Core Review Work Plan Approved
Prince George, B.C.- The work plan for the Core review of the City of Prince George’s expenses, services and revenue streams, has been approved by Council.
Councillor Garth Frizzell had some issues he wanted addressed. He wanted to ensure the costs incurred by the Core Review Committee would not come from the funds set aside to be shared by all other Committees of the City.
While he made a motion to that effect |( because the Core Review has a budget of $350 thousand dollars) there was no one to second that motion so the motion failed.
He asked that there be a regular reporting out of the expenses incurred by the Committee. Mayor Shari Green said it would be her committment that costs would be reported to Council on a regular basis.
Councillor Albert Koehler said the detail being requested by Councillor Frizzell "Would be micro-managing" the work of the Committee. Councillor Koehler is a member of the Core Review Committee.
The outline has a contract being undertaken in April and results with recommendations and the corresponding financial implications, presented to Council in September.
The Committee ( made up of the Mayor, and three Councillors) will not only approve the Request for Proposals document, but will also review the proposals and select the winning bid.
The workplan also suggests it would be the Committee which would “complete the draft for review” and “present the recommendations” to Council.
The Committee’s meetings will be open to the public.
Comments
Does it pay extra money to be appointed to one of these committee’s ? Yes, no .
No, this is part of their prescribed duties.
Sorry folks, but I just don’t buy into this “Core Review”, to me it’s nothing more then politics on a stick: It’s convenient for the Mayor in creating a perception that she is actually a guardian of the tax payers money, all be it, it’s costing us $350,000 dollars. It’s good for a few bites to keep Green in the news. But in the end the tax payer gets the stick, as they are stuck with the bill!
BTW – I heard this morning on the news, that Mayor Green wants the participation of the City staff for this “Core Review” – such a noble gesture – but what happened last week with the elimination of city jobs (9 active and 19 or so non-active)? Was it a personal vendetta by Mayor and the green machine that elected her? Something hokey here!
Mr Bates has told us that the review will cost $350,000.00 now that they have washed this amount out in the public how much will the review actually cost?
The bids will probably come in at more then the amount we have been told.
Just wondering.
Cheers
If this review is done properly and the final report is acted upon and does not end up collecting dust on a shelf in Derek Bates office, it can have real and measurable results.
An outside eye can often see gaps and inefficiencies in process that employees do not because “we have always done it that way” or ” that’s how I was shown”
IMO the major downfall of this is that it will not include the two biggest expenses for city hall, police and fire protection. Does this mean that those two services are doing everything perfect? I think not. But I guess you have to start somewhere.
Here is an example of what Penticton has done:
[url]http://pentictontaxwatch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Core_Services_Review-Detailed-20101017.pdf/url]
and the draft implementation report:
http://www.lgma.ca/assets/Programs~and~Events/Conference/2011~Conference/Speaker~Presentations/Doug%20Leahy%20-%20BALANCING%20A%20BUDGET%20WITHOUT%20RAISING%20TAXES.pdf
http://pentictontaxwatch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Core_Services_Review-Detailed-20101017.pdf
So much for transparency and accountability. The mayor’s hand picked group of politicans now takes over control of not only reviewing but awarding a major contract. Why even have senior management? Why even have nine members of council?
Also nice that they mention they want to include members of City staff, maybe eveyone will also holds hands and sing songs. It’s just political spin and the media eat it up. Realitically how many staff are likely to participate in an exercise that at its core is about cutting staff and contracting out. Yesh.
“The mayor’s hand picked group of politicans now takes over control of not only reviewing but awarding a major contract. Why even have senior management?”
1. Major contracts are always awarded by Council. Recommendations come to Council from Administration, but Council makes the decision whether to go with the recommendation.
2. It is Council which has ordered the service review. It is their project. It is they who will have control of how it is to be conducted. It should not be in the control of administration. This is, in a large part, a review of how the operations side of City Hall works. Better still would be a totally external audit of both City Council and City operations by a provincial municipal auditing authority.
Could our city possibly put a large book in the lobby with all the receipts for this study stapled inside for all to see? Would be interesting to know who got most of our hard earned tax dollars.
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