Indemnities totaling more than four million dollars will be paid to elected Montreal officials who left politics or who lost their elections on November 7. Forty former mayors or municipal councilors will thus have been entitled to severance and transition allowances granted under the Act respecting the remuneration of elected municipal officials.
Municipal councilor for eight years, then mayor of the borough of LaSalle for 18 years, Manon Barbe is the one who will receive the most significant amount, namely $226,449. Recall that M.me Barbe had decided not to seek another term last year.
She is followed by François Croteau, who was mayor of the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie for 12 years. Mr. Croteau, who was recently recruited by the firm Ryan Public Affairs as a special adviser, received $217,564 in compensation.
Remember that under the rules in force, elected officials who have completed a four-year term are entitled to the equivalent of one year’s salary as a transition allowance. The severance allowance is calculated based on the number of years of participation in the Retirement Plan for Elected Municipal Officers. The calculation of allowances also takes into account the positions held by elected officials within various bodies such as the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) or the Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain (ARTM).
In 2017, the amounts granted by the City of Montreal were just under four million dollars.
Amendment to the law
Among the former elected officials who received the most significant compensation is the former mayor of Verdun, Jean-François Parenteau, who obtained a sum of $171,334. First elected in 2013 with Denis Coderre’s team, Mr. Parenteau was given a position on the executive committee by Mayor Valérie Plante in 2017. The former mayor of Verdun recently won a position as director strategy at the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’île-de-Montréal.
Former opposition leader Lionel Perez, who bit the dust last November against the new mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, will be entitled to an amount of 157 $863.
Former Projet Montréal councilor in the Plateau-Mont-Royal Richard Ryan will receive $151,825. As for the dean of the municipal council, Marvin Rotrand, he will receive $127,498 after 39 years of service.
In the past, the payment of severance packages has generated several controversies. Sentenced for fraud, the former acting mayor of Montreal, Michael Applebaum, had received an amount of $268,000 after his resignation in 2012. The City of Montreal had also addressed the courts to try to recover this sum — to which the former elected was nevertheless entitled at the time -, but in vain. After Mr. Applebaum’s resignation, the Elected Municipal Officers Salary Act was amended. An elected official prosecuted and sentenced for a criminal act punishable by two years or more of imprisonment is now exposed to a request for reimbursement of his allowances.