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Compensation for future members of the city’s water oversight board is “money well spent,” according to Calgary’s mayor, as the amount is questioned by some on council.
City council approved the creation of the Water Utility Oversight Board in February, and asked city administration to begin “a skills-based recruitment process” with a third-party firm, as well as develop a compensation framework.
Establishing an independent expert oversight board to advise council and city administration on the city’s water system was one of several “near-term” recommendations from an independent panel tasked with reviewing the 2024 failure of the Bearspaw feeder main — its first of two failures in less than two years.
“This oversight board is an essential part of us showing Calgarians that we are taking accountability and that we’re following up the recommendations with the needed actions to ensure that something like this never, ever happens again here in the city,” Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas told reporters Tuesday.
City administration has recommended a $70,000 annual retainer for the board’s future chair, as well as $30,000 for each board member.
Board members will receive an additional fee of $1,000 per meeting, when the number of meetings exceeds eight per year.
According to city administration, the compensation framework was developed with firm WTW using examples from other utilities across the country.
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The compensation is “materially higher” due to the “specialized natures of the roles,” and size of the workload expected over the first two years of the board, administration said.
Farkas called the compensation “relatively nominal,” and said he can tell Calgarians that it is “money well spent.”
“When you look at the experienced professionals that we’re going to be recruiting, they would be making 10 times, 20 times, 30 times more in the private sector if they were providing the equivalent advice,” he said.
“If we want the best folks, we have be prepared to pay for that expertise.”
City administration warned the compensation may not be seen as sufficient for the “public profile of the role,” with a limited pool of candidates with the water utility expertise required.
Some Calgarians, however, have questions about the compensation framework for the future board.
“Seems like a bit much, especially for a public service,” Andrew McMurray told Global News.
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot had similar concerns with the pay. He was one of three councillors who voted against administration’s recommendations when they were in front of committee last week.
Chabot pointed to Calgarians who serve on other city boards and commissions on a mostly volunteer basis, with a stipend for meeting related expenses getting approved just this year.
“We have so many people who put forward their names to sit on different committees, people with professional designations in so many different fields,” Chabot said.
“They used to do all of their work on our committees on a volunteer basis. We only just started paying them this term and it’s a very modest honorarium. This goes far beyond modest.”
However, Farkas pointed to the fast-tracked construction of a replacement pipe for the Bearspaw feeder main, as well as the internal governance changes to water services, as rationale that a board of experts will be required.
“We’ll be able to provide the confidence to Calgarians that this is being done properly,” he told reporters.
A board chair for the oversight board is expected to be appointed sometime in July, according to a timeline from city administration, with a goal of establishing the board before the end of the year.
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