They are the city’s top-paid jobs — and both of them are vacant.
The city is looking for its next police chief — after Danny Smith announced he’ll retire Sept. 3 — and chief administrative officer — after Michael Jack suddenly resigned this month, days after an audit found most city employees lacked properly documented performance reviews.
However, now we know how much each of them was paid in 2023.
Smyth, the highest-paid civic civil servant, took home $305,874 while Jack earned $286,782.
They are two of the 3,965 civic employees, including the mayor and 16 city councillors, who are paid $85,000 or more. The city released its annual compensation disclosure list Friday.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Winnipeg’s 3,965 employees earning over $85,000 include high-ranking police, fire officials, and council members.
Mayor Scott Gillingham was paid the 17th highest salary, at $217,791.
“I think this is fairly consistent with previous years,” said Gillingham.
“The mayor is not at the top of the compensation list. Our current council have looked at salaries of mayors and city councils across the nation and this is where we land. We’re not at the top and not at the bottom.”
Members of the top 10 are two unnamed deputy police chiefs, at $266,290 and $246,908, a police staff sergeant at $260,016, deputy fire chief Scott Wilkinson at $246,950, fire chief Christian Schmidt at $246,789, chief financial officer Catherine Kloepfer at $242,984, and city clerk Marc Lemoine at 240,934.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Mayor Scott Gillingham was paid the 17th highest salary, at $217,791.
For security reasons, only the ranks of police officers, and not their names aren’t divulged on the list.
The top-earning city councillor is Sherri Rollins, at $136,201, who gets a top-up as chair of the civic property and development committee.
Rollins is followed by finance committee chairman Coun. Jeff Browaty at $133,567, council Speaker Coun. Devi Sharma at $133,357, and water, waste and environment committee chairman Coun. Brian Mayes at $133,142.
The base salary for city councillors, who don’t get a top-up of about $12,000 as chair of one of the major committees, is about S121,500.
That means, either Coun. Janice Lukes is saving the city money or is doing one of her jobs for free.
Lukes receives $133,121 for serving as the city’s deputy mayor, but she appears not to receive anything for being chair of the public works committee.
“Clearly, I need to look into this,” said Lukes while laughing. “That is interesting.
“I’m obviously not panicked about it… I’m fine with what I get paid. You don’t do this job for the money. You do it because you want to make change and it’s a very rare opportunity to have this role.”
The only other councillor with a top-up is Coun. Markus Chambers who earns $128,768 as acting deputy mayor.
Gillingham, who chaired the finance committee before being elected mayor, said the extra demands of that job deserve a top-up.
“Those who chair (committees) do extra work and some of them have a very heavy workload,” he said.
“I brought in the first multi-year budget and I remember how much work it was. (Coun. Jeff) Browaty, who is finance chair, had 40 meetings in the last year over and above working on the multi-year budget.”
As for the salaries of civic employees, Gillingham said they not only have to be fair, but competitive.
“Citizens deserve good services and that requires good people,” he said.
“We need compensation that encourages good people to work for the city… one of the things I expect to do, in the process of the search (for a new CAO) is to see what other CAOs are making across the nation to make sure we are competitive. We need the best individual to lead the public service.”
The city has about 10,400 employees, whose salaries and benefits represented 52 per cent of total operating expenses in 2022, approximately $980 million.
While civic public servants spent 29,478.15 on 14 trips in 2023, departing police chief Smyth took six of them — and one was the most expensive.
Smyth billed the city $9,693.15 while participating with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police on a global peace mission in Krakow, Poland from April 17 to April 27, 2023. Another expense was $5,324.28 for the four-day annual meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association in San Diego, Calif.
All told, the trips cost $17,722.71.
The disclosure report lists numerous constables near the top of the list: the highest-paid constable earned $210,220.
Overtime and special duties drive up their base salaries.
Currently, the starting salary of a constable is $64,302, which jumps to $70,148 after the first year, and tops out at $128,605 after 15 years of service.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
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