Comments to Mayor and Council members of the City of Vancouver (with respect to proposed

remuneration increases for Council and Park Board).

I want to start off my comments by indicating that I have no issue with the need for proper
remuneration of Council and Park Board members. What I do have issue with is for Council members
being able to vote themselves pay increases without facing the electorate.
In the election of 2014, not one of the candidates elected to this current Council campaigned on the
topic of raising pay levels for themselves and their colleagues. As such, you really have no mandate to
do so.
Also, with ten of the 11 of you having sat on Council from 2011-2014, there is absolutely no doubt that
you knew the workload and the level of remuneration that you would be facing, yet opted to run
again. Thus, it seemed that the remuneration for the job involved was acceptable by each of you as
well as countless others who ran in opposition to you otherwise, why did you run? All of a sudden
deciding that the pay is insufficient is disrespectful of the voters as well as those others who were more
than happy to take on the role.
While in the past, voting for your own pay increase may have been the way that things were done, there
is no reason why this cannot change, and why it cannot change now. It is bad enough that an increase
would take effect before the voters have a say; what is worse, should I understand correctly, is that this
raise would be retroactive. Shame.
By voting on pay increases for themselves, politicians at all levels in this country are in a conflict-ofinterest. This is the issue that I have with the increase as I said, I have no particular issue with the
need for an increase itself.
I am calling on the Mayor and Council of Vancouver to do the right thing that is what leadership is all
about and amend the By-Law to make this increase effective the first sitting of the new Council (to be
elected in 2018) with absolutely no retroactivity. This way, the electorate can have their say as to who is
worthy of the new level of remuneration. Further, I am calling on the Council to make this the standard
going forward and, thus, avoid the conflict-of-interest that is inherent in voting oneself a pay increase.
Finally, for the three Council members who voted against the increase on, I believe, 24 February, I
applaud you for your standit was the right thing to do. However, should you accept the increase, then
your vote is meaningless. I urge you to encourage your colleagues to see the light and vote to defer any
increase until after the next election.

Respectfully submitted,
John Merzetti
Vancouver taxpayer (and regular voter)