My Take on the City's 2011 Prelim Budget Meeting

As you all will recall - the City of Williams Lake held its 2011 Preliminary Budget Meeting with the public last Thursday.  See my blog post on it here and see the City's take on it here

A reminder - Shaw Cable Channel 10 is now broadcasting the Budget Presentation and the significant portion of the Q&A Session and no, I don't have specific broadcast times. 

Unfortunately - the Q&A Session relating to Woodland Drive Water/Sewer can not be broadcasted to "technical issues"

3 major themes came up:

1) Station House Gallery

Both former Williams Lake Mayor Scott Nelson and local "Council-watcher" Elke Reiner raised concerns about the City share for this project going up in a short time (60 days) and the fact where the new Station House Gallery is going (Royal Bank overflow parking lot) is to be a long-term lease (20 years) and the lease has not yet been negotiated and specifics for this project will not be dealt with until after Victoria rules on the City's application on a "Towns for Tomorrow" grant ($375,000) for this project is confirmed.  See the City Staff on this project in January here.  Given the aforementioned City Staff report on this project does not lay out why other sites were not considered, the public raising concerns about this project and the fact that Councillor Barr and City Staff apparently do not see eye-to-eye on this project - this project should be shelved until 2012 until a new Council is in place and they decide if the project is worthy to move forward on as all costs should have been confirmed prior to inclusion in the City's 2011 Preliminary Budget.  As Ms. Reiner states - the Station House Gallery has not offered any money towards this project, and City taxpayers' do not have money to go and rescue everybody who cries poverty.  Also - the City previously moved a "Towns for Tomorrow" Grant from the TDC (Tourism Discovery Center) to the old Fire Hall to assist in building the City's new "Central Cariboo Arts Center".  I wonder - if the City (Mayor Cook or Councillor Bourdon or City Staff) approached the local Chamber of Commerce to see if they still wanted to renovate the TDC Basement to assist with costs to operate the TDC?  If not - the question I have is -- why not?

2) New Fire Hall Budget Overruns

As most will see on TV and read in the local newspapers this week - former Mayor Scott Nelson raised some serious concerns with this project.  Mr. Nelson quoted from a November 13th City of WL Staff report, which you can find here.  Mr. Nelson and City CAO Brian Carruthers clearly did not see eye-to-eye on how much the budget overrun for the new Fire Hall is.  The City's official line is - Fire Hall Budget was $6.5 million - final cost of $7,023,000 equals $523,000 budget overrun while Mr. Nelson quoting from a November 13th, 2008 City Staff report authored by the City's Fire Chief Randy Isfeld says $6.3 million fire hall budget - final cost of $7,023,000 equals $723,000 budget overrun.  I suspect this will likely become one of the campaign issues as we inch towards November's municipal election.  The election of the City's next Mayor will be based, in part, on who's story is more credible and resonates more with City taxpayers'

3) Indoor Turf Facility

A question was asked with regard to no City debt incurred in 2011 mean a Indoor Turf Facility was being abandoned.  The City CAO clarified that any money used with regard to moving forward on the Indoor Turf Facility file is funded via the CRD's Central Cariboo Recreation Function which decision on spending from this Function is made by the Central Cariboo Joint Committee - made up of all of WL Council + CRD Directors' for Area 'D', 'E' and 'F'.  A RFP or Request For Proposals for an Indoor Turf Facility is out right now and when the RFP comes back - Joint Committee will make decisions on the future direction as to a local Indoor Turf Facility.  Mayor Cook stated no decision has been made by the Joint Committee as to whether or not to borrow funds for a Indoor Turf Facility and how public assent will be achieved

Final Analysis:

In my humble opinion - it appeared at this meeting that both City Staff, the City Mayor and two Councillors (Tom Barr/Surinder Rathor) were not on the same page for the City's 2011 Budget and when you are presenting a Budget (a Municipal Council's most senior Policy), you can not afford to have "the left hand" (Staff) and the "right hand" (Mayor/Council) not talking to each other before the presentation.  It's imperative that on a Budget - Mayor/Council and Staff speak with "one voice" and deliver key messages resulting from a City Budget.  Case in point - when the CRD presents its' Budget at their "Town Halls" in Jan/Feb - you never see CRD Directors'/Staff clarifying each other.  They both know their roles and they do it well.  As well, the City (Council/Staff) should really get away from a message of "this Budget is final - deal with it" to one of "we truly welcome your input and it will find its' way into the final budget numbers"

Also - people need to start asking why 10 people have left City Hall over the last 26 months or 1 person leaving every 2.6 months - is it new opportunities, environment at City Hall, etc?  I believe that these are fair questions to ask, given the exodus of City Hall staff leaving 450 Mart St during this term of Williams Lake Council. 

Also - responding to a question from Kari Gertzen on development of Wal-Mart and the re-alignment of South Lakeside Drive/Hodgson Rd for the new Fire Hall, the City's CAO said and I quote:

"Spin it any way you want"

As one who pays his salary - I truly regret him saying that and I hope he takes sometime to consider that statement and try not to get "goaded" into a "tit-for-tat" war with the public in the future.  This point was especially true when responding to a question from Ms. Reiner over Woodland Drive Water/Sewer. 

Finally - to quote Scott Nelson (from Welcome to Williams Lake):

"In the past two years there has been close to a million dollars in over-runs and in three City staff being let go.  There has been a lot of debate about this: how much did it really cost and who  authorized the increase in the contingency?"

I agree 100% with this statement however expect the City (Council/Staff) to stay with their message of $523,000 for the Fire Hall Budget overrun.  Time will tell as to whose message resonates more with City taxpayers - Mr. Nelson or Mayor Cook/CAO Carruthers