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As I don't subscribe to the Province I couldn't read the article but Councillor Bateman makes a valid point in the comments section of "the other Langley web site" when he said:
"Staff puts together the meeting agendas and uses a checklist to determine what goes in-camera: Is it litigation? Property acquisition? A personnel issue? As we are Township employees, staff interpreted it as a personnel issue and started it in-camera.
I never wanted to discuss it behind closed doors, and indeed Council voted unanimously to bring it out and deal with it in public.
Staff was simply following proper agenda-building procedure. Council decided to overrule their choice and bring it into the public domain. I have no problem with staff putting it in-camera to start, and I certainly supported Council bringing it out."
Seems like it was less a case of a secret pay hike and more a case of staff being provided and insufficiently precise checklist to determine which items are discussed in camera versus in full open meetings.
My view is "no harm, no foul"
Hope the rest of you are enjoying the beautiful sunshine
The problem with this Council is that too many are trying to rewrite history. He is no exception. Do you really think this was an honest mistake? Do you really think that if Richter would not have published her concern that the Council would have said 'oh no this should go to open Council'? I don't think so. I will go further and suggest that they would probably have made all raises immediate. Like an iceberg, don't believe what you see on the surface. Blair, this is the Council that takes care of themselves first.
LFP,
I guess I'm a bit of an idealist but I do believe it was likely a simple case of a bureaucrat erring on the side of caution and knowing that if he/she was wrong someone would notice and move the discussion to the right meeting.
The way the raise is being implemented (it will not go into force until 2008 ) means that the current council has little incentive to anger the electorate by sliding it through under the cover of a closed meeting. As for making the raise immediate, everyone on council knows that Councillor Richter would never have let that go unchallenged. I agree that this council looks after itself but one of the first rules of looking after yourself is CYA and everyone on Council had to know that there was little benefit and a lot of risk to trying to slide this through on the QT.
Cheers all,
Ah the stories we could tell you.....would curl your socks. Remember politics has been a blood sport in Langley for quite a while! Read about "It's ok if Harper does it" from holier than though Bysouth in our media report. 
It's a good way of testing the water though. They had to know that it woulde get exposure and end up in an open meeting. I think this is not over yet.
Got a good one for you Pianoman, Muriel apparently called to say she was getting a posting ready and said that she thinks the Council would have pushed through an immediate raise. This from a 20 odd year veteran of Council tricks! 
It's unfortunate, but Muriel's opinion does not carry the weight that it might have had in the past. With all due respect to her, I think she should stay on the sidelines and enjoy her retirement.
I view anything that this Alberts controlled council does with a very suspicious eye, but this seems to be history now, and and alert eye has maybe put this one to bed in good health.
I think (sniff) that council is (sniff) woefully underpaid and (sniff) underutilized. Where is the justice?!!!!
With everything else to worry about in Langley, I'm just so impressed that Council wants to get their paycheque issue put to bed early. Once they know that, they can get down to the business of making sure the rest of us will pay for it - no doubt through the nose!
Latest update is they have got pay raises down to a fine science. They now will in January prior to every election year conduct a survey of neighbouring communities' Mayor & councillor salaries and increase their salaries based on the 60th percentile (however that is calculated!) to take effect on the day after the election. So they will now get automatic increases and not have to soil their hands with worrying about how to justify it. Wouldn't you just love to have this where you work? Sad, especially since they are a tax & spend government. By the way Kim Richter is the only councillor who voted against it.
Kim gets her automatic payrise thru th e public sector union through
Yup, it's a blood sport. That's why umpteen of them battle for the eight seats available every three years. Dueling with bedpans at arms length every Monday night for double the salary would scarcly attract more than a couple of candidates. Hmmm, what's the attraction?
blood and guts
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