By Cecilia Nasmith/Northumberland 89.7 FM/Today’s Northumberland
The Cobourg Public Library’s budget with its 22% increase met with resistance at council’s budget meeting Tuesday.
As a result, it will be sent back to the library board in hopes they can give it another look and perhaps come up with a budget that features a lower increase.
The issue came up for lengthy conversation at the council meeting, as both Councillor Randy Barber and Mayor Lucas Cleveland had not been present at the October meeting at which it was first presented.
“I have a personal issue when we look at a 22% increase,” Cleveland said.
Barber asked to have the budget displayed so that they could see where the biggest increases were occurring.
Councillor Aaron Burchat, council liaison to the library board, pointed out the 124.9% increase in cleaning, mostly due to inadequate staffing for this purpose. The result, depending on the severity of issues that arise, may mean expensive stop-gaps like calling the town’s building-maintenance staff after hours to address problems.
This issue failed to elicit extensive discussion, with most of the debate focusing on the 17.02% increase on the salary line. As the discourse continued, library Chief Executive Officer Tammy Robinson joined the meeting by Zoom to offer clarity on this item, which she attributed to pay equity requirements.
Robinson referred to extensive meetings with Director of Community Services Brian Geerts and discussions Treasurer Adam Giddings had had with the town solicitor.
“The library is on the pay equity plan with the town,” she stated, which Giddings confirmed had been the case since 2005,
“It was determined at that time the library would be following Town of Cobourg practices as a comparator for its pay structure,” Giddings said.
Cleveland said in 2005, there were male-female issues that should not exist in 2025. Robinson said pay equity is now a means of ensuring parity between town and library employees.
“We are looking at equal work for equal pay – a staff member here was in the same pay grid, at one point, with the marina,” she said.
“We are all synched in. The information was sent to council almost a year ago, and we have been in contact with the Pay Equity Commissioner.”
The Town staff union is CUPE-25, she pointed out. The library is CUPE 25-02 – part of the same union but at arm’s length
So is everybody getting a 22% increase, Barber asked.
Much of that increase is related to salary as opposed to a raise, Robinson said – OMERS costs, for instance, Raises are more on the order of 4% to 12%.
Chief Administrative Officer Tracey Vaughan explained that this is a incredibly complicated issue, but said that “absolutely, pay equity always has to be maintained.”
Vaughan added, however, that every employer has a responsibility to review comparators frequently – to be sure that a job that has changed and evolved is still being likened to an appropriate comparator
The library will be asked to have that second look at its budget in time to submit a revised version for the Dec. 18 meeting of council.
