Hamilton's mayor will earn a reported $35,000 a year for serving on the new Alectra Utilities board. Now one councillor is calling on him to donate that money to a fund for people who can't pay their hydro bills.

Fred Eisenberger, in addition to his $171,441 salary in 2016, will receive $25,000 per year for sitting on the board of the new utility, plus $2,500 per meeting, according to local media reports. The board will meet about four times a year.

Coun. Maria Pearson is taking over his position on the Hamilton Utilities Corporation (HUC) board. That comes with an honorarium of about $10,000.

The Hamilton Community News reported Eisenberger's Alectra earnings. The utility itself won't say how much it pays its board members. Questions to the city about how much HUC board members earn also went unanswered.

But Terry Whitehead, Ward 8 councillor, says it's about $10,000, and those kinds of earnings aren't right. Councillors sit on dozens of boards and agencies and don't get paid outside their regular council salary. Citizen appointees should get honorariums, he said, but not councillors.

"It's a sizeable amount of money," Whitehead said. "There are households that make that amount of income."

And there are households who can't pay their rising electricity rates. In December, the city faced cutting off 600 people from accessing a housing stability benefit to help pay for needs such as hydro.

The reason? Skyrocketing electricity bills, and the increased demand they brought, left the fund $1.5 million short this year, said Joe-Anne Priel, general manager of community and emergency services.

In the short term, the city is using dividends from the Alectra merger – it encompasses the former Horizon Utiltiies, PowerStream Holdings Inc., the Enersource holding corporation and Hydro One Brampton – to cover the fund.

But Whitehead suggested Eisenberger and Pearson handing over their honorariums would be "the honourable thing."

Donna Skelly, Ward 7 councillor, agreed. When she learned how much board appointees make, "I almost fell off my chair."

Eisenberger sees it differently.

Every member of these boards is compensated for their work on the board, he said. That includes Hamilton representatives. "What I decide to do with that compensation is something that I'll ponder."

Eisenberger also implied councillors who felt strongly about it could contribute some of their earnings too.

"Every member of council could make a contribution to the reserve if they so choose."