Francis among Ontario’s best-paid mayors
Doug Schmidt, The Windsor Star
Published: Saturday, April 10, 2010
Windsor is home to one of the highest-paid mayors in Ontario, with Eddie Francis’s income last year even besting that of David Miller in Toronto, a city with a budget 30 times the size of Windsor’s.
Adding up all his local sources of public income, Mayor Eddie Francis made $179,021.50 in 2009.
That appears to be more than what most Canadian mayors made and was surpassed in Ontario only by Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion, according to a Windsor Star survey triggered by last week’s release of the province’s sunshine list.
Toronto’s Miller earned $168,083.72 in wages and taxable benefits running Canada’s biggest and richest city, with a population 13 times the size of Windsor’s.
Francis’s all-in pay last year was 43 per cent above the $124,555.86 that London Mayor Anne Marie DiCecco-Best pulled in.
“You look at the overall figure, and you have to ask: Is it appropriate?” said Coun. Alan Halberstadt.
Mississauga’s McCallion, mayor of Canada’s sixth-largest city since Francis was a toddler, appears to be the only Ontario mayor who can best Francis in the earnings department.
Almost a quarter of her 2009 take-home pay of $186,010.53 comes from her second job sitting on the Region of Peel council.
Having multiple other jobs and paid positions, in addition to wielding the mayor’s gavel, explains how Francis sits near the top of the heap.
Francis’s mayoral salary of just under $87,000 represents less than half his paycheque.
He makes almost that much again just wearing his various hats within the Enwin group of utility companies, all owned entirely by Windsor ratepayers.
As chairman of Windsor Canada Utilities Ltd., chairman of its subsidiary Enwin Energy and board member of Enwin Utilities, Francis earned $51,300.96 in 2009, according to the city finance department. That figure doesn’t include the $8,155.08 he made on the Windsor Utilities Commission.
Windsor treasurer Onorio Colucci cautions it’s important to make “apples to apples” comparisons.
Comparing different city mayors’ incomes isn’t simple, with some getting tax-free allowances while others don’t, and some paid for participation on boards and agencies while others have that included in their overall remuneration.
Figures released under the province’s Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, as well as those published by the municipalities, don’t always reflect the true incomes of municipal political leaders.
The mayors of London and Hamilton, for example, aren’t mentioned in the latest sunshine list even though their 2009 incomes from all sources exceed the $100,000 threshold at which public incomes are normally required to be reported. Contacted by The Star, McCallion’s office insisted her take-home pay was just over $137,000, but that’s because it doesn’t keep a record of her separate Region of Peel council paycheque, which was almost $50,000 last year.
Francis would normally not have had to declare his income because the amount that was reportable — a city-paid salary of $86,895.17 in 2009 — was below the $100,000 threshold for inclusion on the sunshine list. But even when, “in the interest of full disclosure,” his office submits what it says is Francis’s $130,315.60 in total city salary paid, as well as $9,335.65 in taxable benefits, the published total still understates his actual income by about $40,000.
Part of Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s 2009 income of $168,161.19 came from the $15,600 he got for sitting on the Hamilton Utilities Corporation board, while London’s DiCecco-Best — whose 2009 reportable “stipends” added up to $94,647.92 — benefited further by “fringe benefits” of $23,765.35.
As for Miller in Toronto, “what you see is what his earnings were … that was the mayor’s total income from 2009,” said spokesman Don Wanagas.
Miller received no money on top of his reported income last year of just over $168,000 for sitting on city agencies, boards and commissions, nor was any of it subject to tax-free status, he added. Toronto’s 2010 operating budget is $9.2 billion compared to Windsor’s $311 million.
Francis makes no apologies.
“Council knows very well the type of individual I am, and council knows I deliver well — I’m hard-working seven days a week,” he said. He said he’s on the job 24/7.
“I’m not complaining, but I don’t know how many other mayors take on as many roles as I do,” he added, pointing out he doesn’t set his salary rate and it’s his council colleagues who “elect” him to the various positions he holds outside the mayor’s office.
