A City Councillor's salary is $17,785 per annum (one-third of which is deemed not to be taxable). Over the course of four years, this totals $71,140. It breaks down to $342 per week for attendance at Council meetings, committee meetings and other events.
Generally speaking, Councillors are only expected to attend five meetings per month (assuming four Council meetings and one meeting of a committee such as the Clean City Committee). Some months will require more; others will require less.
So, working from the attendance data compiled for a previous post, a councillor who fails to attend one meeting costs the taxpayers $342, and taxpayers do not receive the benefit of that councillor's input into any decisions made that night.
A councillor who misses five meetings costs taxpayers $1,710; ten meetings is equivalent to $3,420; fifteen meetings, $5,130; twenty, $6,840... No one has missed twenty meetings yet, but could it happen before the term ends on November 30, 2010?
Of course, none of the above speaks to the cost of tardiness, mostly because I wasn't about to do a minute-by-minute breakdown of costs. However, how often can you be late for work before your employer pursues disciplinary action?
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