Saskatoon city custodian earned more than mayor, police chief and top managers last year

Saskatoon city custodian earned more than mayor City of Saskatoon's Clae Hack explains the new members of the $100K club.

A City of Saskatoon custodian mopped the floor when it comes to top municipal earners in 2021.

A man with a position title of “building custodian 3” earned $280,000 last year to become the city’s second-highest paid employee in 2021, falling behind only city manager Jeff Jorgenson at $309,439.

The city released its annual public accounts list this week in advance of Monday’s finance committee at city council. The list shows any city employee who made more than $50,000 in accordance with the Saskatchewan Cities Act that mandates municipalities release the list every year.

According to the CUPE 59 collective bargaining agreement, the position’s wage is listed at making roughly $40,000 in that job category.

The employee in question reported no overtime or retro pay. Chief financial officer Clae Hack declined to speak specifically about the custodian, but in an email said the regular earnings column in the document “could include items like regular salaries, banked vacation, sick time payouts, etc.”

“The rest of the details are pursuant to his employment and the specific details are confidential right now,” he said in an interview.

The custodian earned more than Kerry Tarasoff, the city’s general manager, at $271,669. Saskatoon Police Service Chief Troy Cooper made $252,600 last year while fire chief Morgan Hackl earned $228,590.

Other top earners include Lynne Lacroix, the city’s general manager of community services, who made $242,200 in 2021 and Terry Schmidt, the general manager of transportation and construction, who made $237,586 last year.

Mayor Charlie Clark earned $151,694 last year. City councillors were paid $69,780.

The list also showed a notable increase in staff earning more than $100,000. Excluding police and firefighters, 206 people joined the $100,000 club to push the total figure to 512.

Hack said the sharp increase was due to settling several collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in 2021.

“It resulted in retroactive pay, per the contract for compensating those employees for the time they worked without a new contract in place,” Hack said.

This bumped 113 earners who otherwise would have been under the threshold over the $100,000 mark, such as an employee earning $98,000 receiving a $3,000 retroactive payment.

Hack also noted that while $100,000 is a significant amount of money, it’s “not quite the same” as it was 20 years ago as cost of living increases.

An additional explanation is increases in the city’s wage categories, which are tied to cost of living adjustments.

“It's not unusual for us or other organizations to see more and more people becoming part of that $100,000 plus earners year after year as these increases are negotiated into their contracts,” Hack said.

In 2021, wages and benefits totaled $447.4 million.