Pay increase for alternates coming to Essex County Council

Essex Civic Centre in Essex, Ont. (Source: County of Essex)

Members of Essex County Council voted Wednesday evening to increase the pay for their alternates.

Alternate members step in when a councillor is unable to attend a meeting. For example, if Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy is unavailable, town councillor Kim Verbeek substitutes for her.

Prior to this week's meeting, alternates were paid $110.77 per meeting. The new rate is $260 per meeting, retroactive to January 1, and will come out of the salary of the councillor they are replacing.

This decision came after nearly 45 minutes of discussion and follows last month's contentious vote by councillors to raise their own salaries by 137 per cent.

"The alternates should determine for themselves and find out how difficult it is to actually vote an increase for your position," Essex County Warden Hilda MacDonald said, referencing an alternate member who was apparently "angry" after the June vote to raise salaries.

"He was quite vocal to a family member of mine that it should not have happened. And yet here we are determining what's going to happen to them,” she said.

No alternates from the county municipalities were consulted in drafting the report presented on Wednesday, which some didn’t like.

"This is not fair," said Amherstburg Mayor Michael Prue, who called for a new, more comprehensive report.

"To be doing this in a public forum, with all the criticism that will ensue, without a good staff report, well thought out, you know, touched by legal and everyone else… bring that back so we can vote."

Prue asked for the matter to be referred back to staff, while Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara suggested deferring it until 2025 budget talks.

Kim DeYong, deputy mayor of Kingsville, brought forth the successful motion.

She suggested that alternates receive the same 137% raise council themselves got – which, after rounding, brought them to that $260 figure.

The motion was supported by Michael Akpata, Sherry Bondy, Kim DeYong, Chris Gibb, Hilda MacDonald, Crystal Meloche, Dennis Rogers, and Rob Shepley.

Opposed were Joe Bachetti, Tracey Bailey, Gary MacNamara, Michael Prue, Larry Verbeke, and Kirk Walstedt.