Town of Drumheller council approved an amendment to its Remuneration and Expense Allowance Policy during the regular Monday, August 15 council meeting in order to change when an independent task force would be established to help set remunerations.
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski requested direction from council at the August 2 council meeting and was directed to bring back the proposed amendments at a future date.
“The reason we are doing this is so this council can set and approve the next council’s remuneration as opposed to the feeling you’re having to approve your own set of compensation,” CAO Drohomerski shared during the August 15 meeting.
He explained, under the current policy, an independent task force of Drumheller residents is to be established within the first year following a municipal election.
This task force then reviews remunerations for Mayor and Council and presents proposed remunerations for consideration and approval.
It was recommended the formation of the task force be moved from Year 1 of a council term, to Year 3. This would allow the current council to set remunerations for the next incoming council term.
CAO Drohomerski noted, while each council member has the opportunity to run for re-election, this amendment would give “a little more blindside” and help set the next incoming council up for success by the previous council prior to the next municipal election.
Along with changing when the task force would be established, it was also recommended to update the base honorariums for both Mayor and Council, which were previously set in 2019. It was proposed to increase base honorariums for council members from $21,976.76 to $23,649.86, and the honorarium for Mayor increased from $41,945.09 to $45,138.08.
Council unanimously approved the changes to the remuneration policy.
