I was asked this week what I thought about the city budget. My answer was somewhere between “meh” and “it is what it is.”
Budget 2015 here in Fun City hasn’t really amounted to much action on the part of city council – but it’s early days yet. Municipal departments are presenting their individual documents, which equate to about a 5.5 per cent hike on the tax levy.
It’s obvious, based on the rhetoric, city council won’t allow such a massive increase to impact taxpayers, so the real news will come when councillors begin voting to make cuts.
Those votes will come over the next few weeks.
Some initial news nuggets, though:
@ST:CORNWALL FIRE DEPARTMENT
@R:Union members with the fire service filled the council chambers last week as their chief, Rick McCullough, made what will be his final budget submission to council. He’s retiring later this year.
The union knew something was up, because the fire chief (pardon the pun) found himself on the proverbial hot seat, fielding questions about cuts to the department.
There is a growing sentiment around the council table that the costs of Cornwall’s emergency services are getting out of control. Police, fire and ambulance account for nearly half the city’s budget – which has likely cost us capital projects while we pay the salaries and benefits of officers, firefighters and paramedics.
There has been talk of keeping staffing within the fire department at current levels and not replacing four retirees.
Coun. Andre Rivette took it a step further and last week floated the idea of not filling the vacant deputy chief’s position.
My belief is the department should try one year without filling the four vacant firefighter spots (one per shift) and see if it saves us some money. Critics of such a move will argue that overtime costs will outstrip the salaries paid to the new firefighters, and that may be true.
But let’s try it for a year and see.
As for not filling the deputy’s job (right now platoon chiefs are delegated to the role when McCullough is unavailable, netting an eight per cent raise in the process) I think that is going too far.
With McCullough retiring, a new chief will need a shoulder to lean (cry?) on during the early days of his new mandate, and a deputy will fill that requirement.
@ST:SECOND STREET
@R:While administrators might not be willing to admit it, city councillors concede they’re hearing about that boneheaded move to reduce the lanes on Second Street East to two from four.
Traffic engineer Enrique Kamm told councillors last week he received a handful of complaints on the move – councillors claim they’ve heard a helluva lot more.
The tree-huggers will point to the fact that bicycle lanes were added to augment the dynamic livability of one of Cornwall’s busiest corridors (sarcasm fully intended), but the reality is the bicycle lanes are (at best) used by a smaller number of cyclists and (at worst) a hazard for both frustrated motorists and anyone on two wheels brave enough to use them.
Of course, not one bicycle has been seen on Second Street since the snow fell – but anyone who drives a car on Second has to suffer because of them via lengthy lines of stalled traffic…which makes me wonder about the effectiveness bicycle lanes in the winter, because the city has no mandate to keep them clear 12 months of the year for cyclists.
I wonder (hope?) some city councillors have the guts to make a motion to reverse this short-sighted decision. We’re not talking about major reconstruction – just repaint the lines.
I’ve got some free time…and a whack of paintbrushes in the garage.
@ST:HEAD COUNT
@R:How many employees is too much? We just might get an answer to that question.
The city’s HR department is preparing a report to determine if 700 people is fair for a city the size of Cornwall.
That’s how much it is estimated city hall employs, when one considers part-time people retained during the summer. The figure would be even higher if one were to include the police department.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the biggest employer in this city, might just be the city itself. And with collective agreements that mandate hefty salaries, benefits and time off (not to mention other perks) it’s pretty clear as to why the municipal budget can seem bloated at times.
Will the report result in anything substantive? Probably not. I have a hard time believing there will be a groundswell of support around the council table to institute layoffs – or even a hiring freeze.
In fact I would argue that the bigger job will be to convince critics that we are getting effective services for the tax money we spend.
Sometimes we do. But other times…see Second Street.
