Let Councillor Hunger Games Begin: CRERAR

I thought I had finally gotten the proposed double-digit pay increase for city councillors out of my system but no.

Instead of continuing to squawk about this issue, it’s time to lay some potential solutions on the table.

Let’s begin with the facts and some simple calculations. Ottawa city councillors are paid an annual salary of $119,654. A 15-per-cent increase would mean adding $17,948 to this amount, bringing the total to $137,602. This increase of $17,948 per councillor adds a total of $430,754 to the annual operating costs of a city currently treading water. Dividing this total amount by the proposed new salary of $137,602 is the financial equivalent of adding three new seats around the council table.

Note that much bigger Toronto currently runs its operations with 25 city councillors, one more than Ottawa.

Allowing councillors to decide whether they deserve a pay increase is similar to letting computer programmers test for bugs in code they’ve written. They’re not going to find as many problems as an independent group would.

So an independent body needs to decide what to do, not members of city council. There are numerous solutions this body can explore including the following:

• Do nothing, leave councillors’ salaries at $119,654,
• Increase each councillor’s salary by 15 per cent, maybe more, maybe less
• Put the name of each councillor on a small piece of paper, toss all 24 pieces into a fishbowl, draw three at random, and say “thanks and goodbye” to those whose names are drawn (any reduction in the number of city councillors will, of course, require redistricting, but if the state of Texas is up to the task, someone in Ottawa can mastermind a solution for a city with 1-million residents),
• Provide each councillor with a secret ballot and ask them to write the names of three peers who they feel are providing the least amount of value to the city and say “thanks and goodbye ” to those whose names appear most frequently,
• Reduce each councillor’s office budget by $17,498 (an amount equivalent to the proposed salary increase).

Times are tough just a whistle from Laurier Avenue.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to determine how to reduce federal government spending. Ottawa’s mayor and city council should be following suit to cut back on municipal spending. Rather than starting from the bottom, it would be nice if the city worked from the top down for a change.

Let Ottawa’s hunger games begin.

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