The range of how much the City of Calgary pays its top bureaucrat is seeing a significant change, and could reach nearly half a million dollars in the future.
According to 2025 compensation disclosure documents published on the city’s website, the salary range for the city’s chief administrative officer is now between $391,666 on the low end and $475,000 on the top end.
That equates to a nearly 48-per cent increase on the low end and almost 36 per cent on the top end, compared with the previous salary range from 2019 to 2024, which had a base of $265,000 and a top end of $350,000.
But the most recent salary range, adjusted during a July 30, 2024, city council meeting, was between $380,000 and $410,000, according to a spokesperson for the City of Calgary.
The jump in the 2025 salary range was approved by city council during a meeting in April, with debate taking place behind closed doors, which is typical for personnel matters.
The move by city council to change the salary range in 2025 isn’t sitting well with Jeromy Farkas, a former city council who is running for mayor, who is calling for more transparency around how the decision is made.
“This is public money and council is accountable for that money to the public,” Farkas told Global News. “So there’s a lot of questions around the process, but I think we can leave aside the individual here.”
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However, David Duckworth‘s salary is expected to remain unchanged in 2025.
Public financial statements show Duckworth was paid $406,000 last year, but reached $460,000 total compensation when benefits are included.
It’s a $60,000 increase over 2023; city financial statements from that year show a base salary of $346,000 with benefits bringing the total compensation to $399,000.
But Farkas feels the city and council should proactively release the information around compensation, and not just “buried deep on a city hall website,” noting the record of April’s decision are “vague and confusing.”
Fellow mayoral candidate and Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp plans to bring forward a motion on the matter to a city committee meeting on July 22.
“It should be transparent, there’s accountability here to show citizens what they’re paying for on the top bureaucrat,” she told Global News.
The motion calls for the public release of the total compensation of the chief administrative officer, including “base salary, taxable benefits, pension contributions, and any performance-based adjustments.”
It also calls for a “plain-language summary” of council’s annual performance review of the chief administrative officer, including “any rationale provided for compensation adjustments,” but only if it does not compromise privacy rules.
“Obviously personnel issues should always remain confidential,” Sharp noted. “But what we’re saying in this notice of motion, I would like to see things that can be disclosed publicly.”
However, Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek is accusing Sharp of “politicking” with her motion.
Gondek noted the chief administrative officer’s salary and pay range is released in annual compensation disclosures as well as the yearly city financial statements, a practice undertaken since 2015.
“The information is public, nothing is being hidden from Calgarians,” Gondek said Tuesday. “If we need to explain the process better, that’s one thing, but claiming we’re hiding things from the public is simply not a fact.”
The mayor said the change to the chief administrative officer’s salary range was recommended by a third party as part of an overall formal performance management system for the role and a structured review and compensation framework.
“We had a third party help us understand how to do this, what the comparators are in other cities, how much we should be paying, and how often we should do reviews,” Gondek said.
“That salary band is reflective of what (chief administrative officers) are being paid across this nation, and it’s reflective of the size of our city.”
Calgary’s chief administrative officer oversees the city’s executive leadership team on all city departments, and is an employee of Calgary city council and not directly employed by the City of Calgary.
Duckworth has served in the role since Aug. 30, 2019.
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