During its committee-of-the-whole meeting Dec. 8, council questioned the inclusion of four new positions in the municipality鈥檚 proposed 2016 operating budget and asked the operations director and director of protective services to justify the need for additional staff in their departments.
In the proposed budget, which is calling for a 5.6 per cent tax increase, the operations department is requesting the creation of three new positions鈥攁n accounts payable clerk, utilities manager and maintenance worker鈥攁s well as the reorganization of its department to include three managers, rather than two; the protective services department is requesting a second deputy fire chief, expanding its department to include three full time employees.
While discussing the proposed budget, councillors focussed on the new positions, which account for an additional $298,000 in salaries and benefits.
鈥淢y concern is,鈥� said Mayor Richard Ireland, 鈥渙nce we add a new position, it never disappears, and although we won鈥檛 see an increase in next year鈥檚 budget, the taxpayers feel that increase forever.鈥�
The three proposed positions for the operations department equate to an annual budgetary increase of about $232,000 for salaries and benefits, while the additional deputy fire chief would account for about $66,000.
Council was particularly interested in the new accounts payable clerk. Currently, the operations department shares a clerk with the finance department and has its managers fulfill some of the clerk鈥檚 tasks.
Bruce Thompson, director of operations, explained that having the managers sit behind a desk inputting invoices isn鈥檛 the best use of their time. To illustrate the need for more staff, during the public budget meetings last week, Thompson presented a photo depicting stacks of work orders to show the backlog of work that needs to be completed.
Ireland acknowledged the backlog, but questioned whether鈥攐nce that backlog is taken care of鈥攖he additional position would be necessary.
鈥淚f we found a way to attack the backlog, once that鈥檚 cleared, is there a possibility that the payables clerk could be less than full time or combined with the payables clerk in administration, for a cost savings?鈥�
In response, Thompson suggested there will always be more than enough work to keep that clerk busy.
鈥淭he day to day, week to week, incoming invoices will exist for perpetuity,鈥� he said, noting that it's an involved job. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 just putting account codes into an invoice and sending it off to finance, there鈥檚 a lot more background, data collection and asset management tracking that we do outside of that.鈥�
In support of Thompson鈥檚 request, Mark Fercho, chief administrative officer, explained that, when he began working with the municipality in 2014, this was one of the major interdepartmental issues he identified.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something that needs to be fixed at some point because it鈥檚 never worked as far back as I can see,鈥� he said.
As well as making the operations department more efficient, having a second payables clerk would also free up time for the clerk in the finance department to help with grant writing and other tasks, said Natasha Malenchak, director of finance.
Council will vote on the 2016 operating budget at its Dec. 15 meeting.
Judging by previous years, council will likely wait for year-end numbers to come in before it makes a final decision, instead passing an interim budget to allow administration to continue business as usual in the meantime.
If approved by council, the proposed operating budget would include a 5.6 per cent tax increase. For a property assessed at $750,000 that increase would equate to a $117.52 tax hike, bringing the homeowner鈥檚 annual municipal tax bill to $2,216.07.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
