After hearing that town staff had deferred their bonuses to help the town recover COVID-related expenses, the Town of the Blue Mountains' (TBM) mayor followed suit, donating the remainder of his 2020 salary increase.
“It came as quite a surprise to me,” says TBM Mayor Alar Soever in response to staff offering to defer their bonus pool. “It just shows what kind of a dedicated staff we have and how much they care about the community.”
At a recently held committee of the whole meeting, TBM council received a budget projection of COVID-related impacts totalling $1.46M.
This total was offset by cost savings of $1.13M, resulting in a net COVID-related budget shortfall of $334,000.
Cost savings included a recommendation by staff to defer the funding of the performance management program, which had been approved as part of the 2020 budget to 2021, saving $150,000.
“Our management team was entirely supportive of the recommendation to defer the bonus program to next year,” stated Shawn Everitt, TBM CAO. “We are pleased that we were able to keep everyone working productively throughout this crisis and this is our way of sharing the financial burden of COVID.”
The TBM performance management program was established to help promote accountability and professional development, and reward staff for performance through a bonus program.
“We have over 100 employees,” Soever says. “So, it is good to have that formalized process in place so that we know what our employees’ career aspirations are and we give them feedback on how they are doing.”
He adds that the review process for town employees will continue to move forward this year, just without any bonuses awarded.
In solidarity with the staff, Soever announced he would be donating the remainder of his 2020 salary increase.
The salary increase was approved earlier this year In the 2020 budget process. The mayor’s compensation increased from $31,000 to $39,427.
“We did get a modest increase and there are a lot of charities that are looking for funding these days. With this leadership shown by staff, I thought I should step up as well,” he says.
Soever’s raise will be donated to the TBM Grants and Donations Committee, which will distribute the funds to various community organizations.
As for the remaining, $334,000 of COVID-related expense, Soever says council members will likely opt to move funds from a reserve to cover it.
“It is $300,000 on a budget of $16M, so we are only talking about two per cent,” Soever says. “At this point, I don’t foresee a need for a tax increase. We can fund that from reserves.”
