BUDGET DELIBERATIONS 2011

They decided that it would be a mix of minimum taxes, with single-family houses paying $100 per home, residential condos paying $100, multi-residential properties paying $35 per unit and commercial properties paying a minimum tax on a sliding scale between $300-$3,000.

In addition, there is expected to be a tax increase of 3.25 per cent.

The intent is to raise the money necessary to pay for the approximately $41.4 million budget as well as put away approximately $1 million into reserves.

The tax scheme was agreed in princple, but will still need to be tweaked by administration and approved by council.

3:40 p.m. Council approves the final budget report

After day of deliberations, the city has approved its budget for 2011.

The city approved its capital budget for total of $4,810,000 and its operating budget for a total of $36,673,700.

In total, the city had reduced its costs between now and January by $1.65 million.

The debate now is how the city will tax the population to achieve these numbers.

3:25 p.m. Last minute recommendations

Before final numbers could be tallied, councillors were given an opportunity to ask for consideration of certain items once more.

Coun. Ted Zurakowski said he wanted funding to be provided for a spray park in the Crescent Heights area at a cost of about $150,000.

“We have, certainly, philosophically committed ourselves to put recreational facilities in places where they don’t exist,” he said.

“I’d just like council to give it a bit of second thought. These are very important recreation facilities in our city.”

Council voted to reconsider the park, but then the debate over whether or not to include it in the budget began.

Coun. Lee Atkinson said it wasn’t fair to pay for the facility in Crescent Heights over other areas when there was clearly a need throughout the city.

“There are very few city operated park facilities but there is not a commonality of equity of city facilities that are being provided for by the taxpayer’s dollars in some of our wards,” he said.

Coun. Greg Dionne said it could very well be needed, but it simply wasn’t the time.

“We have no study we have no backing on why it should be there… at the end of the day it has to be needs and I’m glad to see it go to category 6 (meaning it was not recommended) because we’re in a tough budget year,” he said.

In the end however, it was defeated.

3:02 p.m. External agency funding approved

Council approved the funding for external agencies with a total of $2,636,270, but it was different from the original proposal at the beginning of the year.

Council withheld almost $200,000 from several external agencies under the premise that they had not yet provided financial states, or were currently in negotiations with the city for other agreements and discussing funding was not appropriate.

In particular, the city withheld about $175,000 in funding from the Prince Albert District Planning Commission, the Community Service Centre and the SPCA.

“Where there are public funds being spent there is an expectation and requirement for total transparency.”

2:25 p.m. Police service budget approved

The budget committee has approved the Prince Albert Police Service's budget at $12,528,110 a 7.7 per cent increases over 2010.

The service reduced what they're asking for by $50,000 after in camera discussions with the city.

2:07 p.m. Fire service budget approved

Council approved the fire service’s $5,225,620 budget.

Council agreed with administration’s decision to not approve funding for an additional fire fighter, resulting in a savings of approximately $63,000.

2:03 p.m. Public works budgets passed

Council approved budgets for the city’s public works department’s administration, street maintenance, traffic and parking lots, and transit budgets for a total of $4,572,740.

There were several issues that came up since it there were several categories of funding.

Coun. Greg Dionne said he unhappy that a West Hill geotechnical investigation had not been recommended to be included in the budget.

“We should do this testing to find out what’s actually going wrong and why our streets are decaying. The problem in the west hill continues to grow and we have ground issues there … so I’m wondering why it ended up in Category six (items not recommended),” he said.

City manager Robert Cotterill said it was just a matter of prioritization.

“It comes down to that there’s many things I’d like to do, but just can’t afford it,” he said.

Council voted to move the issue to an in camera discussion.

1:49 p.m. Community Services Recreation budget approved

Council voted in favour of the department’s $1,661,160 recreation budget, which included an additional $168,620 since the delay in January.

As well, council approved the Social Development budget at a cost of $69,160.

1:42 p.m. Community Services parks budget approved

Council approved the community service departments parks operating budget valued at $1367,690, which was $4,620 above from the original number given earlier in the year.

Mayor Jim Scarrow also wanted to approve $10,000 for lamp-post banners that denoted the seasons.

“I think that beautification of the city is one of the things that the citizens expect and visitors would get a different view of the city when it’s in full display of its flowers and its trees … and banners are a part of that whole package,” he said.

Coun. Atkinson wasn’t in favour of the idea. He suggested groups should pay or contribute to banners that would advertise various events instead of just generic seasonal signage.

“This is all about decorations. In a tough budget year I have to ask myself, can we afford to decorate? This is discretionary spending and I don’t think it should be in the budget,” he said.

In the end council did not vote in favour of adding the banners.

1:21 p.m. Councillors want more preventative maintenance, denied

Community Services brought forward several budget items, totaling about $678,000 that were not recommended to be passed but councillors questioned that logic.

