With the mayor alluding to the possibility of cutting the pay or perks of city council, some aldermen are less than thrilled.
When speaking to media earlier this week, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he would be looking at all areas to trim the budget.
“I’ve been on record during the campaign of instituting a process to look at the pay and perks of all council members and I do stand by that,” said Nenshi.
“I really want them to examine from soup to nuts how we think about the various compensation, the pay and the perks that all council members, including myself, receive.”
Ald. Ray Jones said the aldermanic and mayor’s offices always seem to be the first to be targeted for budget cuts. “If we’re talking about cutting benefits I’m not too wild about that because we already took the flack for that and it took us years to get it to where it is,” said Jones. “It gets tough to trim because we just cut $114,000 out of our office budget as it is and it’s getting tight.”
Council newcomer Shane Keating said he spent Wednesday going through the aldermanic budget. “There really isn’t a whole lot there to begin with, it’s not like we’re fluid with cash,” he said. “There’s always room for improvement, and without a doubt that will happen.”
‘Mayor mobile’
- Nenshi said he will be trying to lead by example and said he’s still unsure whether he will drive a city vehicle or his own car.
- “I have to admit, I did take a ride in the mayor mobile last
night … but I kind of like my Corolla so we’ll see how we make this
work,” he said. - Ald. Shane Keating said the aldermanic budget covers the cost of
things like phone use, photocopying over 200 pages, ward information
sessions and the salaries of office staff.
