By Thia James

POLL: Expect a minor tax increase in 2014: Mayor

Dec 30, 2013 | 5:39 AM

In a single word, Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne described his first calendar year in office.

“Forward,” he said.

It’s been more than a year since Dionne was first elected, and a little more than 11 months after he delivered his first State of the City address in January. On Dec. 23, Dionne said this year, city council moved a lot of things the councillors said they would, forward.

“We moved forward our very successful paving program for 2013. We moved forward to make the commission, the police commission run by civilians over politicians. We’ve moved forward in communicating to the public. I thought we’ve done a lot better job at that. We’ve moved forward in making positive staff changes. We’ve moved forward in changing the attitude at City Hall from a taxpayer to being more customer-service friendly. And we’re going to continue that trend of moving forward into 2014.”

The city will continue to pave more roads in 2014, which will be funded by the $189 added onto the base tax earlier this year. Taxes will increase, but not for asphalt, Dionne said.

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“There will be a tax increase this year, and it should be a small one.”

As for the 2014 budget, council vowed to go through the base budget line by line. Dionne said they have already completed this process. In the past, they had only reviewed the asks that were in addition to the base budget, and not the base budget itself.

He said this year members of council have taken part in seven or eight meetings where they’ve gone through each department’s budget line by line. “And now we have a handle on the level of service that we supply. And we have to decide whether we want to keep that level or move forward, and so that’s what we’re going to review now in the next step.”

The base budget review took place during strategic planning meetings that were held in camera – or behind closed doors.

“But we had all the staff and everything there, as we went through them, because we’re going to make some personnel decisions, and other decisions on service, which people will start … hearing the announcements in January.”

The personnel decisions, he said, could mean staffing additions.

“I don’t see any cuts coming, because … our city grows. But I know in some departments, we’re a little short-staffed. So, we have to look at shoring them up and to help moving our program forward in 2014.”

While the departments’ staffing levels are still under review, he said they already realize that financial services and the information technology departments need the most help. Dionne said these two departments are important because they put together the city’s budget.

“We want to see quarterly reporting on our budget, which we haven’t had in the past. But I think it’s important that if you’re working and responsible for the money, you have to see how it’s spent quarterly, just not wait until the year end.”

The dates for the 2014 budget deliberations will have to wait until after Jan. 2 when Jim Toye joins City Hall as the new city manager. But in January, a new motion will be introduced that would call for future budgets to be done and approved by council the first meeting in December.

Dionne said the city will be starting its work on budgets in September, so they can be approved in December, so when January begins, approved budgets are in place. “And our staff can go to work,” he said.

New year, new announcements to look forward to

In January, the city will be announcing the 2014 list of streets it intends to pave, as well as the 2014 proposed budget. Dionne said he thinks residents will be “pleasantly surprised” at how low the proposed increase is.

“I think our economic action program is going to have some major announcements in regards to economic development in the region,” he added.

As for whether he forsees another “legacy” item in 2014 that would be like the paving program, Dionne said that determination is up to Prince Albert residents.

“But I’m quite sure there will be something.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames