City compensation report raises obvious questions

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2024 (415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the coffee-time ritual that occurs each year: reviewing the report that reveals how much elected officials and government-funded workers earn, expressing shock or anger over how much many of them are paid, and arguing over who is the most overpaid of the bunch.

The Public Sector Compensation Disclosure Act requires the provincial government, government agencies and publicly funded bodies such as municipalities and universities to report the compensation it pays to board members, officers and elected officials each year, as well as total compensation paid to employees who earn more than $85,000 annually.

A few days ago, the City of Brandon released its annual compensation report for last year. A copy of that document is found on the internet by Googling this phrase: City of Brandon – Compensation Disclosure Report 2023. I encourage you to take a moment to read it.

The report reveals that Mayor Jeff Fawcett was paid a total of $111,953.94 last year, that deputy mayor Glen Parker received $31,843.83, and that the other city councillors each received between $25,204.86 and $26,854.92.

City manager Ron Bowles was the highest-paid city employee, at $222,095.17, while other top earners included Brandon Fire and Emergency Services Chief Terry Parlow ($186,697.27), acting Brandon Police Service Chief Randy Lewis ($186.766.20), former police chief Wayne Balcaen ($172,917.04) and human resources director Linda Poole ($150,236.36).

Those are big numbers, but the more relevant number is this: 226. That’s the total number of city employees who earned more than $85,000 last year. Among those employees, more than half appear to have received more than $100,000. Indeed, the vast majority of firefighters and police constables employed by the city were paid more than that amount.

After reading the report, you might join many other Brandonites in concluding that many city employees are overpaid and underworked; that many are earning far more money and benefits as city employees than they would be earning if they were doing the same job in the private sector.

You might very well think that, in a knee-jerk kind of way, but I’m not sure you would be right. The wages paid to our firefighters and police officers are negotiated at the bargaining table, and are based upon the wages paid by other Canadian cities. In other words, the approach toward their compensation ensures they are paid the “going rate” for their services.

The same goes for senior police officers and firefighters. There’s an established range for their services too and, given their experience and leadership duties, do we really expect them to be paid less than the officers or firefighters (as they case may be) they supervise?

When it comes to the city manager and other senior administration staff, the same logic applies. Experienced, competent municipal leaders, especially staff with specialized skills like engineers, don’t grow on trees. They are in high demand across the country, and the City of Brandon is constantly fighting to hire and retain them.

And, really, do you think it’s easy to convince quality potential employees to move to Brandon, or stay in Brandon, by offering them less money than cities in British Columbia, southern Ontario or Nova Scotia? The fact is that many of our senior city staff are earning less than they could in other cities that pay higher salaries, have a better climate and a offer a higher quality of life.

Having said all of that, it’s a mistake to review the compensation report and immediately decide that some, many or all city employees are overpaid. Few of us have all the information we would require in order to reach that conclusion.

Instead of jumping to conclusions, there are a number of questions we should asking. First, does each city employee possess the skills and experience to do the job they have been hired to do, at the level of pay they are receiving? Second, how do salaries paid by the city compare to wages paid by private employers for the same type of work? Are some city staff overpaid or not?

Third, are there ways to reduced staffing costs without reducing the quality of service? Could the private sector provide some of the services currently provided by one or more city employees, at a lower overall cost to the city?

Fourth, when compared to other cities, does the City of Brandon have the correct number of staff? For years, senior city staff have claimed that the city runs a “lean operation” from a staffing perspective. Is that really true? Is it possible we are too “lean,” and that explains why it often takes so long for even basic problems (for example, curbs, sidewalks and potholes) to be addressed?

The answers to those questions will combine to answer the question we really should focused on: Do the wages the city pays represent good value for taxpayers?

That question can’t be answered based on hunches, assumptions and incomplete information. It takes a wide range of data from multiple jurisdictions, combined with the skills to objectively analyze that information. Such an analysis would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.

Ironically, the City of Brandon could have had the benefit of such an analysis, free of charge. A few years ago, the Pallister government offered to pay for “value for money” analyses for every local government in the province. The audits would have identified potential ways for tax dollars to be saved but, ironically, not one local government — not even the City of Brandon — accepted the offer.

It’s a shame, really, because it might have put an end to the “who is overpaid” discussions that happen in local coffee shops every year at this time. It might have even resulted in better services, at a lower cost to taxpayers.