Council made a decision to eliminate the possiblity of residents in lower incomes to run for council by Cancelling the Remuneration Review.  For 50% of Owen Sound's population the current Council Compensation represents a insurmountable barrier.  Only two members of Council voted remove this barrier, Deputy Mayor Scott Greig and Councillor Jon Farmer. The others claimed that it would hurt their chances for re-election if their salary increased.

In Owen Sound the median, after-tax household income is $57,600. That means that half of Owen Sound's population live on less than $57,600. Given the current remuneration for members of Council is $28,000 per year. Given that the time requirement is much greater than 20 hours per week, this excludes 50% of population from participating as a member of council, simply because they cannot afford to take the off work.

On February 26, a group of Owen Sound Councillors, sprung a surprise motion on their colleagues to disband the Remuneration Review Task Force. The Task Force was established just four(4) council meetings prior, to do research and report back to council on whether or not a salary adjustment was appropriate. You have to wonder; What changed in the few weeks that passed between establishing the Task Force and disbanding? And, Why was it necessary to spring this on the members of council who were not included in organizing this surprise?

At the meeting Mayor Boddy prompted Councillor Hamley to begin the process. Councillor Hamley stated that he would need a motion to wave notice for a motion without stating the subject of the intended motion. Councillor Keopke immediately moved to wave notice which was approved by six (6) members of council. The three (3) no votes were Deputy Mayor Greig, Councillor Dodd and Councillor Farmer who were obviously not part of this pre-planned surprise. It 's not clear whether or not all six (6) who supported the motion to wave notice were in on the surprise. But if they weren 't, they voted without knowing the subject of the motion that would follow, which in itself is a little odd.

Just minutes prior to this surprise motion all members of council voted to accept staff recommendations for the 2024 budget. These recommendations included funding for staff training on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are three closely linked values held by many organizations, including the city of Owen Sound. These values are supportive of different groups of individuals, including people of different income level or financial status in the community. However it would appear that those supporting this surprise motion were not aware of the barrier presented by council compensation to the largest group in our community with no representation on City Council. Watch this for yourself and don't forget to tell us what you think.

As someone who was a member of this short-lived Remuneration Review Task Force, I 've been outspoken on the need for the composition of our city council to reflect all residents in our community. As I 've posted on www.OwenSoundTaxes.com and on Facebook many times half of Owen Sound households take home less than $57,600 per year. This is a distinct group of residents representing 50% of our community and I don't believe that there is one member on the current council from this demographic.

Note to Taxpayers
An increase in council compensation would minimal impact on taxes. In 2024 we will spend $342,138 for council salaries and expenses. The city 's total expenses in 2024 are projected to be, $63,319,260. Given this, the cost of council is 0.54% of our total expenses. In comparison, in 2025, we will spend $758,754 to run the City Manager 's Office. That's 1.2% of total expenses and $546,023 to run the Art Gallery which is 0.86% of the total expenses.

It 's important to keep council expenses in perspective. We could double council compensation and still not spend as we do on the City Manager 's Office. Given the responsibilities involved in being on council and the magnitude of the decisions being made, I suggest that our council is much more important to the financial health of the city than the City Manager 's Office, so doubling this expense is not as outrageous as you would think. But that was never discussed since the Remuneration Committee did not have one meeting and there was no guarantee that they would have recommended an increase.

Staff Previous Work and Recommendations
Barriers to participation were identified by the 2017 Remuneration Committee which stated that compensation must be sufficiently high enough to:

“Create an environment which attracts talented candidates with sound leadership skills and a willingness to contribute to the community; and be at a level that does not have a negative impact on family income or be a barrier to running for Council”

In July 2020, the city clerk wrote:

“There were several years where Council did not receive a wage increase and it left them being unfairly compensated for their responsibilities. It is important that Council not defer increases to ensure that this type of lag does not occur which could put future Council 's at risk. The compensation needs to be sufficient to attract talented and committed individuals to serve.”

In September 2023 the Deputy Clerk wrote:

“Establishing a Council Remuneration Review Task Force removes politics from discussions by having an objective public group review remuneration, expenses, and benefits. In addition, it is important that a task force be established because:”…. “the task force requires citizen voices and/or external stakeholder expertise to develop the subject matter.”

These quotes from city staff above suggest that there has been ample knowledge for some time that council compensation may be a barrier to some in the community to run for council and the Remuneration Review Task Force requires citizen voices and expertise. I suspect that the surprise nature of Councillor Hamley 's motion resulted in many on council focusing only on the public perception of council giving itself a pay raise and caused most to completely forget about previous staff recommendations and the work of the previous Remuneration Committee.