Port Coquitlam city councilors unanimously approved a motion that would give themselves and Mayor Greg Moore a modest raise on January 1, 2016.
In 2010, the city council controversially voted to unfreeze their wages and give themselves a 42% raise and the mayor a 27% raise after they hadn’t been given a raise in 15 years. Up until this year, the salaries of the councilors and the mayor were determined by taking the average salaries of those in the same position in the cities of New Westminster, Maple Ridge, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver.
The latest change would instead raise the remunerations of the city council and the mayor based on inflation, such that the purchasing power of the mayor and the councilors will remain the same. Therefore, the councilors and the mayor will receive a raise equal to the Consumer Price Index rate, which was 1.2% last year. In addition, the mayor also gave himself more benefits. Including raising his transportation allowance from $4450 to $7200.
In justifying his remuneration as fair, Moore points out that, “Do you know that a vice principal at a high school will get paid a lot more than the mayor of Port Coquitlam? Let’s not forget the Community Charter clearly indicates that the mayor is the CEO, so I’m the mayor/CEO of a $90 million organization that affects 58,000 people pretty much every day, and I think the salary that we get paid is very justified,” as quoted in the Tri City News.
While saying that someone else makes more than you doesn’t necessarily justify giving yourself raise, Moore is right. His salary amounted to $91,148 last year, while vice-principals are paid just over $100K annually.
