CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Calgary city councillors are taking aim at mysterious bonuses that have been paid out to departing public employees over the past few decades.

Back in 2018, the issue was first brought up inside the council chambers, where staff were asked to engage with an outside HR consultant and review elements of a total compensation package for city employees.

Part of this package is an average $10,000 retirement bonus, which has seemingly been given out since the 1980s — even though it is not detailed in most contracts.

Councillor Jeromy Farkas proposed bringing it to an end during a meeting of the Priorities and Finance Committee on Tuesday.

“We went through the paperwork, th e history of it, there’s no justification to it. Couldn’t actually find where council actually approved this. And when pressed on the details, we were told — and I quote — ‘it was lost to the mists of time,'” Farkas said. “It was probably one of the most ridiculous responses I think Calgarians have heard.”

As reported in Postmedia, a retirement booklet from the city indicates the bonus is related to amount of vacation time approved for the employee during their career.

And further digging from the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation last year revealed the retirement payments totalled $3.4 million in 2016, and over the past three years over $13 million had been given to retiring employees.

Adding on even more, it is estimated the long-term financial impact to the city as of 2018 was close to $74 million.

City staff said the practice began sometime in the 1980s during the boom years, and it was aimed to help retain staff and attract new talent.

However, the staff also added there was little benefit from the practice, and it’s not present in other major municipalities.

They did note there could be problems with ending the plan immediately, as first proposed.

A vote on coming to a complete halt did pass by a slim margin of 6-4, but then the committee unanimously agreed to ask administration to explore how the benefit can be phased out over a slightly longer period of time.

“So my biggest concern about this is accountability,” Farkas added. “I’m saying that we just end the practice in about two years time. We give employees notice that this is something that we are going to be phasing out, and then by the end of 2021 it’s not something we do anymore.”

Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who spoke to reporters at a southeast pharmacy after receiving his yearly flu shot, agreed this does need to be reigned in, but also cautioned against being too brash.

“I want to make sure that whatever we do, we do in a very strategic and thoughtful way. That it’s not a knee-jerk reaction and that it’s something that we can use to make the city work better, not just for our colleagues who work at the city, but overall for cost containment,” Nenshi said.

There is one contract where this bonus is outlined, and it is for the Calgary chapter of the International Association of Firefighters.

Nenshi said this could provide a few more complications, but they need to take a complete look at all such bonuses.

“Although it’s only written in one collective agreement, the general labour law is if it’s been going on for 40 years, it’s in the collective agreement,” he said. “I think that we would try and equalize that kind of thing across the various groups of people who work at the city.”

As noted, this is not something done in other cities around Canada, which could make the argument to end the bonuses even more valid.

“It is a time for us to tighten our belts and make sure that the public sector is aligned with private enterprise,” Debby Carreau, founder and CEO of Calgary-based Inspired HR said. “Look at it holistically in terms of total compensation. You need to understand salary, bonus, all other kinds of perks and benefits collectively.”

The rest of council will vote on phasing out the bonuses during a meeting later this month.

Meanwhile, the uproar over how long this has been going on does not factor into the mayor’s feelings and he wants to just get on with it.

“I don’t really care if it started in 1982 or 1984, or where the minutes of that council meeting were,” Nenshi said. “The point is, it is what it is and what we need to do is focus on what we are going to do moving forward.”