Committee members pay hiked 62%
Site inspection fee increased from $25 to $40
By Chris Fell Express Staff

Georgian Highlands town councillors voted Monday night to give themselves a raise.

A resolution at Monday night's regular town council meeting to establish a Committee of Adjustment member's pay for conducting a site inspection for potential severances was immediately amended to raise the stipend amount to $40 from the suggested $25, plus mileage, an increase of 62.5 per cent.

The Committee of Adjustment is, of course, made up of the seven members of town council who saw fit to give themselves the raise.

Councillor Harley Greenfield led the charge arguing in favour of more money for site inspections.

"I hesitate on the $25 fee. I have trouble doing an adequate inspection in under a couple of hours. The dollar number is inadequate, perhaps it should be higher," said Greenfield, who moved that the motion be amended to increase the fee to $40.

Mayor Gerald Shortt said severance applications receive plenty of attention from qualified individuals with the back ground to make proper recommendations.

"The county planners go out, our planners have a look and the Health Unit has a look, but it's good to have a report from a committee member," said Shortt.

Councillor Diane Hurlburt said the planners often don't convey the real reasons behind the severance request. She noted a recent application for a home in an area that had a "fantastic view", but that fact wasn't mentioned by planning staff and would not have been known to the committee if not for a report from a member.

"The $25 fee is there from a lot of years back. I am willing to agree to the amendment," said Hurlburt.

Councillor Sam Luckhardt said it was important for the committee to get "a layman's view" on severances and said members needed to inspect applications since property owners were paying a substantial fee to have their applications heard by the committee.

Councillor Paul Hutchinson said he had never had to do a site inspection with Meaford town council and couldn't comment on the ins and outs of the process, but was willing to support the pay increase.

Only Deputy Mayor Robert Reid spoke against the increase (councillor Linda vanAalst was absent). Reid suggested if council was going to increase the pay its committee members are receiving it should also increase the severance application fees to cover the additional costs. The fee structure for Georgian Highlands is still being developed by the planning committee.

"It's a user pay system that's supposed to recover the costs. We're supposed to be saving money, but we keep increasing costs, instead of going the other way," said Reid.

However the Deputy Mayor's comments were in vain as the other members of council and approved the raise for themselves. In addition to the $40, committee of adjustment members will also receive mileage expenses for their troubles.