Article content continued

Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart would be in line for the next biggest payout, at $91,532, followed by Coun. Druh Farrell at $87,174.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi would be entitled to $84,863 should he leave office in 2021.

Farkas said this week that he has declined the $17,368 transition allowance available to him as a one-term councillor.

Jones said it would be unfair to remove the transition allowance midway through the current council term.

“It’s been in place for over 20 years,” he said. “I can see doing it by the start of the next council because that way the people coming in know they have no expectations, but to do it to people that have already been there, I don’t think it’s right.”

Last week, new members of a five-person citizen committee tasked with examining council pay held their first meeting, kicking off a nearly year-long process of coming up with recommendations surrounding compensation.

The Council Compensation Review Committee is responsible for making recommendations to council about its pay, pension, benefits and other forms of remuneration, including possible changes to the transition allowance for outgoing councillors.

In an email, a spokesman for Nenshi said decisions surrounding the transition allowance should be left to the volunteer group.

“(Nenshi’s) been consistent that council should not have a say in their own compensation and that any changes should be led by the volunteer Council Compensation Review Committee,” Adam Noble-Johnson wrote.

Jones agreed, questioning the point of the volunteer committee if Farkas’ motion were to pass.

“I don’t know why we have a Council Compensation Review Committee to review our pay and our benefits and stuff like that if we’re just going to make random thoughts out there,” said Jones. “We went through an excruciating process to get these five people on board and we were going to leave it in their hands and now this comes up.”

In 2017, volunteer members who served on the committee at the time recommended several changes, including the elimination of transition allowances for elected officials. That recommendation was rejected by council.