Huge increase caused by retroactive payments, says mayor

By Bob Bruton, Barrie Examiner

Barrie’s 100-grand club was a little grander last year.

The number of city employees earning $100,000-plus in 2014 jumped to 318 from 170 in 2013.

The largest increase in the so-called Sunshine List comes for Barrie firefighters; there were 134 in 2014, compared to 32 the previous year.

“My jaw dropped when I saw the Sunshine List this year,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman, “until it was explained to me that the huge increase is actually due to the one-time retroactive payments made in 2014 to firefighters as a result of the four-year delay in receiving a decision from arbitration of the firefighters contract.”

Barrie CAO Carla Ladd was the city’s highest paid employee last year, at $249,563, followed by Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood at $235,993, Deputy Police Chief Bruce Carlson at $213,154 and Richard Forward, the city’s general manager of infrastructure and growth management, at $195,216.

There were 64 city hall employees on the 2014 list, compared to 49 in 2013.

But it was Barrie firefighters who got the largest raises last year, and new contracts with retroactive pay were the most significant contributing factor.

Last May, first-class firefighters received a salary raise of $10,945, according to the terms of an arbitration decision leading to the 2010-2013 collective agreement. Then firefighters received a 2.5% salary increase for the last half of 2014, as part of the new one-year collective agreement reached with the city.

Cory Mainprize, president of the Barrie Professional Fire Fighters Association (BPFFA), also said four years of retroactive wages accounted for the number of firefighters on the 2014 Sunshine List.

“Because of the arbitration settlement coming in May of 2014, it resulted in retroactive wages for the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 that the city had to pay out to the (fire) staff,” he said.

“It was those retroactive wages that accounted for the significant increase in the number of firefighters on the list.”

Coun. Bonnie Ainsworth was the only Barrie councillor to vote against the 2014 contract with BPFFA last summer, and she has a problem with the 134 firefighters on the Sunshine List.