Budget Time is nearly over, Last Chance to wake up and smell the Coffee
Ron Bolin: April 24, 2013
The 2013 budget and the 2013-2017 Financial Plan must be finalized under provincial legislation by May 15. The budget, the only document which truly feeds the political process in Nanaimo, has again come to a close with no real fundamental examination by the politicians who we have elected to look after our collective municipal welfare. A previous attempt to raise the subject by Councillor Bestwick was defeated. But, mirabile dictu, last night another attempt was put forward by Councillors Bestwick, Kipp and McKay to set parameters on the 2013 spending put forward by City Staff. This came in the form of specific Departmental budget and other reductions which, if everything were included adds up to over $4 million dollars and would not only eliminate the 2013 tax increase, it would also reduce the $18+ million dollar borrowing which is also included in the 2013 budget. (At roughly $800,000 per one percent of property tax, this borrowing represents a 22% tax increase, not counting the interest. We have truly kicked the can down the road… again …
The outcome at last night’s submission was to cause the first three readings of the Financial Plan Amendment Bylaw and the Tax Rates Bylaw to be postponed. This will require a special unscheduled meeting of Council to get to the March 15 deadline. More importantly it will give one more meeting open to the public to discuss the Budget and the specific recommendations for budget reductions which came forward last night –or may yet come forward. Some public focus on the runaway train of municipal spending which has characterized the last few years is required. It will be interesting to see the debate which will take place around the budget suggestions. These were not discussed at Monday’s meeting as they modified the agenda schedule.
This year the budget, as it sits, sets increases in property taxes of 1.9% for commercial properties and 2.9% for residential properties even though the 2012 Consumer Price Index increased by only 1% for Victoria, the only island city for which this report is available from BC Stats. Again, as has been a consistent pattern, this increase is two to three times the increase in the cost of living and, I suspect, two to three times the income increase for most of our citizens. We are not alone in this situation. MacCleans Magazine has just published a very provocative article in its latest issue which can be found at http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/04/15/the-new-upper-class/ on the runaway train in public spending. While Nanaimo’s City Manager loves to state that Nanaimo’s finances are to be found in the middle of the municipal pack in BC, this is small comfort if the pack which we find ourselves at the centre of is a pack of lemmings all surging to go over a fiscal cliff.
On Council or COW nights, at lease ‘til this budget is finally adopted, I hope you can come on down to the VICC, or watch these meetings on Channel 4, or on the City web site for the last gasps of our tax dollars as they leave our pockets and fly into those at City Hall. And then we need to gear up for 2014. (By the way, the tax increase proposed for 2014 is 4.2% for everybody and we are set to borrow another $12 million.) Oh yeah, and the 2013 fees for Water go up by 7.5%, Sewer rates increase by 5% and Garbage rates are up by 3.9%, and if Council proceeds to a hotel deal and a multiplex, we will not only be out direct asset values of the gifted properties, but with lost property taxes over a 10 year period and subsidies to the businesses –all owned by millionaires- which will run them.) Put on your seatbelts Nanaimo. We’re in for a bumpy ride.
Posts and Comments on Nanaimo Governance 
So Ron, what can we do to help this process?
Brendan:
Here are a few, though the list could go on into more details. I suspect that you have some ideas of your own. I would be interested to hear them.
1) Ask all our candidates for MLA for their views on the Community Charter. This document which converted our municipal governments into untrammeled corporations with their unfettered hands in our pockets has caused local governments to imagine themselves, to our sorrow, as captains of industry rather than civil servants. It has also led to a complete dependence on lawyers for interpretations of the Charter. Not many citizens have the wherewithal to do this, especially as it is our tax money which the corporation spends against us. We have provided funds to Councils for legal opinions on their possible conflicts of interest. Where are the funds for citizens to obtain funds for settling legislative issues? The Community Charter will celebrate its 10 year anniversary next year. It badly needs an overhaul.
2) Pay attention. We need ideas on how to inform the public about what is going on at City all quicker and easier. I have wondered it there is not a possibility of software development which could parse Council Agendas (and minutes) for significant issues, amounts spent, bylaws up for action, vote counts, etc. and zap this to citizens via facebook or other social tool. It can be done by hand but the patience needed is beyond most of us, especially given the egregiously short time between agendas and meetings. This might be up your alley and I would be interested in discussing it some time if you are so inclined.
3) I continue to beat the drum for one or more local political parties which could at least provide a roll for grass roots in Nanaimo. As it stands we have the unions funding elections on the one hand and the developers on the other with very little in between. Parties could a) vet candidates; b) raise money for elections, research and possible legal questions; c) provide some offset to the overwhelming influence of City Staff; and d) provide some corrective pressure when their candidates go off into the woods on their own. While this is not immediately available the next election is less than a year and a half away and the next budget is only about 5 months away if we are to get Council into their proper roll in managing policies and procedures.