He said no other municipality has a tunnel, and the airport in Windsor is run by the city and not a separate authority. Francis made $9,149.95 as chairman of the tunnel commission and $6,456.68 as chairman of the YQG airport board last year. He also made $7,500.01 last year as chairman of the police board.
“I’m certainly not questioning how hard he works. But I’d suggest he doesn’t necessarily need to control everything that moves in this city,” said Halberstadt.
He said it’s “not totally true” that Francis got all his appointments from his peers. “He has pursued the chairmanships aggressively,” Halberstadt said.
Francis recently assumed the chairmanship of the Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority after being approached to do so by city and county members.
As a regular EWSWA member last year, the mayor added $230 to his income.
Windsor’s 10 councillors must pool their earnings from various paid authority, board and commission appointments. Last year, it meant each made $11,510 on top of their base councillor salaries of $28,770.48, one-third of it tax-free.
The bulk of council’s pooled board payments — $64,350 of $115,100 — was paid to councillors on Enwin boards, according to finance department records.
“When the mayor’s on them, he gets it all. I don’t think it would hurt to have a review,” said Halberstadt.
Nevertheless, the frequent critic of the mayor doesn’t begrudge Francis his 2009 income.
“Being a mayor is a huge job … it’s an awesome responsibility with a big workload,” said Halberstadt.
While the issue of mayoral pay is “a reasonable thing to raise” during an election year, University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman questions the usefulness of comparing Francis’s income to other mayors or to those in more economically successful cities.
He said anyone making comparisons must also point out the range of duties and the workload of any individual mayor.
Wiseman said it would be more useful to compare the mayor’s remuneration to that of other public sector leaders in the community, from university and college presidents to the CEOs of hospitals. Adding up the all-in income of Windsor’s mayor, who is in charge of a billion-dollar municipal corporation (when combining 2010 operating and capital spending), Francis made about half of what the local college and university presidents earned last year in salaries.
But Francis would have to take a cut in pay to sit in Ottawa or Queen’s Park — even as a cabinet minister.
Francis’s 2009 public earnings eclipsed those of both Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan (L — Windsor-Tecumseh) and Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello (L — Windsor West), each of whom received $165,851 in salary plus $284.85 in benefits.
MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West) and MP Joe Comartin (NDP — Windsor-Tecumseh) lagged even further behind, each earning $157,731 (although MPs get additional perks like $25,500 in expenses and dozens of free airline tickets).
Pay rates for Windsor’s mayor and councillors were set in 2003 by a citizens panel for the incoming council of 2004. There was a 1.9 per cent cost-of-living increase given in 2005 but no changes since, according to treasurer Colucci.
Francis said remuneration rates for the Enwin group of companies are “in the middle of the pack” among Ontario utilities companies and that they have actually decreased since incorporation went ahead eight years ago.
London’s mayor and council took a five per cent cut last year to reflect the worsening economy during the recession. Last month,
London council voted to reinstate the 2008 remuneration levels for 2010.
dschmidt@thestar.canwest.com
MAYORAL EARNINGS
Ontario mayoral incomes (2009):
– Mississauga (2006 census population: 670,000): Hazel McCallion: $186,010.53
– Windsor (216,000) Eddie Francis: $179,021.50
– Hamilton (505,000) Fred Eisenberger: $168,161.19*
– Vaughan (239,000) Linda Jackson-Campese: $168,717.44
– Toronto (2.5 million) David Miller: $168,083.72**
– Richmond Hill (163,000) David Barrow: $161,741.10
– Ottawa (812,000) Larry O’Brien: $145,411** (***)
– London (352,000) Anne Marie DiCecco-Best: $124,555.86
* based on City of Hamilton formula equating $111,714.46 salary portion to $146,220 equivalent pay due to one-third of salary being tax free;
** vehicle and driver supplied on top of income (McCallion gets city car, no driver);
*** Ottawa mayor’s all-in annual income is $165,455, but O’Brien took an unpaid leave of absence for part of 2009 to fight a corruption charge for which he was cleared.
ONLINE: windsorstar.com
See photo galleries of the top-paid mayors.
http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=8e69acb7-13d8-42f1-ae3a-729b485f0206
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