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PAGE 4, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1985,WIITBY FR FE PRESS wh it ylublished every Wednesday whitby -by M.BM. Publishing CHAE KEL andI PhotographyvInc. Plhone (ii8-61i VAERE CWE W1' s s '~ ~ The Free Press Building,. AERIE MaWer 11 Brock Street North, Second Class Matl Voice of the County Town Michael [an Burgess, Publisher - Managing Editor 11 r k. JBo t 26. jy tb,Ont. %eistanon No 5351 The only Whitby newspaper independently owned and operaird by' Whitby iesidents for Whithc residents. Trustee's 153 We were frankly disappointed and angered by the members of the Durham Board of Education who voted to give themselves a 15 per cent raise effective Dec. 1. While one can argue that they didn't give the raise to themselves, but to those that hold office after them, we still believe that this action is one of fiscal irresponsibility. The reason for this is a quite simple one: the management of any large corporation is supposed A weàkly news oeaiensray fro oe of Canada'a outst.ndn4 news perennaies BIEST OF ArUMrnurA1 YOR GLOBAL NEWS The Mulroney government recently introduced legislation which would make it possible to end a bad marriage more quickly, easily and cheaply. The response was Immediate. Bishop John Sherlock, the president of the Canadian Con- ference of Catholic Bishops, for example, says the government is abdicating its responsibility to foster stronger family ties by introducing legislation to make divorces quicker. He adds that by cutting the time couples must wait for an un- contested divorce from three years to one, the government isn't giving reconciliation a fair chan- ce. What the Bishop is also suggesting, it seems to me, is that tougher divorce laws keep people together, and that the relaxed laws proposed by the Tories will result in more divorces. That's hard to believe. In 1983, the last year for which figures are available, 184 thousand Canadian couples tied the knot, and nearly 70 thousand untied it. Anyone who belleves it could get worse than that can't have much faith in marriage as an institution. I ought to make it clear at this point, I suppose, that I deplore the divorce rate. It represents such a waste of human effort. The years a married couple have spent getting to know each other go down the drain if they go in separate directions. And the partner who winds up without the children, if he or she is a conscientious parent, must then undergo the agonies of the damned to see the children frequently. I sympathize with, and am prepared to defend, the Catholic Church's rights as a self-governing institution to rule out divorce for its own congregations. But i am morally certain that recent increases in the divorce rate have more to do with a change in public attitudes than they have to do with the barbarous divorce law that used to prevail when more Canadians were staying together. Governments cannot and should not legislate people into staying together when every nerve tells them that they've got to live separately. Marriage as an institution will not survive because of any degree of official coercion. It will survive because a majority continues to believe that it is the most fulfiling way to live with another human being and to raise children. Marriage has never depended on priests, ministers and politicians for its survival, and for that we can thank some power that outranks ail of them. pay nKe isi to exhibit leadership in all areas. We would note that in the contract recently signed with its secondary school teachers, the board only gave salary increases of about f ive per cent. How can we expect the board to enter into next year's negotiations in good faith? Having given the teachers and other board employees only five per cent or less, that should also have been the standard for them to follow. One also notes that the new salaries are to be frozen for a three year period. In other words, the next board of education will not (under this resolution anyway) raise the salaries paid to its chairman, vice-chairman, committee chairmen or individual members. If that is the case, why didn't the board up the salaries five per cent in each year to keep itself in line with the contract settlements reached with its employees? That would have shown leadership and marked the tone for the next set of negotiations. This action was prompted by a study done by a citizens' advisory committee headed by Whitby Chamber of Commerce president Don Frise. In his report to the board Frise said that the salaries paid to trustees should do several things including: attracting good candidates to seek election to the board; reflect the level of respon- sibility they must assume; be competitive with those paid to other elected municipal politicians; and, keep the position of trustee a "part-time" one. Fair enough. We agree with those aims. People who are elected to public office should be paid a reasonable amount that reflects the amount of time, energy and dedication the job requires. Conversely, as elected officials they assume a leadership role in our community. They set the irresponsible tone for everyone else. At a time when the board of education finds it- self to be the continuail1eader in property tax in- creases, voting its members a 15 per cent salary Increase seems a bit ludicrous. There is nothing wrong with the trustees voting themselves an in- crease, but that increase should reflect the economic conditions of its constituents and the results of the collective bargaining process with its employees. A few months ago, this newspaper commented that depending on your viewpoint, trustees are either overpaid or underpaid. We noted that the chairman of the board is only pald about $12,000 a year to assume the senior political responsibility for a $170 million a year budget. We compared the chairman's position to that of the chairman of Durham Regional Council who is paid some $45,000 a year and also receives office space and secretarial support. We advocated that the two positions should be similiar. That both jobs should be held by people willing to assume the full-time, day-to-day political responsibility for the smooth operation of their respective levels of government. This salary in- crease doesn't appear to reflect these concerns. The chairman of the board of education should be a full-time job and the office holder should receive a proper full-time salary. We would also point out that the mayors of most Durham Region communities work at the job full-time and are paid a reasonable full-time salary. This action by the board of education doesn't appear to meet these concerns. We have no objec- tion to the trustees receiving more money but the Way in which they dealt with the issue wasn't satisfactory. - m % w