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Victoria council may update bylaw that determines their salaries ahead of 2018 election

Updated bylaw would go into effect following the municipal election results Fall 2018
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City staff are awaiting direction from the city to determine whether they should proceed with updating a bylaw that determines councillors’ salaries. (News files)

Victoria city councillors will be considering changing the bylaw that determines their salary in the new year ahead of the 2018 fall municipal election.

Council previously asked staff to look into the implications of reviewing the bylaw that determines their remuneration, a law that was created in 2008 and implemented in 2009 after a citizen committee review. The hope is for the work to be done before the election, but the changes would not go into effect until after the election is complete. The current bylaw increases councillors’ annual remuneration based on Victoria’s consumer price index.

According to a staff report, a basic review would involve creating a similar citizen committee, which would take an estimated six to eight months for the committee to be established, conduct the review, seek public feedback and make the amendments.

RELATED: Third party review to assess Esquimalt council’s remuneration

As in 2008, the City could hire a consultant to conduct the review, which would cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

The city may potentiallysend out a survey to similar municipalities asking for information on remuneration, benefits, expense reimbursement options, meeting frequency and work load, all of which would take two or three months. An outside consultant could also do this work for $5,000 to $10,000.

What the review process will look like has yet to be determined.

lauren.boothby@vicnews.com