As Of Wednesday The Mayor Is Only 15.88 Percent Off the Mark
Friday, November 16, 2012 @ 3:44 AM
The Core review may have stroked off the list the matter of you having your driveway ploughed out during the winter but if City Hall accepts the recommendations from the acting city manager, you’re still going to pay a whole lot more.
Just as management did last year, they are again suggesting that we need to put more money in the road rehabilitation budget.
You may recall management asked for an increase in road rehab but it was an election year and the incumbent councillors didn’t want that tax increase on the table. So this year they are asking for $800,000 more to do the job. It called "catch up we hope you will forget" and by the way it shows as a special line item on your tax bill.
Are my ears ringing or wasn’t it the new Mayor who said lst year, that if she was elected she would find 10% savings in every department? She also I might add was in favour of the purchase of the PG hotel and the airspace above the Commonwealth parking lot, both of which cost the taxpayers of the city about $4 million and counting.
So the Committee of the Whole is telling Council ( same people just different rules) not to boost the snow levy, because that is being shifted off the tax bill on to your utility bill where it will be lumped in as "snow, ice and storm water management". But making the switch, and setting up that new "utility" is expected to cost up to $600 thousand dollars, which is about $140 thousand more than was proposed to be added to the snow levy.
So with status quo expenditures, which include a boost to road rehabilitation, the City will need to collect an additional 5.88% through taxation. At this count Mayor Green is out about 15.88% of where she said we would be.
The silver lining in the proposals from the management at city hall is that in 2014, (the next civic election year) the request for additional funds will drop to 5.66%, and you can almost bet your last dollar that will be trimmed some more .
We needed to get our snow budget in line last year and we also needed to get on with our road repair, the election wiped that out and now we find ourselves trying to play catch up.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s’ opinion.
Comments
What a disappointment our mayor is. The council is making decisions for the future of our city that they are not qualified to make.
Green has only been in for a year. Seriously, does anyone realistically expect everything to have been fixed in a year?
Until they start firing people nothing will change.
Our mayor is a joke and I knew that before she got in. Fetterly would bot be doing this to us!!
10% savings in every department……who exactly believed that comment to begin with.
Was Sheri Green going to break union contracts? No, I sincerely doubt it. Did she have a magic wand to be able to melt snow or fill in potholes with one wave of the wand……please, I wish she did but this is the reality.
Ok, she’s our Mayor now sow not much can be done until the next election. I think we should just move on and try and actually fix this town. If it means a little more money needs to be given to get it done then let’s do it.
Isn’t everybody tired of bouncing in and out of potholes and looking at a dirty city???????
“Green has only been in for a year. Seriously, does anyone realistically expect everything to have been fixed in a year?”
I do. Green was on Council for three years prior to becoming mayor. She should have known what was wrong and the extent of it. She still has only one vote. She knew that as well going into the election. Her actions since she has gone in as Mayor are indicators that she does not know how to fix this. She has taken one wrong turn after another.
Let’s face it. We lost Councillors like Art Stauble some time ago. Even recent Councillors such as Don Zurowski and Cliff Dezell – although the last two mentioned were there when figures should have shown that this City was not running a sustainable operation and was going further and further into hawk â were better than any one of the people on Council now.
Who has been in charge of the money recently? Soltis. Why did she not raise the alarm bells sooner? Did Bates not allow her to?
Who is the culprit? Who do we have to get rid of to solve the problem?
I hope the Mayor bought cancellation insurance on those tickets to China. Who in their right mind would spend $35,000 at times like this. If Shari Green cannot figure out that we can’t afford to go to China On a useless trip this is the same way she will run our city’s budgets. Scary scary. Lead by example Mayor and council.
If it wasn’t for the glorified city mega projects like the so called energy system, PG hotel purchase, winter games, RCMP building, downtown land purchases, river road and dike proposal there would be ample money available for road and infrastructure improvement.
Amazing how other cities like Quesnel can have the curbs clean, road side flowers, and the grass cut yet PG looks like dump when you drive into the city from any direction. Crime capital, out of control council, polluted air, taxpayer funded mega projects, downtown land purchases. Raising taxes 6% is just a band-aid solution and does not address the core issue of out of control spending by city hall.
I do not know who ever started applying the philosophy to do the impossible, running this City on a shoestring. But whoever it was, made a wrong turn some time ago and we are paying for it now because those who followed also did not understand what was happening. And if it was not because they did not understand it but because it was being hidden from them, who was it that did that.
Why was a City like Quesnel able to see this looming infrastructure shortfall in 2005 or 2006 and start doing something about it and we were not able to do that? Was the mysterious Terasen deal that one hears various versions of considered to be our infrastructure savings?
“Lead by example Mayor and council.”
They are.
The example they are setting is that their pet projects are going on, no matter what.