Coun. Charlene Miller questioned why the city wouldn’t want to add a two-person preventative maintenance team at a cost of $131,000.

“I think this would be a really good thing to prevent things from going wrong in our facilities,” she said.

Councillor Lee Atkinson asked why the city hadn’t provided approximately $546,000 for preventative maintenance when they were obviously needed to keep facilities from falling apart.

Community Services director Greg Zeeben said it was just a matter of getting the funding.

“It would be due to the fact that we have never been provided the budget money, we’ve been bringing it forward for the past five years,” Zeeben said.

In the end, council did not approve the addition funding for the department.

1:14 p.m. City passes Community services facility operating budget

Council approved the city's operating budget for a total of $2,531,210. There was no debate.

That figure included about $143,000 in additional spending since the budget had first been delayed.

Of that $143,000 about $86,000 was for wages and $23,000 was for additional cost of power.

1:12 p.m. City passes financial services operating budget.

Council approved the city’s financial service department for a total of $2,181,850.

This figure was different from the initial number provided to council earlier in the year. It contained $251,950 in additional expenses from one-time expenses and $99,000 in savings from reducing two positions in the previous months.

Coun. Atkinson brought up concerns with extra parking staff because the city’s administration estimated the position would be paid through revenues generated from the tickets.

Council ended up deferring the addition of an extra staff for report from the finance department.

In the end council, approved the budget as is at a total of $2,181,850.

However, Coun. Darren Whitehead said he was unhappy that a position had been cut in the months leading up to budget.

He asked city finance manager Joe Day how the department would fair without it. Day replied they would work it out.

“We had to make a tough decision as to whether we could make some savings as regards to positions. We felt that we could do some of those duties… without a significant loss in efficiencies or getting our work done. It may limit some of our ability to do projects and that sort of thing,” said Day.

“We still hope that we have the ability to do those projects with casual clerks but we’re going to try to make due without that position.”

Council agreed they would discuss the matter in camera since it was a labour issue and vote on it once more at the end of the day.

12:55 p.m. City resumes after lunch with operating budget

Budget deliberations have begun after the lunch break and will tackle the city’s operating budget.

So far they’ve approved a few items from difference departments as follows:

City Manager’s office: $1,131,320
Corporate Services: $1,824,030
Economic Development: $471,940

11:54 a.m. Final tally of capital budget approved

The city finished the morning by approving the total for the city's capital budget.

It was passed at $4,810,000, which was only about $25,000 above what was originally planned

11:51 a.m. Council approves $900,000 for fleet replacement

Council approved a budget from the city’s community services and public works departments for fleet replacement valued at about $900,000.

Included in that figure was a $190,000 aerial bucket truck, $80,000 for two tractors, and $140,000 for a sanding truck.

Council debated the logic of purchasing three riding mowers at a cost of $57,000.

Coun. Atkinson said residents had been complaining about the high frequency of grass cutting.

“The most common I have relative to the public is why do we do it so frequently. We seem to be doing it to perpetuity in some parts… it’s rare that you don’t see a lawn cutting out there,” Atkinson said .

“Maybe if we decreased that frequency we wouldn’t have such high wear and tear of those vehicles.”

Community Services director Greg Zeeben said it wasn’t a matter of aesthetics so much as a matter of safety.

“If we do it on a less regular schedules, it will get longer, it will build up and become a problem,” said Zeeben, saying that the fire department had responded to approximately 108 grass fire situations.

In the end it was approved.

11:32 a.m. Fire services budget approved

Council approved an $87,000 fire services budget as well as $260,000 of external funding.

The $260,000 was provided from the province to pay for a portion of the cost of architectural drawings for a new fire hall.

Fire chief Les Karpluk said plans would be coming forward for a new hall off of Muzzy Drive, with a cost of about $1 million.

The remaineder of the funding would go towards vehicle and equipment replacement.

11:14 a.m. Traffic and Parking Lots budget approved

Council approved the $45,000 capital budget for traffic and parking lots after denying a $90,000 cross walk for 15th Street and Fourth Avenue West.

Public works had suggested creating a crosswalk to provide safety for school children and other pedestrians.

But councillors were unsure it would be successful.

“In most cases, pedestrians in this city take their life in their hands by using crosswalks … because most drivers in this city don’t stop for pedestrians using our crosswalks,” he said.

“I think we’re just asking for further problems and perhaps fatalities of people who use that and think they’re safe.”

Coun. Martin Ring agreed saying if anything, it should be a completely controlled intersection with traffic lights.

“This might have to be an intersection that is fully lit, coming all directions,” said Ring.

Councillors said they ultimately didn’t want to make a decision without a traffic study. In the end it was left out.

Councillor Darren Whitehead said he really wanted lights to be installed on 31st Street East and Fifth Avenue at a cost of $20,000.

