Another budget meeting last night. Learned something . Yes indeedy. Us oldies can learn new stuff.
If we can do it when younger, we can do it when we are older as well. Maybe easier..Basic knowledge and understanding tends to expand with great age.
Of course, if aptitude was absent in youth, it won't likely magically appear in old age. That's just a sad fact of reality.
Last night we talked about a process for each to bring forward a list of items in the draft budget that could be struck from the budget without missing a beat.
In times past, budget estimates were a forecast of what might be required . It was not automatic approval for spending. Other than maintaining operations spending still required Council authority.
At the last Economic Development Committee a matter gave me pause.
The committee was asked to endorse a project requiring services of a contract person at a cost of $20,000 for six months work, with possibility to morph into full-time employment.
The Statistics Initiatives Manager advised the program was approved in 2009. He noted there is authority for staff to spend $20,000 without Council approval.
Last night I brought up the issue. There are items of $10,000 in the draft budget I do not support. I noted the CAO has independent authority to spend up to $50,000 and the directors have authority up to $30,000.
It seems, according to the Municipal Act, if an item was approved in a previous budget,staff have the authority to spend half the cost.
There's one for the books.
I see no benefit to taxpayers of a $10,000 membership in some cockamamie Institute for Excellence : $10,000 to the Smart Commute program:. $8,000, for a Platinum Award, a paper certificate in a frame, presented by the Chamber of Commerce, to a local business just for surviving, does not warm the cockles of my heart.
If the majority of Council share the view, we will move to strike these items and others from this budget by a Council with a year's experience under their belts.
Despite Council's determination, it could be, half the money could have already been handed over. by staff.
I'm not saying it has happened. I'm not saying these three items are all that should come out of the budget. I simply point out a change in my understanding of the process.Even as I note it, I do not believe there's intent to deny Council.'s authority.
Still, there it is. A staff person informed me. Staff have the authority.
Methinks this matter deserves attention.
We discovered something else last night. Purpose of the region's wholesale water rate increase is to create a reserve for infrastructure repairs and replacement.
So we pay a 10% increases for water every year from 2010 until 2015, to reduce the tax burden for repairs and replacement that might be needed twenty years from now.
The scary thing is not that we are paying people to sit around in front of computers, pulling off statistics from which to form conclusions twenty years ahead of time and make recommendations to elected bodies
Like that Professor McDiarmid fellow from York University.
But the real horror is holus bolus acceptance of the holus bolus modern concept that it is a fair and equitable concept of taxation.
i like the sound of pulling contentious items for further thought and work. Any idea who came up with that concept ?
ReplyDeleteStill going to have to watch the staff spending but I believe the Councilors are starting to understand that they must watch what both hands are doing in the Town Hall. Hopeful signs that acknowledge that taxpayers questions will not be directed at staff but at sitting councilors.
What pray tell is a Statistics Initiative Manager? Does this imply that statistics are managed, i.e. manipulated? Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat when there was no rabbit there before. Or not a hat either?
ReplyDeleteA program that was approved by a rogue council three years ago and never implemented, i.e. cash not yet spent, does not provide automatic approval now. Maybe it should never have been approved in the first place?
It is one thing for senior staff to have authority. Do they have the corresponding responsibility and accountability for their expenditure of taxpayer dollars? Are they just doing their job or going well beyond its description? Are they ever reprimanded?
The budget should be reviewed on a line item basis once it has received a preliminary first draft. The first question that should be asked is: "From where will the funds come, i.e. whose pocket?"
Would striking an item require simple majority or is there a higher bar set in place ? Does it sound to you as though this might actually come to be ?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the questions but this sounds new and maybe even good.