Should City Council And The Mayor Get A Raise?

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Should members of City Council and the Mayor make more money?

The City of Windsor is currently undertaking a Council Compensation Review for members of the new Council that will be elected this fall. The goal of this review is to ensure that compensation for the newly elected City Council members is reasonable for the duties and expectations of the positions.

The last local compensation review for Windsor’s municipal elected officials was conducted in 2003, and the most recent increase to council compensation was 2005 (1.9%).

The current base pay for a Windsor City Councillor is $28,770. Committee and board appointment compensation raises that total to $39,779. The current base pay for Windsor’s Mayor is $86,895, with committee and board appointment compensation raises that total to $174,289.

The City also says that the federal government’s planned elimination of the current one-third tax-free exemption for elected officials in 2019 will impact Windsor’s elected officials along with those of many other municipalities across the province. The elimination of this tax-free exemption will generally result in a reduction to the take-home pay for elected officials that currently receive the one-third tax-free allowance.

The elimination will result in a decrease in take-home pay of $4,142 for City Councillors and $28,719 for Windsor’s Mayor.

For these reasons, an independent compensation review committee made up of community leaders has been formed to review, for the first time in 15 years, the proper level of compensation for municipal elected officials.

A short survey has been created to help our local committee understand the position of Windsor residents on this issue and will be followed by a pair of town hall-style meetings in August.

You can find that survey here. The survey will be open until the end of July.

For those without a computer or access to a computer at one of our local library branches, hard copies of the survey can be accessed at any of our five customer care centres at Adie Knox Herman Recreation Complex, Optimist Community Centre, Gino & Liz Marcus Community Complex, Forest Glade Community Centre and the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.