I look forward to your ideas.
At the May 6 Meeting of Council, in going over the budget reduction elements suggested by Messrs. Bestwick, Kipp and McKay, there was a reduction made in the budget of some $54,000. This represents a budget reduction of 0.0314 of one percent of the budget. It was enough, however, to put off the scheduled three readings of the budget and thus required another meeting to be scheduled for this Thursday, May 9, first set for 7pm in the Board Room at the new SARC building which has no video hookup, but, I am told, was later set for 7pm in the VICC where Council Meetings are normally held. This will provide another opportunity for discussion of the budget which might rival that on Monday, which proved the most provocative of this budget year. Feelings about the budget process which have bobbed above the surface for some time became more clear.
Perhaps this will set the pattern for an early visitation of policy and procedure for the next budget year which might hopefully be set by January 1, 2014, thus avoiding the embarrassment uncovered on Monday since one suggested reduction could not be made due to the fact that, despite the budget not yet being passed, 90% of the expenditure had already been made. Why have an annual budget?
A further matter of concern arose when Staff proclaimed that on proposed reduction of $250,000 could not be used to reduce taxes as legislation prescribed the use of money obtained by the sale of City Assets. What Staff failed to point out, quite negligently in my opinion, was that it is a simple matter to use such money for a project which is allowed and use the money saved there to reduce taxes. Line items in a budget are discretionary to a fairly wide extent, otherwise a budget would strangle operations.
When I looked at the City’s web site this evening, notice of the Thursday meeting and its agenda had not yet been posted. This must be done at least 24 hours in advance.
Along with the budget on Monday there was extensive discussion of the Colliery Dam issue which, after the air was cleared by the engineering firms who worked on the studies, noted that the figure needed to rebuild both dams was only about 1/3 of the cost which City Staff bruited about over the past months. This is another case where one is left to wonder about the motives behind Staff’s inflated cost estimates.
Mondays meeting last 5 hours, from 4:30pm to 9:30pm, with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. It is well worth the time to review parts of it if you are at all interested in Nanaimo issues and in the way Council and individual Councillors deal with them. Unfortunately as of this writing, the video which was produced using some new technology has some technical problems which mitigate the ability to move around in the video by issue. This will hopefully be remedied tomorrow.
The budget is the heart and the soul of City operations. Citizens ignore it at their peril -as they have over the past decade or more when tax increase have continually risen by a multiple of the cost of living and by a remuneration factor well above that received by most Nanaimo taxpayers. Council, for example, received another raise of 8% this year. Watch Council and COW meetings to see if you think they are earning it.
The notice and agenda for tomorrow’s Special Council Meeting are now posted on line. To see the agenda go to:
Click to access SOC130509A.pdf
Unless, as is often the case, some last minute items are added to the agenda tomorrow, the meeting will be concentrated on the Penultimate approval of the budget, ie. the first three readings, as amended by decisions made at Monday’s meeting. This will also be the penultimate occasion for comments on the budget from the public and any questions arising from the budget. Pay close attention as this will be the guide for the coming year.
It will also be the time to take into account all of the difficulties faced in addressing this years budget and plan which were prepared by Staff without guidance from Council. As was noted, the time to set the policy and procedure for next year’s budget is now.
By the way, what has happened to our recently hired Manager of Legislative Services? Ms. Samra came to us with high qualifications for the job, including legal training. It has been rumoured that she has been dismissed for insubordination in refusing to carry out orders which she considered to be ultra vires, She has been among the missing for some time. Why has this vacuum not been explained. Do we find ourselves involved in another suit for illegitimate dismissal as we apparently did in one way or anther with Mr. Berry and Ms. Cudahy? Where is the scorecard? We can’t keep track of the players without a scorecard…
Tonight at the Special Council Meeting occasioned by Councillor Greves” last minute reduction of $54,000 from the Parks and Recreation budget, Council held its fastest meeting in my memory, giving the obligatory first three readings to the final budget and financial plan as well as to the mil rates for 2013 in about ten minutes. This, of course, follows the record making 5 hour meeting on Monday and proved a replay of the budget voting pattern of the gang of five who apparently never met a spending recommendation from Staff which they did not support versus the gang of three which are apparently under the impression that there are limits to spending. Which gang will prevail in the 2014 budget discussions which the savers hope to start soon so as to have a budget approved before the new budget year starts remains to be seen.