Building a new city hall is always an unpopular task for any council to undertake.
Possibly even more unpopular is reviewing your own rate of pay, which is something councillors and the mayor of Windsor will have to vote on, during the thick of election season.
“The fact that it hasn't been addressed in such a long time, it was determined it was time to do a full review," said deputy treasurer Dan Seguin.
The last time Windsor city councillors got a raise, Hurricane Katrina made landfall and Eddie Francis was the city's youngest mayor.
It’s 13 years later and the timing is never good, especially a month before a municipal election.
"It's always a bad time for an elected official to vote on their own pay increase,” said former city lawyer George Wilkki.
Public meetings regarding the councillor pay rate kicked off Wednesday, but not a single person showed up.
The committee charged with reviewing council's compensation says that doesn't necessarily mean people aren't engaged in the process.
It was actually prompted by a change in the federal tax code, which will remove a third exemption for a councillor's pay -- a $4,000 to $5,000 hit on their take home salary.
"It's very clear anyone sitting on city council is not doing it for the money,” Wilkki said.
For the past 13 years, councillors have pocketed $28,770 while the mayor has a base salary of $86,895.
Add in board and committee work, and councillors take home closer to $40,000. The mayor hauled in $174,289 this past year.
Without the tax exemption, just to keep councillors’ net pay the same will cost the city nearly $120,000. That doesn't account for any actual increases.
Wilkki is the chair of a compensation committee that will review a number of factors, including level of effort, the elimination of the tax free allowance, lost purchasing power and compensation of comparators.
There's also an online survey that's registered more than 600 responses, which the city believes is a huge success.
A second public meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the city council chambers.
The committee will report to council with all of the public input and provide a recommendation for councillors to vote on sometime in September.
