Thompson Local News

City Council Approves Executive Staff Wage Increase

Thompson City Council approved what was the most contentious item on last week’s agenda: a 1.25% wage increase for executive staff working for the City of Thompson.
 
The resolution was originally on the agenda for councils meeting in July, but was pushed to the August meeting to make sure everyone was voting from a position of knowledge. The debate on the resolution lasted over 15 minutes, with Councillors Duncan Wong and Ron Matechuck leading the charge to have it defeated. 
 
As is the case with all resolutions before council, Mayor Dennis Fenske turned to City administration to provide any pertinent background information on the resolution that might not already been known to members of council. For this resolution, city manager Gary Ceppetelli spoke and said that this is an annual resolution that for the past four years has mirrored the increase unionized city employees receive. He added that the money ($12,395.38 in total) was budgeted for in the City’s 2018 Financial Plan, which was approved by council earlier this year.
 
Councillor Blake Ellis opened the debate, saying that he is in support as the increase maintains consistency between all City employees and will help retain and recruit workers. Like Ceppetelli, Ellis reminded the rest of council that the increase isn’t spending new money as it was already accounted for in the budget.
 
Councillor Matchecuk was the first to speak against the resolution, saying that executives shouldn’t be getting raises. He also took the time to once again point fingers, saying that the City wouldn’t be facing the economic issues that it is had the Grant in Lieu negotiating committee not failed at their job. 
 
Councillor Wong took a different approach by saying that the city manager is in conflict of interest by putting forward the increase, as he is a member of the executive staff that would be seeing the pay bump. Wong then asked if Ceppetelli could prove that he had done his due diligence to show that a raise was in order.
 
Mayor Dennis Fenske shut down Wong’s attack on the credibility of the city manager, saying that putting in forward and signing off on resolutions is part of Ceppetelli’s job, and that it in no way constitutes a conflict of interest.
 
Councillor Penny Byer, who is currently the only person who has declared their intent to run for mayor in the upcoming municipal election, said that the increase can be boiled down to a matter of morale. She said that they as the City will be asking them (administration and executive staff) to put in more time and more effort during tough times, and that it’s a “small token to show them we care”. Byer added that at the end of the day, the increase “probably wouldn’t be enough to buy them breakfast somewhere”. 
 
Mayor Fenske exercised his right as head of council to speak last before the vote, saying that council is “picking on 21 employees” to score points heading into the election. He added that council discussed requiring all City staff to take an extra 10 days off per year, which would have saved $500,000 but ultimately chose to go in a different direction. 
 
Fenske concluded by saying that on one hand council as a whole said that they did not want to to save $500k annually, but that they now want to make a big issue out of $12,395.38 (in 2018) and that they can’t have it both ways.
 
The vote, which was recorded at the request of Councillor Wong, passed by a count of 6-3. Councillor Judy Kolada sided with Wong and Matechuk, making up the three opposition votes.
 
Thompson City Council will resume their regular bi-weekly meeting schedule in September, with the first meeting of the month scheduled for September 4th. 
 

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