Vernon City Hall (Vernon Matters file photo)

By Pete McIntyre

Civic elections 2022

Candidate says mayor should not get extra committee pay

Sep 26, 2022 | 6:00 PM

One of the candidates for Vernon mayor says he will leave the decision on committee pay for council members to the next council.

However, Scott Anderson says if he wins on Oct, 15, he will introduce an amended motion to exclude mayors from the option to get $130 extra for attending city committee meetings in addition to their regular pay.

That would not not include meetings for the Regional District of North Okanagan and the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee which are separate governance bodies with separate funding and set pay scales for all directors.

Anderson says while some councillors need the committee meeting pay to cover certain costs, full-time mayors making close to $100,000 in regular pay do not, and he is critical of current mayor Victor Cumming for submitting bills for what Anderson says will amount to about $10,000 in extra pay over the last four years.

“The committee re-imbursement program was originally put in place to support councillors who had trouble funding daycare or other expenses so they could attend committee meetings,” said Anderson in a news release. “I’m sympathetic to that, and if I’m elected mayor, I intend to re-introduce an amended motion to exclude only mayors from the option.”

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Anderson quotes a media report for the figures on how much committee pay Cumming sought payment for, claiming the amounts were $2,055 in 2019, $3,014 the next year, and $2,329 in 2021, payments Anderson refers to as “double dipping.”

“I’m not aware of any other mayor in the history of Vernon who submitted claims forms for committee pay,” said Anderson. “I feel that the election will indicate whether the residents of Vernon think it’s fair for a mayor to be paid twice for doing his or her job.”

If elected, Anderson will introduce a motion to remove the option of committee pay for mayors, but leave open the option for councillors, even though he says few councillors submit claim forms for attending those meetings.

Anderson said he and most other councillors, have not sought the extra payments.

“I have no intention of trying to change GVAC and RDNO pay scales,” said Anderson. “Vernon politicians are members of those bodies, but neither GVAC nor RDNO are City of Vernon committees and are not directly funded by the city. What I want to stop is the process of mayoral double dipping on the Vernon taxpayer’s dime.”

Anderson claims someone making well over $100,000 per year isn’t a hardship case.

I’ve never taken a cent of committee pay while I was a councillor, and I’m sure not going to start as mayor.”

Vernon Matters has reached out to Victor Cumming for comment on Anderson’s criticisms.