Fifty-one employees at North Cowichan municipal hall earned more than $100,000 in 2024, according to the latest statement of financial information.

That compares with 40 employees who earned more than $100,000 in 2023.

The top-10 earners in 2024:

— Ted Swabey, chief administrative officer, $265,590.
— Walter Wiebe, senior manager, financial services, $206,291.
— George Farkas, general manager, planning development, community services, $197,184.
— Robert Bell, manager utilities, $195,809.
— David Conway, director subdivision and environmental services, $157,318.
— Marla Laycock, director, people and culture, $157,195.
— Clay Reitsma, director, engineering, $156,463.
— Manuela Herzig, Director, IT and Business Solutions, $153,910.
— Neil Pukesh, director, parks and recreation, $151,423.
— Teri Vetter, director, financial services, $149,863.

The municipality paid 523 employees a total of $21.7 million plus $285,068 in expenses in 2024.

This amount includes three severance agreements with non-unionized employees.

But it does not include so-called “reconciling items" that added up to another $5.2 million.

The municipality said these include costs such as: "employer health tax; employer portions of Canada Pension Plan and Employer Insurance contributions; employer portions of the Municipal Pension Plan contributions; Workers’ Compensation costs and other such costs."

Elected members of council were paid a total of $296,928 plus $53,587 in expenses and $26,058 in benefits.

How does North Cowichan determine pay for exempt staff?

Laycock told sixmountains.ca: "Our policy is to compare exempt compensation with organizations that have positions similar in nature, size, and scope to those at North Cowichan and those that North Cowichan competes with for talent, and that are located in regions with similar economic conditions and cost of living.

"North Cowichan strives to target exempt salaries at the middle of the comparison market, for performance that fully meets the expectations of the position."

Reviews of exempt compensation take place every three to four years, Laycock said. "Currently, we are falling short of meeting the policy objective to compensate managers in the middle of the comparison market." Staff will present council with a compensation survey in the near future.

Read the full statement of financial information: https://pub-northcowichan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=19376

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— Larry Pynn, May 28, 2025.