London’s city councillors make about $65K per year. Is that enough?

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London’s rapid growth and its impact on city politicians will be a key factor in the evaluation of councillors’ pay rate, two task force members say.

London city council is gearing up to appoint a five-person, independent panel to analyze city councillor pay and whether local politicians are receiving the support they need, such as behind-the-scenes administrative help.

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“We’re a growing city trying to grapple with what the right resourcing is for our councillors currently and going forward,” said Jared Zaifman, the chief executive of the London Home Builders’ Association and one of the members of the task force slate.

“Our city is expected to grow in a tremendous fashion over the next 25 years and we need to make sure that the right tools are in place so that anyone in the city could come forward and take on the role.”

As London grows, it’s critical to set council pay at a level that attracts quality talent from a wide variety of backgrounds, said Mariam Hamou, a member of the task force slate which will be voted on by city council at its Tuesday meeting.

“For the amount of work city councillors do, they don’t get paid well enough,” she said. “We need to look at councillors qualitatively to see how much they’re doing and how much needs to get done.”

Hamou wants the task force to interview councillors to see what their workload is and look to other mid-sized Canadian cities to see how they handle councillor pay.

Both Zaifman and Hamou are former city councillors.

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London city councillors were paid $65,137 each in 2024. The deputy mayor and council budget chair received $73,279 due to their additional responsibilities.

Councillors do not receive any additional money for sitting in council-appointed positions on boards, such as the health unit or London Hydro.

As the number of Londoners grows, councillors will have more constituents to look after, Zaifman said. Plus, social media and other platforms give the public even more access to their elected officials.

“Things have changed dramatically,” Zaifman said, adding demands of councillors’ time have increased even since his 2014-18 council term.

“As the most local, accessible form of government, councillors tend to be the people that Londoners call the most.”

The panel also includes Jennifer Slay, director of diversity and inclusion at Western University’s King’s University College; Dane Ferry, manager of government services at Western University’s student union; and Martin Horak, associate director of Western’s local government program.

Horak was also a member of the council’s previous pay task force, which was convened in 2017. That task force had recommended a 30 per cent hike in councillor pay, starting after the 2018 civic election.

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The new group will make recommendations on mayor and councillor pay and analyze council workload, specifically minimum workload standards and ways to balance tasks across all of council.

The task force will also look into whether there should be additional money for extra work taken on by councillors, such as board appointments including the library or police service board, and how the stipend should be funded.

The task force’s final report is due by October.

jbieman@postmedia.com

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