A misunderstanding over a pay cut made waves during a recent Woodlands County Council meeting

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Back in mid-April of 2020, Woodlands County Council passed a motion that directed their Administration to reduce Council honorariums until they could get back to doing in-person meetings. Like the Town of Whitecourt, Woodlands County holds online meetings and Council members and staff tune in, often from home. The motion, brought forward by Mayor John Burrows, directed Administration to lower the elected official honorariums by ten percent. It also included reducing the professional development funds, per elected official, by five thousand dollars for 2020.

Since then, the Council Chamber was equipped with the technology needed to live stream meetings so that even when they return to in-person attendance, residents near and far can tune in to keep up to date on Woodlands County Council happenings. At the time, the motion included a stipulation that once Council returned, in-person, to Council Chambers for their regular meetings, that the honorarium would get fully reinstated.

During the June 15 electronic meeting of Council, Administration let Council know that they could soon get back to in-person meetings. “We are anticipating that all restrictions of the pandemic will be lifted sometime in July,” explained CAO Gordon Frank. “We are asking Council if they want to resume in-person meetings in the Council Chambers.” At the time, Administration did not know when Stage 3 would kick in, so they decided to plan the first in-person meeting for July 20.

The RFD (Request for Decision) stated that Administration was “presently testing the equipment and investigating additional bandwidth to ensure uninterrupted streaming.” Unaware if there would still be distancing restrictions, the streaming capabilities enable them to be cautious and ensure that seating arrangements are not limited for attendees since people can watch online.

Councillor Dale Kluin said he agreed with part of the RFD. “The recommendation is to resume meetings at the administrative office, and in the background, it gets into our ten percent reduction. I have absolutely no problem getting back to having regular Council meetings, but I do not think what we have done in the past, of cutting honorariums by ten percent, has hurt any of us. So I would like to recommend that we stay where we are as far as remunerations.”

Councillor Bruce Prestidge disagreed with that idea and felt that getting the ten percent back was fair once in-person meetings resumed. “We went through a lot of debate setting our remuneration, and we did this as support to the County to get through this pandemic. It was only for the time we were away from the office, and we should go back to what we originally negotiated and give councillors back their ten percent.”

Undeterred, Councillor Kluin motioned to resume onsite meetings and keep Council wages reduced. The vote quickly followed. Councillors Rennie, Kusch, Kluin and McQueen voted in favour of it and passed the motion with the majority.

Before Mayor Burrows could move forward with the next agenda item, Councillor Govenlock raised a question concerning Administration wages. “The decision (just made) has implications for Administration because, at the time, the understanding was that members of Senior Administration would take a ten percent reduction in their salaries as well.”

CAO Frank responded. “When staff were laid off temporarily in 2020, and we returned to full operations, the ten percent reduction was put back to full salaries.” Seemingly stunned by the answer, Councillor Govenlock responded with, “excuse me? You want to run that by me again?” CAO Frank reiterated his statement. “As previously indicated to Council several times, when the pandemic first started in April of 2020, there was a lay off of several staff and then a (salary) reduction of ten percent of all remaining staff. When we brought back staff to full operations, salaries were put back to full amounts.”

Councillor Govenlock said he was confused about when full operations were reinstated. “That still hasn’t taken place to my understanding, and I think this is the first day I’ve seen you in your office, Mr. Frank, so this would be a new twist. When did that occur?” CAO Frank responded that it was ten weeks after the pandemic first started. Councillor Govenlock thanked him for the information. “This is a more serious change of facts than I was aware of, so we will leave it to the next council meeting, and it’ll be on the agenda then.”

Mayor Burrows stated that the topic had already been covered previously. “It’s not that we’ve not dealt with this already.” CAO Frank was also confused. “It was also in part of the budget deliberations for 2021. I am not following Mr. Govenlock’s question or concern relating to this matter.” Councillor Govenlock said his understanding was that decisions involving the ten percent reductions to Council were connected to the ten percent reduction to Senior Administration. “There’s been no discussion that I’m aware of to any changes of the ten percent compensation for Administration. This was the first time we put the change in protocols due to COVID19 on the agenda. This was the first attempt to try and restore normalcy to Council. I am quite surprised that this took place and that there was no discussion with Council. Unless, of course, in those secret meetings, we are making decisions that aren’t supposed to be being made,” he insinuated.

CAO Frank seemed baffled. “I don’t know if you want me to continue having this discussion, but I can correct Mr. Govenlock because his information is in front of him in the agenda. The motion only reflected Council. Under the bylaw, it is the responsibility of the CAO to deal with compensation for our employees, not Council.” Councillor Kluin asked if they could move on from the subject. Councillor Govenlock agreed and said that the topic would be on the next Council meeting agenda, planned for early July.