Chilliwack mayor and council got raises this year - based on the salaries paid to mayors and councillors in other municipalities such as Maple Ridge.

The TIMES reported last summer that Maple Ridge's mayor and council voted for a raise for the incoming council.

Maple Ridge's salaries were based on salaries paid to mayors and councillors in Abbotsford, Coquitlam, Langley Township, North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster, District of North Vancouver, and Richmond.

One of the reasons why this policy, which figures out salaries, was put in place in 2005 was to make sure compensation was "competitive" with the "comparison market."

Competitive is one way of putting it. Incestuous is another word that comes to mind.

In July, Councillors Cheryl Ashlie and Michael Morden both voted against the Maple Ridge raises saying they didn't agree with the method. Morden called it a "chicken and egg" situation.

And after an election with much rhetoric around wasting taxpayer money, Maple Ridge's new council decided in December to hold off on the raises, saving taxpayers about $12,000 this year.

Mayor and councillors should be compensated for their increasingly complex jobs, but they have to figure out a new way to calculate these salaries.

Ashlie suggested that the new municipal auditor could address the problem around council salaries, which would give an external review to the matter.

Whatever the solution, it has to be better than how local municipalities compare themselves to other municipalities that are in turn being compared to each other.