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Orono Town Hall Veridian board members’ pay “out of line” Mayor Jim Abernethy failed in his attempt to redirect compensation that Clarington politicians receive for sitting on the Board of Veridian Connections. is issue was raised b Councillor Gord Robinson at last week's committee meeting when he commented on the increase in remuneration Veridian pays to its board members. Veridian is the utili- ty company, formed by the amalgamation of local utility company's from Ajax, Pickering, Clarington and Belleville. At the meeting, Robinson questioned why remuneration paid by Veridian to the four Clarington board members had nearly doubled. The R i d over to the remuneration icipali n his letter, an Expenses report from Veridian showed a total of $71,444 for Clarington's four board mem- bers in 2008, and $46,885 in 2007. It was explained last week that a committee of Veridian Board members researched the remuneration paid to board members, and in December 2008 recommend- ed an increase in pay which was adopted by the Board. Prompted by a letter to the Mayor and Council from Newcastle resident Douglas Cronk, Mayor Abemethy introduced a motion Monday seeking to have Clarington councillors hand their Veridan Cronk said the compensation paid by Veridian is out of line with other compensations for boards and committees. "There is no sound reason why any one of us would receive $1,000 to $2,000 per meeting to attend a Veridian Board meeting," Abemethy agreed. The Mayor went on to say he wasn't worth that much and neither were the other members. "For the record," Abemethy said, "I have and will continue to donate to the Bowmanville Hospital -- Touching Lives Campaign, the funds that I receive for sit- ting on the Veridian Board." Speaking of the remunera- tion, Councillor Robinson said, "I think it is outrageous, and I don't think it's accept- able." Clarington's other board members are: Councilor Mary Novak, and two citizen appointees; H. Edmondson and B. Mountford. Coucnillor Adrian Foster was Clarington's council represen- tative for the first two years of this political term and Novak, as the representative for the last two years, began her term in December 2008. Veridian Board members are paid a per diem of $12,000 for attending four scheduled VERIDIAN see page 4 Volume 72, Number 14 $1.00 GST Included Wednesday April 8, 2009 Publications Mail Registration No. 08301 ‘Agreement No. 40012366 Council flip flops In a complete reversal of last week's decision, Claring- ton Council decided on Monday night to make the leasehold improvements to the vacant Total Hockey space for Community Care Durham (CCD). At last week's committee meeting, the majority of councillors decided the municipality could not afford to put an additional $600,000 of taxpayers' money into the vacant building they con- structed for the ill-fated hock- ey museum. Under the pro- posed lease arrangement with CCD, the municipality would not see a return on its invest- ment until the final months of a ten-year lease. Last week, Councillors Adrian Foster, Ron Hooper, Mary Novak and Charlie Trim voted to seek new ten- ants other than CCD for the 5,000-square-foot, vacated Total Hockey space at the Gamet B. Rickard Complex in Bowmanville. This week, Councillor Foster changed his vote, and supported the Mayor's motion to approve funding of up to $600,000 to convert the Total Hockey space for CCD. Councillors Gord Robinson and Willie Woo also support- ed the motion. "I think we are getting hung up on who should fix the Total Hockey problem: the landlord or the tenant," Abemethy said. "Total Hockey was designed for one thing, and one thing only -- Total Hockey. And that cur- rent design is a $600,000 problem." In 2003, Clarington FLIP see page 4 Whats Inside See page 5