Brampton taxpayers still angered over a secret non-union staff bonus scheme could get little protection if council passes a newly proposed salary administration policy Wednesday.

Describing the need for a new policy after the failure of previous practices, human resources head Fiona Peacefull addressed council when the new plan was brought forward last week at committee.

“We want to strengthen governance, integrity and accountability. We clearly saw the salary policy as it was and some of the practices did not enable those,” Peacefull said.

But it’s unclear how the most important part of the new policy will actually provide any oversight of the very senior staff now crafting their own policy to give themselves raises and bonuses.

Unlike most public sector bonus and salary programs for non-union staff that use specific pay bands and bonus ranges based on percentages of base salaries, the proposal, approved by Peacefull and chief administrative officer Harry Schlange, would give management the freedom to set such increases without using formulas, ranges or limits. Usually, elected officials oversee the details of such public sector compensation policies to protect the taxpaying voters who pay for them.

“Everything we are recommending around salary is within salary band and within budget. Nothing will happen outside of salary band, outside of budget or outside of policy,” said Peacefull.

Her comments do not line up with the language used in the report headed to council for approval. It suggests non-union employee remuneration for performance-based salary increases and bonuses would be at the discretion of senior managers with no direct involvement by politicians who are elected to provide governance and accountability to protect the public purse.

That protection was not in place up until recently. For years Brampton taxpayers unwittingly paid for secret staff bonuses that council never even knew about, while finances deteriorated and the city’s performance in a variety of independent surveys of Canadian municipalities was at or near the bottom.

The new staff salary policy council will now vote on is in response to a troubling May internal audit report that revealed senior staffers for years paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses — including payment for favouritism — to non-union employees without council’s knowledge or approval.

It is unclear how the new policy would protect taxpayers or what oversight council would have over pay-for-performance salary increases and bonuses.