Why Does This City Manager Make So Much Money?
(Image courtesy of City of Delta)
Last week, Mayor Ken Sim announced that Donny van Dyk, City Manager for Delta, was selected to take over the job of City Manager for Vancouver. Van Dyk will replace Paul Mochrie, who has served as City Manager since 2021. While the title of City Manager may seem like an obscure city role, the salary van Dyk is set to receive, $450,000 annually, is more than that of even Prime Minister Mark Carney.
History of Large Salaries
When looking at a dataset comparing the salary of the Vancouver City Manager over the last 17 years to that of the Vancouver Mayor, BC Premier, and Canadian Prime Minister, it is clear that the City Manager's salary consistently aligns with that of the Prime Minister and occasionally surpasses all three elected offices.
Vancouver City Manager Salary compared to elected officials
City Manager Recommends Their Compensation
City Managers, as well as other members of the city leadership staff, are designated as exempt staff. Exempt staff are city employees who are not members of any union or collective agreement. Per city rules, the Vancouver City Council ultimately "provides overall policy direction for employee compensation; approves collective bargaining agreements, including provisions for wages and benefits,” among other responsibilities.
However, for each exempt staff pay raise or decrease, “the City Manager approves the classification and compensation plan for all employees not represented by a collective bargaining agreement.” This would include themselves. Functionally, City Managers can set their pay.
City Manager Plays a Large Municipal Role
The City Manager, according to the press release announcing Mr. van Dyk’s appointment, “oversees a $2.34 billion annual operating budget, delivery of the $880 million capital budget, and leads a city-wide team of approximately 9,600 employees.“ In layman’s terms, the City Manager runs the day-to-day operations of the city, ensuring garbage collection is done and that street lights work at night. But whether that work means they should make more than a leader of a G7 country is something to ponder.
