Saanich Mayor Richard Atwell is critical of the way in which an additional $20-thousand a month was awarded to the sewage board Chair and Vice Chair to compensate for additional work on the McLoughlin Point sewage project.
The request, that chairwoman Jane Bird and vice-chairman Don Fairbairn each receive the extra payments until March, was approved last week by the CRD.
But Atwell, a CRD Director, says the request came out of the blue and there wasn't enough information to evaluate whether it was needed, or how much was fair and reasonable:
"I really can't tell you if it's reasonable and fair because the project board, nor the CRD staff brought background information to the directors to make a decision. We had no idea how many hows they worked, we had no idea how many hours they were going to need going forward, we did not know the current level of compensation, what has been billed. Nothing had been brought forward and essentially what they were asking for is kind of the equivalent of a blank cheque."
Atwell, along with Saanich councillors Colin Plant and Vic Derman, and Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton wanted the decision postponed for a month to get more information. But other directors worried the project would lose funding if they didn't make a speedy decision.
Atwell calls the manner in which the request was made 'disrespectful', adding it's a slippery slope for an $800-million project to keep throwing money at it.
The additional funds have also been backdated to October of last year.