DEAR EDITOR:
While some time has passed since the various articles appeared regarding the West Vancouver Council remuneration decision, I still think it is worthwhile to recap how the District of North Vancouver resolved the issue several years ago.
The 2005-2008 council appointed a citizen's task force comprised of members of the community with varying levels of expertise in the management and HR fields. The terms of reference included the study of the various models within the region as well as interviewing individual councillors about their workloads and responsibilities.
At the end of the day, the task force presented its recommendations to council. Council adopted those recommendations but, importantly, only to take effect upon the election of the new council in November 2008.
The recommendations did include provisions for annual adjustments to the base remuneration based on the published Vancouver cost-of-living index as well as an increase in the annual education and council representation allowances.
I am proud of the manner in which this ticklish issue was handled by the District of North Vancouver council of the day. It has removed the necessity for councillors to revisit the issue and have to deal with the obvious moral dilemma of voting oneself a raise that arises every so often in other jurisdictions.
Councillor Alan Nixon District of North Vancouver
