office. That is an argument that is always used by politicians to justify giving themselves higher than average salaries and benefits. But think about it are the politicians we have today any better than the ones we had 20 years ago ?

When I was first elected to council in 1997 the salary for Milton councillors was a little over 11K with no benefits. With this increase that will become 32K, nearly tripling the salary in less than 15 years. And in my opinion this crop of councillors is no more qualified than the council of 1997, in fact I would suggest that when you compare the overall makeup on council this one is less qualified. The council of 1997 was made up of older more experienced individuals, including an executive from a major bank, a lawyer, a teacher, a marketing executive and self employed business owners. So paying politicians more does not gaurantee a better quality of politicians, in fact it may cause the opposite as more people get involved in politics for the money, rather than the desire to serve.

I am disappointed with the decision of council last night, but not surprised. This is the same council that has approved tax increases at twice the rate of inflation, agreed to buy 3 new buses even though the ones we have are running at 25% capacity, this is the same council that is sending 9 members of council to the AMO conference in Ottawa at $2500 a pop, the City of Burlington is sending 1 we are sending 9 ?

So much for fiscal responsibility.

Rick Malboeuf
Councillor Ward 4

Rick D, Zee or Tony are more than welcome to respond at anytime. Even some of the less frequent council is more than welcome to post. I would like to hear your refute these claims.

I know you catch a lot of heat sometimes. I'd just like you to know I commend you for your fiscal responsibility. The silent majority support you!

I have not been following completely but wouldn't it be safe to say that even commissioning this committee that the goal was for increased compensation. Its not like it would come up saying pay these people less. So to claim it was independent when clearly there was only a single goal in mind is beyond debating and covering it up by dressing it up and calling it a council.

So when all agree to put it to the committee your effectively voting yourself a raise.

Looks like Mike may have left this piece out if it truly is the case:



So there is no way to mandate a raise to start the next term, but you can approve your own and backdate it?

If there is no way to forward date the raise to the next term, how about phasing it in like this over 3 years:

year 1: $1
year 2: $1
year 3: the rest

We can choose to approve the salary at that level effective what date we wish. This way it will be ready for the new council in 2014 and they will be aware of what the salary will be.

As was said last night several times the buck stops with us and we could choose to approve the recommendation for a new salary (there was no arguement there) and simply apply it for the next council.

Doing it this way we the current council have given ourselves a pay increase. Period.

And as for not accepting it Zeeshan, its easy. Call H.R. Like I did last year when the 2% raise came into effect and ask that it not be applied to me. Pretty simple and when I did that last year there were no problems.

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

Yet when we were elected the budget was already set including the starting salary. As long as its implemented before the next council is sworn in it won't be an issue.

It wasn't about doing something to be politically adventagous. If you think that's what I'm about you don't know me. I do things for the right reasons and what I believe. You were one who agreed with me back in 2009 on your very own blog. Yes you started the thread the day of this vote to ask for peoples opinions. I have been discussing this issue from 2006 and Rick M even longer. Check my site if you wish.

I'm glad you're comfortable with your decision as I am.

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

As much as I originally didn't like Rick M, I'm starting to see how fiscally responsible he is and doesn't play politics. Ditto for Mike C. I'm a little surprised to see that Colin didn't vote the way these two gentleman did but I'm sure he will come on here shortly and give his .02 cents.

So let me get this right Zeeshan, if council does eventually get this 15-18% raise (whatever it is), you are going to give it ALL up? If so where would this go? Back to the town?