By Katie Ryan
Operating at the helm of the city as mayor is no longer classified as a part-time job in Lloydminster.  Effective July 5 city council will recognize that the mayor – the chief elected official – be recognized as a full time position with an honorarium (salary) to be increased and set at $90,000 per year (two–thirds taxable, one–third non-taxable).
The pay increase is to reflect the full time hours Mayor Jeff Mulligan said he has been fulfilling since he was elected last fall.
“It takes 50 hours a week to perform the role of mayor in the City of Lloydminster. And so what we have said is then let’s call it a full-time position if indeed it is a full-time position so that in future elections people understand what the commitment is,” said Mulligan, following Monday’s city council meeting. “In total compensation and total cost to the taxpayer if I worked at 20 hours a week there would be no change, but if I am working at 40 to 50 hours a week, compared to (the part-time) 20 (hours) then the (salary) is about a 25 per cent increase for 50 per cent more work.”
In the past the mayor’s part-time position was listed at 20 hours of work with a base pay of approximately $45,000, plus per diems and meetings. By “restructuring” the honorarium Mulligan said he will spend less time bookkeeping and accounting for his time.
“The original rate was comprised of a number of components, it had everything from a base pay to a meeting per diem, depending on how many meetings you went to you got paid so much a meeting. At the end of the day when it was all done and said, the number for what was considered to be  part time position came out very close to $60,000 and that was before any expenses were reimbursed and travel expenses,” he said. “The fact of the matter is it’s not a 20 hour a week position, it’s a 40 or 50 hour a week position and we don’t want to mess around with adding per diems and meetings on top of that. Let’s put this in a model that makes sense and it’s easy to understand and it’s totally transparent. There is no game playing.”
City councillors are also receiving a boost in pay, from a base pay of approximately $13,000 to $30,000.
“They are really not raises. If you think about it the structure that the previous committee looked at, salaries and compensation, what they looked at was a part-time mayor’s position and a requirement that was deemed less hours for aldermen,” said Mulligan, adding the public should be informed of the costs.  “Exactly what it is going to cost is my number as a base pay number, my honorarium and the aldermen will get one–third of what I get. It’s a very easy to understand calculation so if I am expected to put in 160 hours a month or 40 hours a week at a minimum, then an alderman would be expected to put in one–third of that.”
As of July 5 as well, meeting attendance fees have been abolished and the per diem rate has increased from $165 to $200 per day for any out of city travel or for non-social organized meetings that exceed four hours in length.
City Councillor Rob Saunders said the pay increase reflects the increasing demands and responsibilities the mayor and council undertakes with a growing community.
“The city could grow to the size where our  mayor is putting in more than full time (hours) on a regular basis as required for us to actually pursue higher level negotiations on many different fronts,” he said. “We just feel that it is time to make changes, it’s time to recognize the contribution.”
“If you look at similar sized cities, like St. Albert, they only have to go to one set of meetings in one province and satisfy one set of legislation. Our greatest strength, we are Canada’s Border City, our greatest weakness is that we have to deal with two sides on every issue,” added Mulligan.
According to the City of Edmonton website, Mayor Stephen Mandel’s salary is approximately $144,000 for 2010, however, Mayor Mandel elected to maintain his salary at the 2008 level of $136,00.
Prince Albert Mayor Jim Scarrow, according to the Moose Jaw Times Herald, made $73,300 in 2008, Mayor Pat Fiacco of Regina earned almost $96,000 in 2008 and Saskatoon paid Mayor Don Atchinson over $107,000 (or 85 per cent of a provincial cabinet minister) in 2008.