Budget Committee - Finalizing 2009

Record-Breaking Breeze Through Budget

START: 8:30 AM
[Originally advertised as a 9 AM start, in a March 23, 2009 press release, Mayor Scarrow decided the previous evening that the earlier start time would apply.]

ABSENT: Councillor Swystun (ward 7). Councillor Williams arrived at 8:49 AM, Councillor Gervais at 9:30 AM.

PUBLIC GALLERY: Brian Clavier, Howard Georgeson (PA Police), Kelly Steinwand (PA Police).

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Mayor Scarrow noted that the Director of Finance was wearing “ballet shoes” instead of the traditional new shoes. He subsequently referred to them as “comfortable loafers”. He thanked the previous night’s presenters from different agencies [but not Brian Clavier], singling out the SPCA and expressing the hope that council could support its good work.

City Manager Cotterill outlined the day’s work, then summarized his 22-page report at bullet 1 of the six documents undeer General Fund, Operating Budget, at http://www.citypa.ca/CityHall/BudgetInformation/tabid/359/Default.aspx as follows:
- Provincial legislation requires that the city cannot run a deficit
- Community services equipment reserve is being combined with public works reserve
- Carry-forward project list from 2007 and 2008 was added to the 2009 list
- Leaving the mill rate at its current level, because this is a reassessment year, would bring in more tax money, but we are suggesting a mill rate decrease
- School mill rate change will result in an 8% reduction on the school portion of taxes
- Decrease to firefighter budget (one less person to be hired), will allow funding increase for SPCA.

Finance Director Day said the delay in getting documents out to council and public was due to the impact of the March 18 provincial budget. Dollar amounts in the budget are more important than the budget categorizations, and councillors will find some errors in the categorizations.

Mayor Scarrow said those wearing ties will gets 2 votes [meaning himself, and Councillors Matheson, Ring, and Zurakowski], and other councillors only one vote, then added “just kidding.”

City Manager Cotterill said there are no service reductions in the budget.

8:49 AM


CAPITAL BUDGET REVIEW

Item 1 - Councillor Ring asked about remediation costs in Cornerstone area. A meeting with the province is being held next week.

Item 6 - half-signal on 6th Ave/24th Street West [already installed]: Councillor Ring asked if it is really a category 1 [a legally-required] item.

Item 11 - Scarrow asked that all equipment being purchased consider E85 and biodiesel capability [although these two fuels are NOT available in Prince Albert] - a “green initiative in regards [sic] to our vehicles.” Councillor Zurakowski said this change will take 5 to 10 years, and he would like to the city to be the first in the province to do this.

Item 12 - snowmobile at Little Red River Park: Councillor Atkinson asked about the shared cost, and if there are Pehonan-Parkway-specific items. Community Services Director Zeeben replied “yes.”

Item 17 - recapping park pathways: Zurakowski asked if this includes neighbourhood walkways. Little Red is the focus this year, as access for handicapped has been requested. We will use some of the Pehonan Parkway reserve. Atkinson asked about changing the construction method, so these paths will last longer. Zeeben said yes. Cotterill added this will not be regular road surface, but it will last longer with another layer of asphalt.

Item 18 - capital requirements for city buildings: Councillor Matheson said we have too many city buildings (50), the capital requirements for them are “incredible,” we should decrease the city’s building assets. Atkinson said some should be divested, as they are not viable. He has not seen any study of the buildings’ utility; dispose of the older ones. Councillor Dionne has difficulty supporting repairs to buildings that the city should divest. Cotterill: one building has flip-flopped re its sale [the “judo building,” south of 28 St. West, on east side of 1st Avenue]. Zurakowski would like to see a for sale sign. [Scarrow tries to cut off discussion, saying “question.” He is unaware that the prerogatives of the chair do not include calling out “question.” He should have asked “Are you ready for the question?”] Matheson: can we review some of these later? Scarrow - yes.

Item 20 - tree pruning: Atkinson said that, now that we have it, the crew’s availability is an issue. How much work can be done? Zeeben - $40,000 covers 20 days’ work for the crew, and we could quadruple this easily.

Item 23 - traffic signals on 15th Ave. East & Muzzy Drive: Dionne asked where the half-signal removed from here will go. Public Works Director Innes - no location has been set yet.

Item 44 - paving program: Dionne is concerned the program is so large it may not be completed. Innes says he spoke to the contractors recently, this year’s projects will be done. Ring said local improvements to streets should be encouraged. Atkinson said many of these locations front on rental properties, whose owners aren’t interested. Ring - costs can be passed on to renters.

Item 50 - $10,000 for street banners: Councillor Williams - how much do they actually cost? Zeeben - 5400, the rest is for installation. Atkinson - where is the last set of summer banners? Zeeben - there were “catastrophic failures,” due to their large size. Atkinson - ask the community what they would like to see, since the previous ones were arbitrarily selected. Scarrow - a number of members of the community have input.

