Nearly $20K raise proposed for Kelowna mayor

The City of Kelowna’s mayor and councillors could be in for a significant pay raise.

On Monday, city staff will be presenting an update regarding council remuneration compared to other municipalities in the province.

Staff will be recommending a nearly $20,000 increase to the mayor’s salary along with an increase for councillors.

The last time the city reviewed council remuneration was in spring 2022, however, that focused more on a recommendation to offer a benefits package to all members of council.

Those benefits were added to council remuneration at the beginning of this council term.

“An internal staff review of Council remuneration was circulated to the previous Council for information in April 2022,” the report says.

“Kelowna remuneration was shown to be among the lowest when compared with municipalities of similar population or smaller population.”

According to the report headed to council next week, a more recent review carried out by the City of Victoria found that the mayor of Kelowna is paid lower than 12 other “comparable cities” with the exception of Kamloops.

Staff say Kelowna council’s remuneration has fallen “significantly” behind those comparable municipalities.

“Low remuneration should not be a barrier to attracting candidates to run for office, nor so high as to negate the concept of public service that motivates individuals to run for office in the first place,” the report says.

Currently, the mayor is paid $126,497.29. The recommendation is to bump that to $145,200.

They are also recommending an increase for councillors’ pay, which would be 40% of what the mayor makes.

Currently, councillors are paid $42,991.14. With the recommended increase, that would work out to $58,080.

Staff say the remuneration should reflect time commitments, employment and financial impacts of being an elected official and the “complexity” and responsibilities of being in office.

“It is further acknowledged that the breadth and depth of services provided by the City of Kelowna, as compared to some comparators, is much greater,” the report says.

“For example, the City of Kelowna provides numerous regional services on behalf of the Regional District of the Central Okanagan (Air Quality, Rescue, EOC, etc.), owns and operates the regional landfill, owns and operates an international airport, and is responsible for a regional RCMP detachment.”

The total costs recommendation is $139,413.60 and, if passed by council, would funded from financial savings identified through “implementation of the digital transformation strategy.”

Council and staff will review and discuss the matter in more depth during the Mar. 25 meeting.

If the changes are approved would be in effect as of adoption of the associated bylaw amendment, the staff report says.