BARRHEAD – Town of Barrhead councillors won’t be shocked if the Barrhead Public Library board comes back to council to ask for additional money.
And if (or more likely when) they do, they have the support of Coun. Rod Klumph, who is council's representative on the Barrhead Public Library board.
During the council meeting on March 22, Klumph noted that the library board recently discussed the modest one per cent cost of living allowance (COLA) that they included in the 2022 budget, which was presented to council in late November.
At the time, he said, the board did not know how much inflation would increase or that municipal employees would be receiving a more substantial pay bump.
Barrhead library director Elaine Dickie has since admitted the one per cent COLA increase would not keep pace with inflation, noting it would barely cover the cost of a gallon of milk.
Given that the town and county have given their employees a five and four per cent COLA wage hike, respectively, Klumph said it does not seem fair to only give library employees a one per cent increase.
"I strongly urged the Barrhead Public Library to think about that," Klump said. "This is a time when inflation is increasing at a rate we haven't seen since the 80s. We see dramatic increases in utilities, at the (gas) pump and in food. Honest-to-goodness council, we have to look after the people who provide public service, and that includes the library and (Barrhead and District Family Community Social Services.)"
He added that although the library and FCSS were independent agencies, a substantial part of their budgets come from municipal funding, and as such, they should be considered de facto municipal employees.
The FCSS 2022 budget also included a one per cent COLA wage increase.
"The people who work for the library and FCSS are the ones that are having to bite the bullet, whereas town employees get that extra little bit," Klumph said. "I strongly and passionately recommend council reconsider revising the budget for our outlying people."
In the library's case, he noted the municipalities would have to chip in an extra $4,900 each. Klumph said while he did not do the calculations for FCSS, he believed the amount would be similar.
"We are talking about an extra $10,000 for employees that are regularly left behind," he said.
Coun. Don Smith said he "wholeheartedly agreed" but that it wasn't the council's place to give the library or FCSS additional funds so they could increase their employees' wages.
"The request is going to have to come from the library and FCSS because we are not going to give any amounts without the proper documentation. Then it will have to go to the county because we both need to agree on it," he said.
Klumph replied, "Not to worry", as the request would be forthcoming.
Barrhead Public Library board chair Ruth Bohn confirmed that they will be asking the town for more funds to fund a larger COLA increase to their employees. She did not say if the board planned to approach county council.
“We agreed that since 2019, we’ve only taken one per cent COLA, with the exception of 2020 which there was no increase,” she said. “We realized that next year we are going to be so far behind, it will never catch up. So when the town decided to give itself five per cent, we decided to ask for five per cent for the library staff as well.”
The request is in addition to the three per cent increase the library has already asked for from the municipalities in its proposed 2022 budget.
It should also be noted that at the same November council meeting, FCSS executive director Karen Gariepy asked councillors to increase the town's contribution by $7,500 to $68,000. The same request was made to county councillors.
The town and county included the budgets in their interim budget document, but final approval will not come until later this spring with the passage of the final budgets.
In response to a question by the Barrhead Leader asking to confirm if the wage included as part of the municipality’s interim 2022 budget, county manager Debbie Oyarzun clarified the COLA increase was determined through the municipality’s County Council Compensation Review which was completed in 2019.
“It was recommended that the annual adjustment of compensation of COLA be considered and approved during the annual budget process,” she said. “To make informed decisions during budget deliberations, a consistent process was set in policy defining COLA as the percentage increase to compensation to account for inflation, as measured by the Alberta Consumer Price Index (CPI) at September 30. Council can adjust this when reviewing the overall budget, but each year the September CPI, whatever it is, will be our starting point.”
She also noted that all organizations are responsible for their own pay structures but added the gap of wage increase the town and county gave to their staff is not as wide when looked at over multiple years.
Oyarzun added that in 2021, both the town and county did not give municipal staff COLA increases, while the library and FCSS did, at one and 1.5 per cent, respectively.
