Yorkton's Mayor and Councillors are getting a raise following a decision by Council at its regular meeting Monday.
There are few things less palatable to voters these days than raises for politicians. A great many in the public see politicians as already overpaid, and while the disgust many feel might be targeted primarily at MPs in Ottawa, and next at provincial MLAs, local municipal politicians get splashed by the same paint of concern.
But in Yorkton, Yorkton Council is due a raise as much as any politicians out there.
We need only look at what Yorkton Councils have managed in recent years, starting with the Gallagher Centre expansion, new Fire Hall and Water Treatment Plant, all of which prepared the city well for the residential and business growth being experienced.
Council also met the pressures of that growth by initiating a Housing Committee to better deal with a shortage of places for people to affordably live. While the efforts of the Committee and Council have not solved the issue in its entirety, Yorkton's housing needs are as well met as any in the province.
Council also dealt with the flood of 2010, and again are planning and investing to lessen the impact of similar water events in the future.
Council, the current edition, as well as those over the last decade, have served Yorkton well.
So a raise is warranted.
But it's still hard for a Council to unilaterally announce a raise for themselves.
Again this Council showed wisdom in appointing a committee of citizens who reviewed salaries, compared them to other cities, and then made recommendations for the raise at a March meeting of Council. It took the process out of the hands of Council, and left it to those who Council serves, local voters.
That the Committee saw a raise as warranted makes the decision by Council not just more palatable, but also suggests the citizens saw value in the work our local elected representatives do.
The raise is in a way a pat on the back for the work Council has done, and will continue to do for our city.
