Should councillors be paid for full-time or part-time hours?

The Council Resourcing Review Task Force is preparing two surveys to inform its upcoming recommendations about city councillor compensation.

One survey will gather feedback from the public about expectations of city councillors’ availability, whether the role should be considered full time or part time, and whether their total compensation is too high, too low, or about right.

“We’re actually asking some of the same questions of councillors, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether the broader public and the council members are in line with each other or not with respect to what they think a councillor should be doing, how much work they should put in, and so on,” explains political scientist Dr. Martin Horak who chairs the task force.

That second survey will also ask London’s 14 councillors about the time they spend on various duties, and how many hours they need to be available each week to their constituents.

At the same time, city staff have been asked to prepare a background report about council compensation, staff support, and other factors in Ontario’s mid-sized and large cities.

The committee was told it can not require a councillor to work a minimum number of hours each week, however, they could “signal” that full-time hours are expected.

The base pay of a city councillor in London was $65,138 last year.

In January 2024, council boosted the stipend of the deputy mayor and budget chair positions by 12.5 per cent to recognize the additional workload — those positions each earned $73,279.

Total benefits collected by each councillor add more than $20,000 annually to each member’s compensation, including the option of receiving a vehicle allowance/reimbursement (up to $2,124).

Councillors were also reimbursed for eligible expenses up to a maximum $15,000, a figure that drops to $13,500 in 2025.

Fees to attend certain municipal conferences were also paid by city hall.

To consider

• Base compensation for members of council and the mayor
• Supplementary compensation and funding source for additional work, such as stipends for board and committee service
• Councillor workload; including minimum workload expectation, balancing workloads across council
• Councillor severance pay
• Councillor role description
• Council member’s Expense Account Policy

Any recommendations approved by council would be instituted for the next council term beginning in late 2026.

The task force will meet on May 9 to evaluate the survey results and staff’s report regarding council compensation in other cities in Ontario.