Calgary city councillor and mayoral contender Sonya Sharp is putting forward a Notice of Motion that would increase the transparency around the reporting of Calgary’s Chief Administrative Officer’s (CAO) annual pay.

The motion, provided exclusively to LWC on Monday, will come to the July 22 Executive Committee for a review of its technical merit, before going to a full meeting of Calgary city council, likely before the summer break.

Sharp’s motion calls for the CAO’s total compensation to be disclosed publicly, along with the full salary pay band. (Salary and benefits are published in the City of Calgary’s annual financial statements, and pay bands are published in the annual compensation disclosure list.)

The motion asks for a plain language summary of the CAO’s annual performance review and the rationale for compensation adjustments, provided it doesn’t compromise personal privacy or violate privacy laws. It also asks for compensation-related decisions regarding the CAO to be reflected in clear, accessible language in all communications.

It follows an LWC exclusive story about the 36 per cent increase to the maximum pay amount in the publicly disclosed pay bands of the CAO. The story also reported the $60,000 pay increase from 2023 to 2024. Further reporting, however, later showed that prior year pay for the then-City Manager had stagnated at around $345,000 since 2018.

Still, Sharp said the public reporting around the CAO’s pay, city council’s one employee, should come immediately after a performance review. She said there’s limited disclosure on the CAO compensation, but it needs to be clear and upfront to the public.

There was no public mention of the CAO’s pay band or salary increase until reported on by LWC.

“Calgarians are paying the bill; I’m not sure why they shouldn’t know how much it is,” she said.

“Google the compensation for any CEO of a publicly traded company; it’s all there for shareholders and anyone else to know. This is the most senior position of a ‘public’ entity, so the public should have a right to know,” said Sharp.

The temperature on the topic was ratcheted up early Monday morning, as fellow mayoral contender Jeromy Farkas decried the behind-closed-doors discussion.

“This was a major financial decision made in secret with no meaningful public record or justification,” Farkas said.

“As a former city councillor, CEO and police commissioner, I understand that some matters must be handled privately, especially where legal or safety concerns are involved. But this wasn’t that.”

‘Vague and confusing’: Farkas said public reporting of CAO pay isn’t clear

Farkas said the record of the April decision, where the decision was made, was “buried deep” in the meeting minutes and then “vague and confusing,” at that. He called out Coun. Sharp for making the three separate motions that were ultimately approved.

Sharp said that she agreed that discussions that are held in closed session should be confidential. She added, however, that city council can decide what should and shouldn’t be held in confidence.

“Going in-camera to have full and frank discussions about these matters is fine, but there comes a point where Council needs to conclude these discussions and vote in public, and these decisions must be clear for the public to understand,” she said.

“Trying to read Council’s minutes on these items is sometimes like trying to decipher hieroglyphs. When the public record leaves Calgarians with an impression that is the exact opposite of what occurred, we clearly have a problem.”

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek responded briefly to questions on Monday, saying that the vote on the item was done publicly. She said that a decision cannot be made in closed session.

There were no details provided on the items being voted upon during the meeting, and the publicly voted upon item noted that details would be held confidential at that time.

“Do I think that a performance review should be made public. I do not think so,” the mayor told LWC.

“Compensation should be made public, which is exactly what we did.”

Mayor Gondek did say previously that the substantial increase in CAO pay bands in the 2025 disclosure was largely the result of an overdue application of an executive pay review initiated during the last city council term.  Those were applied for 2024 and 2025.

A question of public trust: Coun. Dhaliwal

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said that he believes that while the closed session discussions should remain confidential, the outcome that was voted on by council should have been immediately relayed to citizens.

“I would have loved us to put it out in the public that this is the increase that is happening, and so people are fully aware of the process, and if there’s any questions, they could ask administration or even their councillors, ‘OK, how did this process play out?’” Dhaliwal told LWC.

Dhaliwal said that at that time, they could have explained the rationale for the CAO pay decision, including potential comparison to other CAOs across Canada, or in comparison with the position’s salary from years past.

For comparison, according to the 2023 consolidated financials for the City of Edmonton, their CAO made $392,000. In Winnipeg, according to an exact 2024 salary disclosure by their city government, CAO Michael Jack made $410,769. Vancouver CAO Jerry Dobrovolny was paid $592,416 in 2024.

At a time when public trust in city council and city administration is lagging, Dhaliwal said this could have been easily addressed. He said it’s not only a question of transparency, but one of accountability.

“We need to look at the bigger picture. These Calgarians, they’re not just taxpayers, they’re shareholders. Boards approve the salary and the benefits of any CEO of the company in the private sector, and then they disclose it to the shareholders, and then that’s the transparency,” he said.

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong said the nature of the discussions behind closed doors are often of a sensitive nature and should be treated carefully.

“You can imagine hypothetically as an example, if we talk about pay bands, this can be correlated to staff, who’s where in that conversation,” he said.

“So, our job is not to review individual salaries. Our job is to talk about both the process and the outcome.”

Farkas said that the nature of the compensation increase should have been disclosed immediately.

“We shouldn’t have to rely on reporters to dig through City Hall just to find out how public money is being spent,” Farkas said.

“That’s not how trust is built.”