The City of Prince George added 116 people to the payroll in 2017, according to the 2017 Public Bodies Report that will be presented to council Monday.
According to the report, the city employed 1,071 people in 2017, up from 955 in 2016. The increase brought the total payroll for 2017 to $60.5 million, up from $55.2 million in 2016. Those employees also claimed $1.3 million in expenses. The city have an additional $4.4 million of salaries and expenses incurred in response to the wildfires in 2017, which makes a yearly comparison difficult.
Of the 1,071 employees at the city in 2017, 323 of them made more than $75,000 and 748 made less than $75,000.
There were four severance agreements with unionized staff in 2017, resulting in 31 months of compensation. There were two severance agreements with non-unionized staff resulting in 14 months of compensation.
Compensation for city council totalled $366,574, $37,132 in expenses, in 2017. Mayor Lyn Hall was paid $103,218 plus $8,922 in expenses. Of his $103,218 salary, $32,925 is non-taxable. The federal government is removing the non-taxable allowance for elected officials in 2019.
Each of the eight city councillors received a stipend of $32,919 in 2017, $10,972 of which was non-taxable. Garth Frizzell, who sits on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities board racked up the most expenses at $8,166. Jillian Merrick claimed the second highest amount at $7,115. Others claimed: Frank Everitt – $2,656; Albert Koehler – $4,740; Murry Krause – $450; Terry McConnachie – $1,213; Susan Scott – $2,576; and Brian Skakun – $1,292.