Item 54 - Rotary Trail: Zurakowski - what’s being done this year? Zeeben - land by the penitentiary. Dionne - is this coming from a reserve? Zeeben - the city’s portion is 15,900.

“Not Recommended” Projects

9:30 AM

1- 6th Ave. East & Marquis Rd: Ring - if we don’t spend the 225,000 indicated here, how are we keeping up with this intersection? Innes - potholes fixed, surface repairs.

2- Diefenbaker bridge embankment: Williams - what is the time line for action (painting and sanding)? Innes - inspections this year will update our needs, we need 3-5 years for completion. Williams - already pushed back to 2009, now to 2011. Scarrow - more Buildings Canada Fund intakes are coming.

6- 10th street width by Ecole Valois: Atkinson - complaints to bylaw enforcement get no result. Innes - snow does narrow the width considerably, options are to remove on-street parking (residents would not agree), rip up the boulevards. Getting buses out of the way has no easy solution. Atkinson - traffic calming would reduce traffic through there, and stop people from using this as an arterial. Accidents happen here. Scarrow suggested the city meet with the French school board; he uses this street before 7 AM to get to City Hall [instead of 15th Street and 1st Avenue East].

14- Westview drainage improvements: Ring - this is an ongoing issue on MacArthur Drive, near the school, basements are filling with water even with sump pumps. Innes- it will happen annually. Gervais - “berm and stuff” were made, but erosion creates a need for a permanent fix, and 10,000 is not too much. Ring - if 10,000 is what it takes, let’s put it into the capital budget. Innes - infill has been done, but not by the city; we have to make sure the drainage is properly done. [Dionne seconds this “motion.” Atkinson - no seconder is required.] Matheson - can we put it on the list? Scarrow - it’s not a city-made problem. Ring - we have already agreed to a $150,000 site remediation problem. Gervais - 6 or 7 homes ---- [abruptly cut off by Scarrow calling “question” - again . . . .]

17- west side landslide on riverbank: Williams - how severe is it? Innes - like the rerouting west of the city on highway 302, we have two layers sliding over each other. Ring - look at funding this through Pehonan Parkway. Innes - this is all city property.

20- salt/sand storage facility: Zurakowski - 200,000 for salt storage facility - is this a Coverall building? Innes - yes.

22- grading rear lanes: Zurakowski (on behalf of Swystun, who is “in a better place” right now - Hawaii) asked about current maintenance of back lanes. Innes- large graders cannot manoeuvre here, a small grader is borrowed now from Barezeele & Burkosky. Atkinson - do we have the workforce capacity to use the equipment?

23- fare boxes for buses: Scarrow says this was suggested by the transportation advisory committee, and will be coming to council in the next two meeting cycles. Dionne - does not want to see this coming back to council by another method than the budget process. [There is a long tradition of circumventing the budget process - used by council’s “majority” - either by giving “pre-budget approval” to an item, such as the police budget, or bringing an item back to council after the budget has been finalized . . . .]

28- “repair interior of exterior curling rink wall”: Ring - agreement with golf course has to be clarified. Zurakowski - what are the city’s responsibilities, and what are their responsibilities? The arrangement with the golf course has been referred to legal for review and report [it is highly unlikely the report will ever be made public]. Zeeben - repair walls at the same time as the roof, which is leaking. Item 31 deals with where city responsibility stops. Zurakowski - we repaired the Tee Room roof. Scarrow - council repaired that in error [????]. Dionne - meet with them, look at a loan to meet their needs, add to their fees for a round. Cotterill - curling is separate from golf.

31- repair roof of golf and curling club [see above]

32- spray park: Zurakowski - understood we had committed to building one per year. Cotterill - looking for another funding source, will know about this within two weeks.

33- defibrillators at community clubs and rinks: Williams - should be in the rinks, as recreational hockey players (25 to 75) are more susceptible to cardiac arrest, ambulance response in evenings is about 6 minutes. Dionne - Optimist club bought a unit for the Gateway mall; service clubs have not been approached. Gervais - we should be able to buy these, especially for community clubs. Williams - is there legislation in place to require these, since Regina rinks have them? Zeeben - legislation is far off. Williams - we should have them for the start of the next hockey season. Scarrow - if there is no donor by the end of June, the city will purchase these.

40- life of aluminum boards at Art Hauser: Williams - how much will this cost? Facilities Manager Brian Klashinsky - 30,000 to fix them this year, and can use un-spent grant money.

10:23 AM

Police Service Capital Project Submission

- ‘not recommended’ Draganfly mini-helicopter: Ring - is this a $20,000 reduction to the budget? Police Chief Dale McFee - we’re still researching this item.
- new officers added from provincial dollars: Ring - is this ongoing funding? McFee - these are sustainable, we now have fifteen funded by the province. Dionne - 29,000 was moved out of the police department’s capital budget last week.

