Yellowknife (Nov 26/04) - A city councillor says the long hours and low pay are keeping the best and the brightest away from city council.

To counter the problem, Coun. Blake Lyons called upon fellow councillors Monday night to adopt terms of reference for an independent committee that will determine whether the mayor and council should receive a salary increase before the current term is up.

Lyons caused a bit of a stir earlier the same day during a committee meeting when he told councillors that "with municipal governments, we don't tend to attract the best candidates."

He called city council a "training ground" for politicians seeking bigger prizes in territorial and federal politics.

His remarks were initially met with a few scoffing remarks from other councillors, including a "speak for yourself" from Coun. Kevin O'Reilly.

Nonetheless, Lyons gathered unanimous support later that evening in his bid to establish a remuneration committee.

Other councillors said they're willing to hear what a remuneration committee has to say.

Public notices will now be going out seeking five people to make up the committee, which council hopes will include a former mayor or councillor and a member of the judiciary.

They will have four months after their first meeting to submit recommendations, which will likely come some time in early 2005.

At the Monday night meeting, Lyons told council that he has seen too many promising people come and go out the mayor's office during his 17 years on council.

He is worried the city will have difficulty attracting mayoral candidates because the pay often doesn't compare to what they might have earned somewhere else, and successful candidates are expected to drop everything to take the job.

"There's no guarantee when you're done that you can go elsewhere," said Lyons.

He said it bothered him that outgoing mayors don't receive severance packages.

He said he isn't concerned whether councillors get a raise, however.

Bylaw needs amendment

The mayor currently makes a salary of $58,587 plus a tax-free municipal officer's allowance of $29,293. Councillors receive an honorarium of $9,828 plus a $4,914 allowance.

As it stands, councillors must amend the remuneration bylaw if they want to give themselves or the mayor a raise.

O'Reilly noted that at one time council remuneration used to be tied to contracted pay hikes for unionized city employees, but the provision was scrapped during the mid-1990s.

He said since then, council has been hesitant to re-open the bylaw because of the poor public perception it might create.

"I personally know some people who have said they won't run for council because they can't pay for child care," said O'Reilly. "Some people don't have the flexibility that many of us have sitting on council, in terms of our employers."

Coun. Alan Woytuik said the reason why automatic pay increases were taken out was because they weren't transparent enough.

"Every three years, our compensation is reviewed," said Woytuik.

"Everybody who runs, knows what they're getting paid."