Council To Receive Core Review Update
Monday, September 10, 2012 @ 4:26 AM
Prince George, B.C- The latest update on the Core Review will be presented to Prince George City Council this evening. The report says phase 3 is complete, the online survey generated 2,049 responses and 620 written comments and the public workshop involved 75 people.
The update also indicates an initial list of “opportunities for change” has been identified, and the next phase will see those opportunities prioritized. Once the “opportunities” have been given a priority ranking, there will be another round of consultation workshops with management, staff, the community and the Select Committee on the Core review before developing the final report which will be presented to Council at the end of October.
But there is a movement that is sending a message to City Hall about what services the public wants to continue. There are 99 petition cards that have been filed with the City requesting that the Four Seasons Pool remain a publicly funded facility. There have been rumours the closure of this pool is one of the cost saving “opportunities” that will be presented. There has also been talk the pool could end up being operated under the banner of the YMCA.
There are a further 97 petition cards that have been submitted which call on the City to stop making cuts to services because “residents want clean, safe, well –kept parks”. That petition is in direct response to the reduction in the parks department.
So far, the bill for the Core review has hit $228,513.81
Comments
Leave it to opinion 250 to print rumours. How about just printing the news. if we want rumours and gossip we can go down to the hair salon.
This is just electronic graffiti…..
soxmalone
Looks to me like the information is taken from the city website. Hardly gossip if coming straight from the horses mouth.
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/mayorcouncil/councilagendasminutes/agendas/2012/2012_09_10/index.html
Don’t read it then soxmalone.
“there will be another round of consultation workshops with management, staff, the community and the Select Committee on the Core review “
The opinions of management and staff should be taken with a grain of salt….they are the ones that got us in the current mess and as a result now need the core review to get our heads back above water.
The review should have been an outside set of eyes looking at the practices and processes at city hall, find ways to streamline and eliminate waste. City employees will only try to justify wasteful ways.
I too think including rumours is not helpful. I know this is new media but some old journalistic standards still hold true, like having credible sources that can verify the actual facts.
On the other side I think a little spin is at work when they say 2,000 or so responses were received. If you look at the KPMG report they have totaled all the responses for each service area. One could easily suggest that only a few hundred responded as most likely gave feedback in more than one area.
A good piece of journalism would be to try and find out why only a few hundred citizens are participating in the most expensive study on service reductions the city has ever undertaken.
It is becoming clear that the special interest groups that funded the mayors campaign are likely driving this agenda in anticipation of taking over public services so they can line their pockets with our taxpayer dollars.
It is one thing to believe in privatization of all public services and quite another to spend close to $350,000 of our hard earned tax dollars for an expensive study all in an attempt to justify what was already likely decided behind closed doors.
This entire project is nothing but means for the City management to hide behind. Had they done their work we would not need a core review. The swiming pool is probably not the only City owned facil;ity that will be on the auction block.
Cheers
People in Prince George have to come to grips with reality.
The fact of the matter is the City is broke or awful close to it. How do you expect to continue with the same level or more services, if you do not have any money????
At this point in time the only way the City can generate more revenue is to increase taxes. Raising taxes will not be well received by most taxpayers.
Our infrastructure debt is out of control. We managed to get a little extra paving this year, however there will be no money available for extra paving next year.
We need to cut costs. The vested interest groups will all give you good arguments for keeping their pet projects whether it be swimming pools, skating rinks, art galleries, parks, etc; etc;, however they have absolutely no idea where they can get the money to maintain it all.
When a City is looking at selling off some of its assets, like pools, arenas, civic centre, etc; you can rest assured that this is being done because the City is becoming insolvent.
Soooooooo. Time to grow up and face the reality. No more taxes, and get rid of the frills, and some of the high paid help, and get this City back to the basics.
This whole situation is a result of the past 15/20 years of uncontrolled borrowing and spending by City Hall. We through electing politicians who were not very fiscally responsible are also responsible ourselves.
Whining and sniveling will not solve these problems. If you want roads, sewer, water, garbage, etc; then its time to get away from the BS projects, and start to trim the fat.
Its a sickness all levels of government are slowly going broks.The fededrals, the provincial, and our nubicipal are in hawk up to their ears. It part of the culture.
Staff at Cith Hall need a core reveiw in an on going bnases and untll that happens the ship will probably sink. They just cant seem to stop dreaming.
Cheers
Its all about privatization IMO. Look at all the opportunities passed to become fiscally responsible just since the last election. They are gaming the system to create a straw man to privatize key public assets is all this is about… and we are paying for them to do it.
Reminds me of the situation in the USA. Banksters colluded with US Fed and the regulators to create a massive housing bubble profiting all the way up… then when the ponzi bubble burst banksters get the bailout and the home owners get the foreclosure notice… fast forward a few years and now we have quantitative easing where the fed prints money to lend at ever lower interest rates in the name of stimulus… next step will be inflation and rising interest rates to contain it, which in effect will enslave the economy and the American government to the US Fed and its bankster minions… everything will be for sale at fire sale prices. Its all part of the assault on our democratic societies by banksters that will privatize anything that has secure monopolistic revenue.
IMO the core review is substituting the work our elected politicians are paid to do and providing cover for the worst kind of politics.
Just like Retired 02 said under the Road Repair issue, five guys and five pieces of equipment sitting idle, watching one guy work. That sort of efficiency simple doesn’t work but that’s the way unions and management work these days.
I am no fan of the insider politics at play at city hall but I am not sure what you have been sniffin Palopou. The City is neither broke or close to it.
The City is there to provide local services and it finances them either through taxes or through user fees. Pretty simply. They also are required by law to balance their budget every year which they do (unlike other levels of government that can run deficits). By law they are also not allowed to charge more than it costs to provide those services. So like it or not, unless user fees go through the roof, taxes are here to stay.
If you take the time to look at the financial statements the city publishes every year, you’ll see that there isn’t a major financial crisis (even though some politicians will try to convince you otherwise). Sure there are challenges, there always has been and always will be. But when you look at the financial information available through the provincial website that compares every community in the province, pg shapes up as good or better than most.
IMO mayor greene and her council aren’t considering slashing services and contracting out because there is no other choice, they are simply applying their radical right political beliefs while trying to line the pockets of special interest groups that now have a firm grip on city hall. This mayor is even making former mayor kingsley look like a lefty.
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