Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Budget Update Staffing and Overtime

Now the not so good news:

I have spoke about this before, being a public service our number one cost is staff.

Our cost of wages, salaries and benefits have increased by 43% over the last seven years during those same seven years our cost of living has risen 15%.

Last budget meeting administration presented a package that includes the following new positions:

Manager of Planning                         $137,000
Community Peace Officer                 $29,195
Community Services Casual              $11,600
Community Services Student            $11,059
Planning Clerk                                   $53,601
Operations Casual (2)                        $108,546

The additions above will increase our payroll from $5.7 million to $6.1 million, unless I am totally misreading the opinions of the taxpayers I do not see an appetite to increase taxes by 6% to finance additional municipal staffing.

I agree with Councilor Kovach's comments in today's Pass Herald we totally rebuilt our administrative team which as not even been in place for nine months. We need the benefit of more time to determine the strengths and the weaknesses of this organization.

I also took the similar position to Councilor Kovach that if we need new positions we need to find the savings within the organization to pay for them.

Not for one moment do I believe that council should be micro managing the organization, we do not have the expertise to determine what positions are required and which are not. But the responsibility council does have is to approve or not the amount of dollars that we expect the taxpayers to fork out.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

43% in 7 years. That is phenomenal. Can't believe it.

You guys have been in for over a year now. You should definitely have a handle on everything.

Anonymous said...

Quote from todays Calgary Herald from Robin Campbell on how the province is dealing with its finances.

Their input will help the government fine-tune its forecasts, Campbell said.

He cautioned that sustained low oil prices will have an impact on government coffers, since every $1 drop in the price of oil costs the province $215 million in royalty revenue. To offset the impact, the government needs to focus on reducing costs and cutting waste, he said.

Dean take the advice.

Anonymous said...

Why is it that you all get seduced into building a bigger better government as you sit around the table? There is no assurance that the strip mine will come in or that the economy will improve. As the last Mayor and Council did -- build it and they will come-- we again just have to build up the administration and support staff without a way to pay for it. Lesson not learned.

If things do improve, well we will have to catch up, but we won't have to lay off the underlings at the expense of the high priced managers, or tax the people to death if things get worse.

Give your heads a shake, boys and girls, when the province starts cutting back on $$ input, just how are we going to pay for what we now have, let alone new expenditures.

Anonymous said...

I thought the population in Crowsnest Pass is decreasing, why is that we need more administrative staff to serve a diminishing population?

Anonymous said...

The Crowsnest Pass is not the proverbial "Fields of Dreams" this is real life there is no "build it and they will come".
If the coal mine happens it will be great. But the municipality can not ramp up it's infrastructure based on the premises that it will happen.
Look at what happened in Fort Macleod with the Policing Academy, lucky for them they had the province to fall back on. If we proceed based on the proposed coal mine will they pay for that infrastructure if things do not work out?
Do only what we can afford isn't that what you guys campaigned on?

Anonymous said...

As a former Municipal employee, the Municipality has been significantly understaffed for years (in fact I'd say over a decade). The staff that work there right now, work their asses off which means it's hard to motive and detain staff. The Muni is on it's 4th development officer in 2 years.

Anonymous said...

6:46PM. Maybe so but are you referring to the outside staff or the inside staff? The inside staff is getting disproportionate to the outside staff. It is the overall cost and future financial commitment to the taxpayer that has to be considered as we ramp up the administration and management once again.

The population decreases while the local government increases in size and overall cost, without regard for how to pay for it. I hope that Dean and others remember their promises and complaints about the old regime. Perhaps, the Doc and the way he ran the place in the old days wasn't that bad after all?

TransparencyCNP said...

"Not for one moment do I believe that council should be micro managing the organization, we do not have the expertise to determine what positions are required and which are not."

Then why are there so many in camera -"Personnel" items in the minutes (eg. the ACP grant)?

According to the document you cited "a discussion regarding the employment of an individual should be held in-camera" but "Discussions regarding the hiring of additional municipal staff and or the setting of salary ranges." should not be in camera.

Anonymous said...

We do not need any more staff. Every other level of government is looking for ways to become more efficient. We are just looking for ways to become larger. Nuts.

Anonymous said...

Not one more dollar in taxes for additional staff. I pay enough in taxes live within your means. I hope all of our councilors remember their election promises.