Unify Wasaga was yesterday’s message. Today, we get to discuss wages.

Due to Canadian Media rules, I have copied and pasted the following article from Ian Adams. I encourage everyone to subscribe to Simcoe dot com in order to get these articles directly.

There are all kinds of “holly cow” statistics in the article. Feel free to comment away.

Be sure and read the comments. I will weigh in when I have time.

Bear in mind… if the years wages for Deputy CAO Marshals entire remuneration were paid to him directly, instead of half (aprox) being paid to his company, we would have had 52 on the list up from 39 employees in 2022. That’s 13 new Sunshine listers in one year.

Hey Council, our 17% municipal tax increases are NOT to be blamed on the TPAL. Lol.

Start of article;

Wasaga Beach’s public sector salary disclosure list swelled to 51 people in 2023 — including two former employees who left the town in 2022.

In a statement from the town’s director of communications and intergovernmental affairs, Sandra Watts said a payout of banked vacation time put several employees above the $100,000 mark established in the legislation.

“This would make up most of the individuals near the bottom of the list,” she wrote in an email.

The cost-of-living adjustment of 1.65 per cent would also have had a similar impact on wages, she added.

The town’s salary disclosure list for 2022 listed 39 employees.

Watts said the municipality’s policy on how much vacation time an employee can bank is being reviewed, and chief administrative officer Andrew McNeill will be bringing a report to council in the near future.

That report will include a recommendation that no single employee, including the CAO, should have the ability to approve multi-year vacation carry-over beyond one year, she said.

Watts also acknowledged the number of firefighters on the list, as there were last year, and noted some of those individuals had higher wages as a result of overtime.

The town is aware of these overtime pressures, and that’s why in the 2024 budget, council approved a new firefighter position to better support our fire department, help alleviate workload and reduce the amount of overtime going forward,” she said.

Missing from the list was deputy chief administrative officer Gerry Marshall, who was brought on as an interim CAO after George Vadenboncoeur’s retirement. Marshall was moved to the deputy CAO role after council hired McNeill. Marshall’s company, On Georgian Shores Inc., was paid a total of $63,280 for the first six months of 2023. The final payments to Marshall’s company, according to a review of the town’s cheque registers, was in June.

Watts said Marshall’s role through the first part of the year was as an interim CAO, and to manage the transition of the new council after the 2022 election, and the transition from Vadeboncoeur’s retirement, to the search and eventual hire of the new CAO.

“This type of relationship is not uncommon among municipalities, large organizations, or other levels of government, particularly ‘interim’ positions at such a senior level,” she said.

Vadeboncoeur, who retired from the town in November, 2022, ahead of the new council taking over, was also on the list as receiving $148,393 in 2023. Former manager of information technology, Derek Bowers, who left later that month, also received a salary from the municipality of $122,173 in 2023.

Also on the list were McNeill ($190,593, plus a taxable benefit of $8,114), fire Chief Craig Williams ($166,628), director of public works Kevin Lalonde ($162,256), and chief financial officer Jocelyn Lee ($149,128).

So jump right in. Remember, these are only the top earners. I wonder what the total employee count is compared to 2022.