What Lumby Pays Its CAO, and How That Compares

The short version. From 2020 to 2024, the pay for Lumby's top staff job went from about $134,000 to about $202,000. That is a 51% increase in four years, while prices rose about 17%. I compared Lumby with 12 B.C. towns and villages of about the same size. Every year from 2022 to 2025, Lumby paid its CAO more than any of the comparison communities, comparing full-year figures. None of the others reached $200,000.

The CAO's contract is not public, and I could not find any open council motion or report that explains these raises. I am not saying anyone did anything wrong. I am saying a pay level like this should be explained to residents in an open meeting.

1. What is a CAO, and who decides what they are paid?

Many people think the mayor runs the village. In Lumby, that is not how it works. The mayor chairs council and is one vote out of five. Council makes decisions together, by voting in public meetings.

The day-to-day running of the village is done by a staff general manager called the Chief Administrative Officer, or CAO. Under the Community Charter (section 147), the CAO manages the village staff, oversees the budget and projects, gives council advice, and makes sure council's decisions are carried out. Council hires the CAO, sets the CAO's pay, and can end the CAO's employment.

In Lumby, the CAO has also served as corporate officer, keeping the official records and council's paperwork. Many small towns combine the CAO and corporate officer roles.

He was also financial officer from August 2019 to March 2023. Council gave him this role on August 8, 2019 (motion 19/134) and moved it to the new finance director on March 21, 2023 (motion 23/033).

Lumby's CAO was appointed in 2011.

2. Lumby's CAO pay, year by year

Every B.C. town must publish a yearly report listing anyone it paid more than $75,000. It is called the Statement of Financial Information, or SOFI. For this report, "pay" refers to the remuneration disclosed in the public records and can include salary, taxable benefits and certain payouts. It does not include group health or pension plans. "Expenses" are things like travel, training, and conferences.

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What the numbers show

• From 2013 to 2020, raises averaged about 3.5% a year. The 2019 report says that year included a 2.7% cost-of-living increase.

• Then came three big jumps: 13.2% in 2021, 16.8% in 2023, and 8.9% in 2024.

• From 2020 to 2024, pay rose from $134,164 to $202,010. That is about 51% in four years.

• Over the same four years, prices in Canada rose about 17% (Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index, yearly averages: 137.0 in 2020 and 160.9 in 2024).

3. How Lumby compares with 12 similar B.C. towns

I picked 12 B.C. towns and villages with between about 1,600 and 3,000 people. Lumby had 2,063 people in the 2021 census. For each town, I took the CAO's pay from its own SOFI for 2021 to 2025.

Some years are marked "part." That means the town changed CAOs partway through the year, or the person was also covering another job, so the number is not a fair full-year remuneration figure. I left those out of the comparison.

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Where Lumby sits each year

This compares Lumby with the middle figure among the other towns' full-year remuneration figures for each year.

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What stands out

• Long service does not explain the gap. Chase's CAO has also held the job since 2011. In 2025 she was paid $138,551, about $66,000 less than Lumby's. Princeton's CAO, in the job since 2018, was paid $169,506.

• Lumby's raises were bigger. With the same CAO from 2021 to 2025, Lumby's pay rose 35%. Over the same years, also with the same CAO, Princeton's rose 7%, Ashcroft's 10%, and Enderby's 17%.

• The closest towns had special situations. Clearwater went through four CAOs in five years before hiring one from the City of Quesnel. Harrison Hot Springs is a resort village. Both still paid under $195,000.

• Lumby's expenses are normal. Most towns' CAO expenses were between a few hundred dollars and about $12,000 a year. Lumby's ranged from about $1,300 to $11,000 between 2021 and 2025, which is normal for this group.

4. What is fair to keep in mind

• SOFI pay includes taxable benefits and payouts like unused vacation, so a single year can look higher than the base salary. Lumby's 2025 pay was almost the same as 2024, so about $200,000 appears to be the regular yearly pay level now.

• Lumby's CAO has also served as corporate officer, which is common in small towns, and was the financial officer from 2019 to 2023.

• CAO pay is normally set in a contract negotiated in a closed council meeting. B.C. law allows closed meetings for "labour relations or other employee relations," and Lumby's council uses that reason often. That is normal. What I could not find is any public report of the result.

5. What I could not find

I searched Lumby's council minutes and agendas for any motion, report, or pay study about the CAO's raises in 2021, 2023, or 2024. I did not find one. The CAO's contract is not posted publicly.

6. What I will do as mayor

• Report the CAO's contract terms, and any change to them, in an open council meeting.

• Compare Lumby's senior staff pay with similar B.C. towns, and share the results with residents.

• Make sure any big pay decision comes with a plain-language explanation of why.

Sources for the other 12 towns

Each link goes to that town's own SOFI or the council agenda where the SOFI was presented.

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Population figures are from the 2021 census. Some towns' reports are scanned images. Those numbers were checked by making sure each row added up to the printed total.

Authorized by Bradley Weston, Financial Agent, 236-873-6590