UPDATED: Council votes to give mayor $14K raise

Brandon City Council on Monday agreed to give the mayor a $14,000 raise next year, with three per cent increases for the next four years.

The raise represents a base salary jump from $108,429 in 2026 to $122,500, though some per diems and added compensation have been removed for council members.

Council’s decision came after lengthy discussions on Monday evening, when it also agreed to give councillors 25 per cent of the mayor’s salary — or $30,625 — as of next year.

Councillors this year have base salaries of $25,268.

Council also decided to stay with the current electoral system and the same number of councillors, after members said they heard from residents that the current system is preferred.

Councillors deliberated Monday evening over how much more the mayor should be paid, with recommended increases of $12,000 to $22,000.

Multiple members said the mayor is “grossly underpaid” and spent an extended time throwing out different numbers for what the position’s salary should be, adding different motions, amendments and secondary amendments.

Council also spent an extended period deliberating what percentage of that salary councillors should be paid.

“Hopefully it helps bring — continue to bring — quality candidates forward, maybe people that are not necessarily in the position that myself and others are in, where you’ve got 35 years of work behind you,” Mayor Jeff Fawcett said after Monday’s special council meeting.

Fawcett abstained from voting on the change to the mayor’s salary, citing a conflict of interest.

He said he would have liked to see the mayor’s salary tied to a provincial representative’s compensation, such as a portion of a cabinet minister’s salary.

“Then you don’t put anybody in these super awkward positions,” he said, adding that the awkwardness might be one reason why Brandon’s members have “been very poorly compensated versus the rest of the Prairie cities.”

The first motion presented called for such a scenario, but was talked down by deputy mayor Glen Parker, who said tying a salary to a third party wouldn’t be a good idea.

Parker (Ward 9) after the meeting said it’s a “challenging situation” for council members to be put in, voting on their own salaries.

“There was good discussion and lots of people had reasonable rationale,” he said. “I personally think (the) salary increase for council is still maybe a little bit high, but overall, satisfied, I guess somewhat.”

He said it puts the next council in “a good starting spot” and members can deal with it as they learn the position.

City administration last week recommended a plan to increase council’s pay, including three per cent raises for the mayor from 2027 to 2030, and for councillors to be paid 30 per cent of the mayor’s salary.

The recommendation was based on a study of six similarly sized cities in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Administration’s recommendation also included changing the electoral system, which would have seen all councillors elected at large, with two members later appointed to represent one of four different wards. The number of councillors would also shrink from 10 to eight, while the mayor position would remain.

Fawcett didn’t talk about the mayor’s salary during the meeting, and instead let councillors give their opinions and decide what to do, up until he was asked by a councillor to speak to his position.

Fawcett said he’s not asking for an increase, but that Brandon has recently had the luxury of having mayors who “had the ability to do these jobs essentially at a loss.”

“I do recognize that for a lot of people, they wouldn’t be able to do what mayor Chrest, mayor Decter Hirst, myself … did do, because they’re just not in the financial position,” Fawcett said.

“When I go into meetings, you don’t wear on your chest how much you make. If you did, even every meeting I went to at the city I would be the lowest paid person at the table.”

He added after the meeting, “Under different circumstances, if I was not running, I would have been probably advocating more aggressively.”

Discussion about councillor pay varied at times, with lower percentages suggested, before Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) pointed out to members that they have complained about being underpaid for the work they do.

Council also agreed to give the deputy mayor 28 per cent of the mayor’s salary.

On the topic of council’s structure, Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) said the current ward system with 10 councillors should stay the same.

“Every bit of feedback I got from residents talking to me about this said leave it the way it is,” Berry said.

“They didn’t want us to change wards or go down to eight (councillors). They’re comfortable, they like the system the way it is, they like the representation, they like to know who their councillors (are).

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, it’s fine.”

Berry added: “I don’t need more work with less councillors … I think we’re in a good position to handle the growth and just keep things the way they are.”

Fawcett said going down to eight councillors as the city grows would make it “that much more difficult” to have a diverse council.

Renee Sigurdson, the city’s director of legislative services and city clerk, said while the populations of wards vary from 4,603 to 7,379 people, the city would keep the same ward layout in the upcoming election.

A ward redrawing would mean wards would lose their natural boundaries, like important streets. Wards were last redrawn ahead of the 2022 election.

» alambert@brandonsun.com