Budget Update for 2014 from Saturday March 22
2014 Salaries and Wages 3% Increase
Employee Benefits 5% Increase
Insurance Costs 12% Increase
Assessment Base total 2.1% drop
Market values actually dropped 3.6%
But there was 1.5% of new growth
Taxes and Fees
Franchise Fees Zero Increase
Property Tax 3% Increase
Utilities 5% Increase
Positions
CPO reduced to one position as of May 1
New position of Manager of Corporate Affairs
(Primary duties HR)
Equipment
Equipment Purchases (3) Light duty Trucks $96,000
Wheel Loader (1) $175,000
Sidewalk Maintenance Machine (1) $141,000
Infrastructure Upgrades
Frank Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade-New Clarifier
Cost $5,000,000 Grants $3,327,500 Debt $1,672,500
Sentinel Water Treatment Plant Operational Upgrade
Cost $495,000 Grants $152,000 Debt $343,000
SCADA Upgrades Cost $797,500 Grants $797,500
Bellevue Hillcrest Lagoons-Swamp Drain Restoration
Cost $575,000 Grants $575,000
Wastewater Collection Systems Video Inspection
Cost $39,500 Grants $39,500
Next Budget Meeting March 28 1 pm in Council Chambers
15 comments:
What's a sidewalk maintenance machine, is that to keep the sidewalks clean, or to repair them? Just curious. (As far as I'm concerned, both are needed!)
why the decision to keep one CPO?
When the previous council was hiring all of the new people in the office you complained steadily about it. Now is your opportunity to do something about it.
I don't see where we have reduced the Administration staff at the top, so what have we gained? Shuffled a few titles and duties and an human resources person who may be needed to fix the relations with the outside crew. Now watch for pruning at the lower levels as we keep the top dogs who needed these lower tiers to justify their high salary.
About time for a situation report from the Mayor and council.
Just an update:
First of all the budget is not finalized.
Having said that I can tell you this budget will not be based on the concept of keeping taxes low (2-3%) but grab another $400,000 a year from the taxpayers by playing around with Franchise Fees.
The CPO program cost us almost $200,000 last year, (far cry from paying for itself).
We have already made our administration more efficient by moving the duties of the Ski Hill manager under the realm of the Director of Community Services (Savings of $61,000 per year).
More to come
Dean, why not move one of the light duty CPO trucks into the new light truck purchase program?
Thanks for your update. The ski hill move is a good start but so far it appears that the chairs are merely being shuffled on the deck of the Titanic.
We will see who gets into the life boats, and whether the employment contracts are set, whether the present administration stays ( which makes a lot of the ratepayers arguments moot), or if there is some rationalizing to our administration.
Yes, you inherited the problem but let's also see if some tough decisions are made to balance the administration and service sections of the muni. Good luck. You'll need someone to operate those fancy machines we are buying.
3:22
Your last paragraph, your right it is a fine balance between admin and the service sector.
One of the problems we are dealing with right now is we have not had a functioning Director with a long term vested interest in moving our two largest departments forward. (Since November) we have to be careful to not jump and make drastic changes before we have the people in place to run those departments.
Their input will be critical to the future structure of the organization.
The fancy machines we are "buying" at this point those are just recommendations I think we will be debating those over the next couple of meetings. Also in the case of the wheel loader that purchase will result in one of our 1980's era machines be taken out of circulation. So it will not be an increase to our fleet numbers.
Thanks again, Dean. A "long term vested interest" is what we really need here. A few of the previous Directors, etc were looking for a paid transfer south before they headed to jobs elsewhere or went out to pasture. Look forward to the finished product.
It is important to continually renew the fleet/machines on a rotating basis lest we get stuck with a pile of junk or get hit with a wholesale refit. Tongue in cheek comment.
Dean, I like the spring clean up idea,but no bins in Bellevue or Frank???
The only reason I stated Hillcrest, Blairmore, Coleman was because we could locate the bins at town shops in those area's. There is no reason we couldn't look at Bellevue/Frank we just have to pick a location.
Just stating we are not locked into any locations at this point. The motion was just so it would be allowed for in the budget.
Thanks Dean
I hope we reduce the number of directors in the town office. There is no reason rec and facilities should not report to the director of public works. Too many fiefdoms for a small place.
Disagree 12:25
Public Works can't even oversee the entire maintenance of the parks, green spaces, its facilities or our streets .. Let alone the administration of fcss, rec programs and staff. Get Real! Wrong century thinking! Who's going to do all the rest?
Good April Fools joke.
The latest Free Press shows nothing but tax increases and user fees...what gives? I thought this council was supposed to be different?
There can be a lower level rec. manager who reports to the director of public works. There is a high turnover position anyway. This is this century thinking . Everywhere you go, everyone does more with less. This is called productivity. There is no need of so many directors in a town under 6,000 residents.
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