LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "YOU WERE ASKING": 

What? No outside consultation or study? You mean that this decision didn't cost us a dime? 

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 4 November 2015 at 21:22

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This tale began during the 2003/6 term of Council.  A decision to create an Environmental Advisory Committee of five members was made.  Eleven applications were received. All were appointed.Eleven agendas. Eleven sets of minutes.

Public Works Director was staff resource to the committee along with secretariat. Among others,a Public health nurse from the region attends  every meeting. Never participates. 

First  recommendation from the committee was environmental engineer added to staff complement. 

First Budget of 2006/10 term, noted $100,000. salary and set-up for environmental  engineer. 

Function to attend committee meetings  and  "identify " environmental initiatives. 

At the time, it cost thirty thousand to equip a staff with paraphernalia  necessary. Not to mention space. 

BTW The town has to pay annual license fees for WAMS operators. 

WAMS  was the $440,000 software program purchased in November 2011... Remember?Two years later it still wasn't up and running and cost was still  rising. 

Every year, at budget time,like a child writing to Santa,  I enquired of environmental initiatives identified. The Director of Public Works was first in a procession, out the door in that term, replaced  with someone from the Region. Job title changed to Infrastructure and Environmental Services. 

The snow melt treatment facility appeared in the Capital Construction Budget in an amount of  $750,000. At some point thereafter $287, 000 was forked out  for a design. 

With the new term and council, budget for the item increased to a million. I'm relying on memory so don't hold me to those figures exactly. 

 Deferrals were as noted previously.   The  night the Joint Facility contract was awarded, the 

snow melt treatment facility contract also came forward for award.

Finally, a majority turned it down.  

Yes indeedy, to answer your question. There  were costs. 

Annually  increasing salary for an environmental engineer. 

$278,000 for a design never utilised. 

I have no idea how the engineer's  time has  been occupied during all those years.It would be entirely unfair to suggest it wasn't. But now you know how  and why the job materialized.

And how a decision was not made by Council over three separate terms of Council. 

Reams of paper, miles of verbiage, thousands of kilowatts of energy burned with pollution added to the atmosphere and hundreds of hours of  executive and secretariat time to produce reports for Council.  Read and signed  by Director and CAO every time. 

Agendas sometimes number hundreds pages with thirty copies prepared for every meeting. 

I swear some publishing companies might have smaller output. All of it ending  up shredded  and re- cycled.

All the while gums flap about ways and means of cutting down pollution and protecting the earth for the future of our children. 

As a corollary,  it seems the role of Council has   become more of social convenor in the over-all scheme of things.

Like most other public institutions, it is more about people employed than people served.