2009 - 2013 Capital Projects

Finance Director Day - approval-in-principle sought now.

Costs to Maintain Levels of Service - no discussion

Financial Projects - no discussion

Police Service Submissions - no discussion.

MEEP projects [added to agenda, funded by province - see posting and documents for February 23, 2009 council meeting] - all approved by province

Capital Projects Carry-Forward List - Dionne: is there any money going into fiscal stabilization? Cotterill - putting in $250,000.


OPERATING BUDGET REVIEW

10:40 AM

City Manager Cotterill repeated that there are no changes to service levels. Dionne - any costs moving around? No.

Item 17 - costs of vandalism: Williams asked about Millar’s Hill light damage. Zeeben - this money is for this type of expense, and includes irrigation.

Item 66 - Kinsmen Arena baby changing table: Zurakowski doesn’t know how it will get in there. Zeeben - it’s attached to the wall.

Item 78 - washrooms on 2nd floor of Margo Fournier Centre: Zurakowski - we need to evaluate our needs, and any expenditures on this building, remembering that the field house will open in the next year. Gervais - this building is very well utilized, and we should do it. Dionne - we need a plan for what to do with it, since he had the impression that staff were moving up to the field house, and some uses are not “favoured” by downtown businesses. Atkinson - this is a $3900 item, in a $35 million budget - not a big deal. Zurakowski - at what point do we stop making repairs? Zeeben - the health department has asked us to get the washrooms up to a minimum standard.

Item 82 - bleachers at Margo Fournier gym: Zurakowski - same speech about spending money on a building that we need to review the need for. Scarrow - seniors are getting serious slivers.

Item 95 - fire services overtime staffing: Ring - reduce to $35,000 dollars, given Cotterill’s reference at the beginning of the meeting to a reduction from two to one new staff member. Williams - new member will get the fire department up to full complement? Fire Chief Les Karpluk - we will have full plus one. Cotterill - the new employee covers staffing due to sick leave absences.

Item 99 - SPCA grant increase: Ring - calculations of increase amount are needed. Cotterill - the two options are a per capita basis, which would give a $40,000 increase ($2.00 to 2.20 per person, versus $1.32), or a flat amount increase. Zurakowski is comfortable with a lump sum. Day - 2.20/person would add $75,000. Atkinson - SPCA should be funded on a per capita basis. Gervais agrees, and 2.20 is fair. Zurakowski wanted to revisit this item at the end of the day.

Item 103 - PA Art Gallery [at the Rawlinson Centre] funding shortfall: Dionne says, are we obliged to fund this? We have no financial statements and no report. He has lots of questions. Zeeben has a financial report, which shows an $11,000 shortfall (related to salaries), funding comes from the Arts Board. They have “jumped over” their funder, which cannot support the $11,000 overage, to council. Cotterill - we can approve this, and subsequently require a report. Day - is payment being approved, pending approval of a report? Yes. Atkinson - Arts Board loss was about $100,000 in 2008. Is the Arts Board lacking capacity to fund the Art Gallery, and do we have 2008 Arts Board financials? Ring - the Art Gallery request is paid through the Arts Board, which does not hold back funds to the Gallery. Atkinson has never seen a direct request from the Art Gallery in all his time on council. Zeeben - there wasn’t time for a separate agreement with the city. Dionne - are measures in place to prevent a request like this in 2010? Scarrow says a majority of the Gallery’s funds is grants.

Item 106 - funding for 100th anniversary of golf course/Mid-Amateur tournament. Ring - not sure this is an external agency. We can underwrite some of these costs through in-kind. Dionne - 50,000 request went down to 45,836 the previous evening. Zeeben - some smaller organizations are asking for money under the same policy [http://www.citypa.ca/Portals/0/PDF2/Policies/CommunityServices/Major%20Event%20Policy.pdf] He recommends giving the full 50,000. Ring - we need to find a way to sustain this type of funding. Atkinson - funds needed to be allocated annually; the other 5000 may be insufficient for other organizations. The 100th anniversary donor wall was reduced, the history book eliminated, but there is less than a $5000 reduction in their request, so the city’s portion of the total is actually larger. Zeeben - goal with the policy is to give organizations a 2-year timeframe, to allow better costing of these events. Ring - forward policy to tourism and marketing. Scarrow - this may be a bottomless pit. Day suggests 45,800 for this event, the remaining 4200 for other events.

The Police Service $9,979,210 operating budget was approved with no comment.

11:28 AM Break for lunch.

[The meeting re-convened at 12:00 PM, and ended at 12:45 PM, but I was unable to attend that 45-minute final session.
A record for brevity in the annual review of the city’s budget was established - one made possible by the Mayor repeatedly and abruptly cutting off discussion.
The operating budget for the City of Saskatoon was approved by their council on April 20, 2009.]