Coquitlam city council cost taxpayers nearly $700,000 in salaries and expenses last year, according to documents released today (Friday).
The 2015 Statement of Financial Information (SOFI), which details the audit and schedules of debt, payments and employee remuneration for the municipality, shows Mayor Richard Stewart and the eight councillors reaped a combined $592,620 in wages and racked up another $99,644 in expenses.
Stewart earned $132,228 last year while each councillor took in $57,549 — one third of which is tax-free. But their bills for transportation, cell phones, meals and conferences varied significantly.
Mayor Stewart claimed $17,320 in expenses while Coun. Dennis Marsden — chair of the city’s economic development advisory committee — collected $14,602.
Marsden told The Tri-City News the money was spent to attend the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ convention in Edmonton, the Union of BC Municipalities’ event in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland Local Government Association gathering in Harrison Hot Springs, among other things.
“As a first-time councillor, I thought it was important to get out there and to listen,” he said on Friday. “I find opportunities to learn about how I can save the city money and I think me going is a great return for the taxpayers.”
Marsden did not comment on what potential cost-savings he had discovered for Coquitlam, other than the total would be around $750,000, if approved.
Coun. Teri Towner, who was also voted into office in 2014 with Marsden, had $12,458 in expenses while Coun. Craig Hodge claimed the third highest with $11,552 in expenses.
Towner said two-thirds of her expenses went to cell phone, car and conference costs. “I was also shocked when I saw it was $12,000,” she said, “but when you see it broken down, it’s a reality about how much things are.”
As for the salary, Towner said most elected officials made more in the private sector. And she said SOFI doesn’t include how much councillors have to shell out themselves to go to non-charitable and educational events. “Don’t get me wrong: I love my job. I’m passionate about the community but $57,000 is not very much for how much we do.”
During Monday afternoon’s council-in-committee meeting, Mayor Stewart said he encouraged councillors, particularly those who are new to the process — like Marsden and Towner — to attend conferences in their first year on council.
“I want them to attend those conferences because we need them to be absolutely informed,” he said.
“Every time I go to a conference, I know I come back with enough stuff to make it more than worth it.”
Meanwhile, the report also lists wages for city employees — a total of $91 million for 2015, nearly half of which was spent on workers earning more than $75,000 annually (last year’s payroll totalled $87 million).
Once again, Stewart defended the staff salary costs.
He said the Lower Mainland is a competitive market for talent and the city gets good value for its hires. Reducing the amount the city is willing to pay its managers, he added, could open the door to more costly problems down the road.
“There is nothing more expensive to a municipality than a cheap engineer or a cheap mechanic,” he said. “Some of these technicians are worth their weight.”
The top earner was city manager Peter Steblin at $300,658 while deputy city manager John DuMont earned $258,031. Other salaries over the $200,000 mark were:
• Jim McIntyre, GM planning and development: $218,405;
• Sheena MacLeod, GM financial services: $205,831;
• Raul Allueva, GM parks, recreation and culture: $202,019;
• Jozsef Dioszeghy, GM engineering and public works: $201,857;
• and Ron Price, human resources director: $200,210.
The SOFI report will be presented at Monday’s council-in-committee meeting.