It was approved and added to the budget.

10:58 a.m. Council approves street maintenance budget

Council approves $2.02 million for roadway recapping, as well as $500,000, which came from external sources, for “whitecapping” or concrete replacement.

Council also debated whether or not the city should add an additional $1 million to the road recapping project.

Coun. Charlene Miller made a motion to deny the extra funding.

Coun. Lee Atkinson said it was probably a good idea to consider the additional funds.

“Postponing this is going to cost us more later and the condition road is going to deteriorate further,” Atkinson said.

Director of Public Works, Colin Innes, clarified the city’s road situation.

“Unfortunately, even though we are putting substantial resources into it we’re also accumulating a very large backlog,” he said.

He reminded council that the city had a backlog of almost $50 million for road work.

Mayor Jim Scarrow said he didn’t want to jump to a conclusion of additional funding, especially when it was for an additional $1 million.

“All council would like us to spend more money on roads… but I’d like to invest money in a study where we really need to be in the next five or ten years with our road,” he said.

Innes said the city conducted constant reviews of roadways and they could be provided and Coun. Greg Dionne said more studies simply weren’t needed.

Coun. Martin Ring said $1 million was just too large of an ask.

“It’s on everybody’s mind. We’re not making any headway on this. $1 million? That’s a 5 per cent jump right there in what we’re looking for as far as property taxes on one item alone,” he said.

“I’m not saying this isn’t important, I agree we’ve fallen behind but we’ve fallen behind on other projects as well.”

“This is why we need provincial, federal, funding on infrastructure,” Scarrow said .

Coun. Ted Zurakowski said, with such a large increase needed caution.

“Don’t be tempted in throwing a lot of money at it and thinking it’s going to solve the problem,” he said.

In the end council did not vote in favour of the additional funding.

10:17 a.m. Council approves public works administration budget

Council approved the public works department's administration capital budget. It includes $75,000 for mobile radio equipment and some remediation for sites around the city.

As well, after some discussion, council decided to include an additional $70,000 to allow for the department to create a structure to house the city's road salt reserves, with the intent of reducing loss from rain and any subsequent environmental damage.

10:10 a.m. Council approves parks budget

Council passes community service’s park projects budget with $56,000 worth of projects for parks in the city.

Included in the budget is work on the Discus Cage and replacement of a scoreboard in Veteran’s Field.

But, councillors wanted work on Kinsmen Park’s trails to be included.

“We want to encourage an all access park and this section is the problematic part of the trail,” said Counc. Cheryl Ring.

“We’ve got to step forward because it isn’t accessible now,” said Counc. Darren Whitehead.

Councillor Greg Dionne agreed.

“It’s not just one section of Kinsmen Park. To me $25,000 to be used to repair one of our premier parks… it’s one of our showpieces and I don’t understand why we’re nitpicking $25,000,” Dionne said.

In the end council agreed to include $25,000 for pathway reconstruction, which city financial manager Joe Day said would allow the repair of about 420 metres of pathway.

9:55 a.m. Community Services facilities budget passed.

Council passed its community service facilities budget for a total $236,000. Many projects weren’t included such as roof replacements to historical projects, elevator replacement for the City Hall and replacing the HVAC system at the Golf & Curling club.

“If we keep postponing these repairs especially for a heritage building, it's going to increase our costs exponentially,” Coun. Cheryl Ring said.

Coun. Darren Whitehead said he thought City Hall should make replacing its elevator a priority.

Community Services director Greg Zeeben agreed.

“We don't have an option other than carrying people up the stairs and down,” he said.

Despite councillors' concerns, the department’s facility budget was passed without them

9:45 a.m. Corporate Services capital budget passed.

Council accepted the city's corporate service department's capital budget with a cost of around $133,000. It includes photocopier for police, computer replacements and WiFi in the City Hall, which caused debate amongst councillors but passed anyway.

9:30 a.m. Budget starts off with pragmatic warning

City Manager Robert Cotterill started off the meeting by telling council that he and administration had worked out a plan that would see a realistically small tax increase of about 5.95 per cent.

In order to accommodate that increase, Cotterill said savings would have to be found. He said would take the form of decreases from the police service’s budget, city staff travel and also changes in taxation.

He said how the current budget process had progressed was creating some concerns for himself and the staff.

“I’m concerned and the staff are very concerned about our future,” he said.

“There are some expenditures coming towards us that we have no built into any of budgets.”

He said the biggest concerns were infrastructure costs. In particular he said the city was spending an average of $2.4 million on roadways but needed to spend at least $1 million more.

As well said the administration was expecting a report that would show significant investment would be needed for the city’s bridges in the near future.

adesouza@panow.com

by paNOW Staff

BUDGET DELIBERATIONS 2011

9:30 a.m. Budget starts off with pragmatic warning

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