2013 Budget

So what does everyone think of the Budget that was voted on last nite?Seems they still don’t get it…no lay-offs…what part of going broke don’t they get?

Apparently they were able to work out a 150,000 reduction with CUPE workers, without lay-offs…though the details of what was said between the city and CUPE was behind closed doors and will not be made public to PR taxpayers.

The tax increase was reduced from 2% to 1.5%, so that should make everyone happy…but they drew down a lot ($500,000+) from the accumulated surplus, which is never good to see, especially when that portion of the shortfall should have been coming from CityWest and NOT being spent by them in the Terrace/Kitimat area at the expense of Prince Rupert taxpayers.

What CUPE put forward wasn’t revealed so we don’t know if they offered any concessions (likely not) or if they just proposed a new option cobbled out of the other three, along with maybe some efficiency suggestions. All we know is the tax increase was reduced and more will be taken from surplus.
Why couldn’t the union proposal be revealed? It affects every citizen. It is not just a “labor confidentiality” matter, as the mayor tap danced. The union changes to the city budget should be made public.
I don’t think the difference between 1.5 and 2 % is that big to homeowners - the large drawdown on surplus, on the other hand, could have serious consequences next year - at least, according to Mr. Rodin.
Interesting. The union is now drawing up the city budget. This bodes well for when it comes time for a new contract; they’ll just draw it up themselves and an obedient council will sign off on it. Nice.

Firstly, unions do not just “write their own contract”, it is negotiated just like all other unions. Secondly, if a decision is made by a union to offer suggestions, thats what it is “offering suggestions”, and any decision made by a union must be accepted by the membership.

The subject of where mayor and council “fail”, c’mon people - those that came to the municipal election voted for the mayor and council, right? Those that voted chose who they believed to best represent the City…give them a break already.

This city is so full of negativity! It is pretty hard to make everyone here in Rupert happy. I liked the public forum and how people that stood and said something, that’s right, people that attended stood up rather than hiding in hackingthemainframe to make comments such as what I am reading today. What one member of the public said is if you live beyond your means, your are making the wrong decisions and things have to change. So the public forum and those residents that stood up said look, make a change. The union stood up and said make a change.

Thats all I gotta say.

[quote=“drummerboy”]What CUPE put forward wasn’t revealed so we don’t know if they offered any concessions (likely not) or if they just proposed a new option cobbled out of the other three, along with maybe some efficiency suggestions. All we know is the tax increase was reduced and more will be taken from surplus.
Why couldn’t the union proposal be revealed? It affects every citizen. It is not just a “labor confidentiality” matter, as the mayor tap danced… [/quote]

The council’s plan to reduce expenses by $150,000 should be disclosed, regardless of whether the suggestions came from the union or from others. There is no reason not to disclose it.

By law “plans that relate to the management of personnel or the adminstration of a public body” are disclosable to the public once implemented, and disclosing information about the “position, functions or remuneration as an officer, employee or member of a public body” is not an unreasonable invasion of privacy (see sections 17 and 23 of FIPPA).

Sure there is a lot of negativity here, but I think some of that is brought on by a failure or refusal by local government to be more open and transparent. There was a public meeting, which is good, but the budget decision came out of a closed meeting, the details of which have not been made known. Public funds and services are involved; people have a right to know.

As for the content of the budget decision, the Mayor’s comments in the latest Black Press article suggest that he is apprehensive:

““I am concerned. There is a whole lot of blind faith and a lot of good intentions here… I am very concerned if we don’t get there or part of the way there [to the savings], next year could be tighter for us,” he said, alluding to three contracts to be negotiated next year, potential utility increases and a half-million-dollar draw down on the surplus.” < thenorthernview.com/news/206872371.html >

Outgoing CFO Dan Rodin and his staff prepared a 16 page report that is a fine piece of work and model of how open government should work. The plan lays out three options and assesses the pros and cons of each option (this article provides an overview and a link: < northcoastreview.blogspot.ca/201 … ublic.html ).

But instead the council has adopted a fourth option, but how they got there and the details and implications are not clear. From what the Mayor says, what the council passed has risks. If he is concerned, we should be concerned.