Richmond city council will hold off recommending salary changes at Metro Vancouver until the regional government finishes its own review.
Coun. Kash Heed asked city council members to support a motion for the mayor to take to Metro Vancouver to allow changes to how directors are compensated.
Heed introduced his motion, which, in part, called on the mayor to introduce a motion at Metro Vancouver so that directors could refuse compensation for being on boards and committees, something they've been told they can't refuse if they attend meetings.
The motion also calls for the mayor to “voluntarily accept the cap or maximum remuneration threshold for total income” for serving in various government-related roles.
This was one recommendation from an external review of Metro Vancouver, the Deloitte Metro Vancouver Governance Review.
At Monday’s general purposes committee meeting, Mayor Malcolm Brodie said he wanted to reply to the motion after it was read out because “obviously it was directed at me.”
“The focus of this (motion) is that the mayor should do various things,” Brodie said. “Well, I want to remind everybody there are three representatives who sit on the (Metro) Vancouver board of directors and there’s a number – probably most other members of council – who have been appointed (and) sit on committees.”
He noted that a governance committee was appointed in February by Metro Vancouver to look at the Deloitte report, including examining salaries.
Furthermore, he noted, Metro Vancouver has “significantly” reduced the number of committee meetings, which will be reflected in the salaries paid out this year.
He pointed out a motion was also passed in February by the Metro Vancouver board to look into reducing committee meeting stipends by 50 per cent, eliminating extra stipends if meetings run longer than four hours, having a cap on directors’ total remuneration, reducing the number of meetings by 50 per cent, and doing a “core review” of all Metro Vancouver operations to find savings.
“So, to an extent, there have been some changes already made in terms of the remuneration,” Brodie said. “There are more that are being contemplated and waiting for the governance committee to do its work.”
Brodie asked to table Heed's motion until the Metro Vancouver governance review, currently underway, is completed.
At the meeting, Coun. Carol Day said it’s "ridiculous" councillors are paid $500 to attend a meeting in New Westminster.
She argued against tabling the motion, saying a letter to Metro Vancouver will motivate them to take the issue seriously, noting the decision to strike a governance committee was already made in February.
“This is taking far, far, far too long and people have had it,” Day said. “Taxpayers are stretched to the max and I don’t think we should table this. We should send this to Metro Vancouver and get the ball rolling."
The motion was tabled pending the governance committee review. Couns. Heed, Day and Michael Wolfe voted against tabling it.
Brodie received $50,694 for being on the board of Metro Vancouver. This is on top of his salary as mayor which was about $207,000 in 2024. He also receives compensation for being on TransLink’s Mayors Council and the Municipal Finance Authority board.
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