Reader, would you like your salary revealed to the eyes of friends, neighbours, enemies? I thought not.
So it’s my unpopular duty to report the 2015 salaries of some top-paid West Vancouver municipal employees. Nasty job, but somebody has to do it.
Try to follow this. Provincial law requires publicly listing all staff paid over $75K. I blithely intended to report all with remuneration over $100K. Gave up. Too many.
By my bleary-eyed count, 81 staff had base salaries over $100K, and 28 more had base salaries under $100K whose “other,” often hefty remuneration, like overtime, retroactive pay, taxable benefits, and retirement payouts, brought them into six-figure territory. Example: Water and waste water treatment supervisor Codi-Lynn Abbott was paid $77K and almost as much in other remuneration, for a total of $152K.
Start at the top. Well-regarded chief administrative officer Nina Leemhuis’s base salary in 2015 was over $230K — more than Premier Christy Clark’s base $195K. Add the controversial $50K paid Clark by the Liberal party, add Leemhuis’s other remuneration of over $41K, and Leemhuis’s total of $272K is still ahead of Clark’s $245K.
Selectively moving on, base salaries: Director of engineering and transport Raymond Fung $178K; corporate services director Mark Chan $169K; parks director Anne Mooi $178K (and senior parks manager Andrew Banks $136K, parks operations manager Ian Haras $108K, park programs manager Corinne Ambor $108K, parks manager Dan Henegar $108K, then add parks supervisor Rick Burnham $80K, not counting two recreation supervisors and a supervisor of forestry and trails — who’s cutting the grass?).
Furthermore: Director of human resources and payroll Lauren Hughes $178K; library services director Janet Benedict $151K; asset and facilities manager John Wong $136K; transit manager Gareth Rowlands $145K; purchasing manager Clay Nelson $122K; engineering services manager Phil Bates $137K; engineering development manager Tony Tse $136K; legislative services manager and municipal clerk Sheila Scholes $136K; economic development manager (who knew West Van had one?) Stephen Mikicich $129K; roads and transport manager Norm Wong $123K; utilities manager Andy Kwan $130K; communications manager Jeff McDonald, deserving danger pay for tolerating my questions, $128K; financial controller Balraj Hayre $127K; IT manager Donna Cresswell $120K.
Two who left during the year: Leemhuis’s deputy CAO Brent Leigh $115K, planning director Bob Sokol $87K, whose total remuneration was $130K and $110K respectively.
Stop to let the fire truck pass: Fire chief Randall Heath $182K (total remuneration $196K); deputy fire chief Tony D’Angelo $148K; assistant fire chiefs Antony Bird $131K, Jeffrey Bush $131K, and Jay Brownlee $129K.
Add 21 captains in the $98K – $113K range and 10 lieutenants, $101K – $120K. Include total remuneration and you get 56 with the plain title of firefighter paid over $75,000, several over $100K. Worth every penny when needed, agreed?
Derrick Humphreys, West Vancouver mayor (1978-1986), envisioned amalgamating the North Shore municipalities — under the pretty good name of Capilano. His dream died at the fire stations. No flaming way!
The good news: West Van, highest-income municipality in Metro if not all Canada, paradoxically gets its mayor (base pay $82K) and councillors ($37K) on the cheap, far down the Metro list.
And hear this: Police aren’t listed due to the province’s (disputed) exclusion of their names for safety reasons. But their salaries total $10.76 million.
Remuneration in 2015 for all West Van municipal employees, including expenses, was $67.996 million. Add payments to suppliers, $79.307 million. Grand total $147.303 million.
Need reminding that West Van taxes, held down for years, abruptly shot up 6.87 per cent this year, more than five times the Metro Vancouver average?
Historical notes: In 1992 only one West Vancouver municipal employee was paid (barely) over $100,000. The “Fiscal Five” led by David Hall, and later the Interested Taxpayers’ Action Committee (ITAC), led by David Marley and Garrett Polman, fought for municipal thrift for years.
“We remained active until 2011/2012 and then disbanded, having concluded there weren’t too many interested taxpayers in West Vancouver,” Marley reflects. “At least, not that many prepared to become active in the effort to persuade council that the district’s spending was out of line, especially with respect to employee numbers and remuneration levels.”
But be fair. By and large, doesn’t West Van work well — safe atmosphere, reliable services, excellent parks?
Would tighter political/fiscal control prove better?
• • •
Coun. Michael Lewis, who has been ill, and wife Jean, have long been among leaders wanting autism accepted as a Medicare-covered disorder.
At April’s national Liberal convention delegates agreed, making the issue one of its 23 priority policy resolutions, a great stride for the cause.
Former Vancouver Sun columnist Trevor Lautens writes every second Friday on politics and life with a West Vancouver bias. He can be reached via email at rtlautens@gmail.com.
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