Mill Bay - It's not surprising that top CVRD management is able to justify their outsized salaries. How else would they be able to attract such excellent brass?
What is surprising, and disappointing, is that the elected directors go along with this nonsense.Public records show that 52 CVRD employees were paid between $75,000 and $200,000 last year, plus generous expenses, benefits and pension. The growth at the top has been spectacular. Ten years earlier, only five employees earned over $75,000, and the chief executive earned "only" $110,000.Meanwhile, CVRD residents saw their average income, about $38,000, stagnate at less than the rate of inflation - slightly under 20 per cent over the same 10 years.Earlier this year, reacting to public outrage, the directors formed a special compensation committee to investigate.After a number of meetings, which consisted mostly of being spoon-fed information by the same CVRD staff whose salaries were under review, the committee concluded, absurdly, that all was in order.One obvious suggestion, ignored by the directors, would be to limit CVRD management wage increases to inflation, or to the average increase experienced by residents of the region, who, after all, pay for it all.The fact that directors staunchly uphold "business as usual" raises a question. Do the directors work for the top CVRD staff, as it seems? Or do they work for the people that elected them?Blaise Salmon Mill Bay