Thirty-five more employees of the city of Coquitlam earned pay of more than $100,000 last year than in 2012.
According to the municipality's 2013 Statement of Financial Information, released on Monday, 142 city staffers earned salaries (some of which include retroactive pay) above the $100,000 mark, compared with 107 employees in '12 and 93 in '11. This includes 18 staffers who collected more than $150,000 while another five took in more than $200,000 in remuneration.
In total, the city spent $71.2 million in salaries for staff and council last year, plus $496,012 in expenses.
By contrast, the payroll in 2012 was $64.6 million - a jump of $6.6 million in one year.
Sheena MacLeod, Coquitlam's manager of financial services, told The Tri-City News the big hike took into account the retroactive wage adjustments for all labour groups last year.
In 2013, she said, the firefighters' contract was settled for 2010 and 2011 with 3% increases for each year. "That has a cumulative impact because all the firefighters got retroactive pay for four years from 2010 through 2013 for those wage adjustments, so all of the reported remuneration is considerably more than what their normal annual 2013 salary would be."
As well, the CUPE agreement for 2012 and 2013 was reached, with increases of 1.25% and 1.75% respectively.
Mayor Richard Stewart's stipend also went up, from $123,696 in 2012 to $128,987 last year (it's $129,700 this year) while councillors' salaries increased from the base rate of $53,836 to $56,139 each (it's $56,400 this year).
Stewart claimed the highest in expenses last year, at $16,449, while Coun. Neal Nicholson charged expenses to taxpayers of $10,750 and Coun. Craig Hodge $10,315 - most of it to attend provincial and national conferences; the lowest expenses came from Coun. Brent Asmundson, at $6,959.
The total remuneration for council in 2013 was $519,635, which includes the two months paid to councillors Chris Wilson and Bonita Zarrillo, who were elected in the November byelection; councillors Linda Reimer and Selina Robinson each collected in $20,507 for their half-year on council before quitting to take on their MLA jobs.
TOP 10 LIST
The top-paid Coquitlam staffers in 2013 (figures include salary and benefits):
Peter Steblin city manager $283,399
John DuMont deputy city manager $252,733
Jim McIntyre GM, planning and development services $204,301
Bill Susak (ret.) GM, engineering and public works $202,251
Maurice Gravelle (ret.) GM, strategic initiatives $202,152
Sheena MacLeod mgr., financial services $196,189
Lori MacKay GM, parks, recreation and culture $193,833
Ron Price HR mgr. $183,531
Heather Bradfield mgr., legal and bylaw $168,090
Stuart Aspinall asst. fire chief $164,015