I cannot wait to see the expense report on this trip to China when they return. What portion of $35,000 will spent on scotch and wine? Maybe Wilbur Hall and Green will be voting another raise for themselves so they can cover the expense.
This is the system we live in! We have tough decisions to make, but people don’t want to here them! Just keep taking the path of least resistance (credit) and wait for the magic pill that will never come!
I don’t lay this all at Mayor Green’s feet, but she has contributed to the problems we face today.
Like axman said above, until some hard decisions are made (which will likely anger a lot of people), nothing will change.
We have to get to the point where we’re sustainable. We’re not even close to that. The City needs to re-focus its priorities and greatly simplify its operation.
“Are my ears ringing or wasnât it the new Mayor who said lst year, that if she was elected she would find 10% savings in every department?”
This is before the realization that we can’t run up the City credit card forever. That reality has hit home after those vague promises were made.
Why was IPG not looked in the core review?Huge savings there.
Since I bought my first home 4 years ago, my utility bills have doubled. Looks like it will barely be another 4 years before it doubles again. Is it only now, that 96 years after its inception, the City has finally realized they haven’t been charging enough for their services? Shame on all previous Councils for putting off these costs increases and leaving it all to drop on homeowners during the peak of Canadian personal and public debt. Shame on so many of our councillors for dropping millions on big-ticket items when our basic services weren’t being taken care of. What a joke our politicians are. I’m starting to feel like we don’t even need them. Enjoy your trip to China Sherri. I’ll be here working overtime to save up for the next utility bill (and the $1200 vehicle repair bill that came from the roads this year).
What doesn’t get mentioned here is some of the blame rests with us and the system. We all complain that taxes are too high but never want “our” services cut. And we wonder why politicians pander to that bizarre belief that you can have both.
The “system” is also set up so that every election someone running for council simply has to say “I have the magic pill – elect me and I will fix things and ensure you get lower taxes and the same or better services.”
Like a bunch of puppy dogs we lap it up. That reality was never more evident than one year ago.
The Mayor and Council have made a decision to send all the money from the sale of lands in Prince George, such as Pine Valley, the Playhouse, etc; etc; to the Capital Projects Fund.
THEY WILL NOT ALLOW ANY OF THIS MONEY (WHICH COULD BE IN EXCESS OF $20 MILLION IN THE NEXT 5/10 YEARS) TO GO TO FUND INFRASTRUCTURE SUCH AS ROADS… WHY??.
Because (in my opinion) this money will eventually be used to fund the River Road Dike, and the Performing Arts Centre, and we will not have any say in the matter, because they will not have to borrow the money.
So, increase taxes and service costs, sell assets, reduce staff, and squirrel money away to continue your pet capital projects.
Seems like there is a very deep disregard for the citizens of Prince George and thier hard earned money.
Bang on, Mitch2.
A tale of 2 cities. Back in 1970 Mesa Az had a population of 63,000. About the same as PG.
PG population today 75,000……Mesa 450,000.
Mesa is 18 miles across the city so their urban area is spread out. No pulp mill or sawmill as a tax base yet the streets have no pot holes, curbs are clean, taxes lower than PG, etc. City wide employees 3600 in 2010.
How does a city in the USA grow in size, keep the tax rate low, the streets repaired, curbs and side walks in excellent condition and also has less city employees per capita than PG? Mesa also a sister city to Burnaby. Amazing Burnaby did not have to go to China to find a sister city. Check it out on Wikpedia.
Gus said “Why was a City like Quesnel able to see this looming infrastructure shortfall…”
It’s because for many departments there is no real thought given to the future.
Here’s an older copy of Provisional Financial Plans:
http://princegeorge.ca/cityservices/finance/archives/Documents/2005_02_14_budget.pdf
Look at page 17 and see how often “projections” are nothing more than the same number copied and pasted, or adjusted for simple inflation / union wage increases. NO expectation of streamlined services and reduced costs; or warnings of future needs – that’s not their culture.
Look at Corporate Management, Development Services, Service Agreements and Grants. Are those “projections” worth the 6 figure salaries the respective managers make?
Compare those projections to cities like Kelowna and Nanaimo. Completely different story there.
Correct me if I am wrong but Sheri Green didn’t attend oned of the Core Review meetings. Being ignorant about the finances of our city is something I wouldn’t want to see in a Mayor or council. I don’t want to have a sister City when our city is so poor that we can’t take care of our own infastructure. If our mayor or a council member wants to holliday in China they can pay for it from their own pockets.
Neo-conservative stratagies do not work. We know this. We elected someone who still believes that neo-conservatism works, but the time for this thinking has past. Even the Americans understand this and are trying to change the status quo with Obama. We need new ideas and a return to corporate taxation because we just can not keep dropping costs onto the taxpayer (individuals). We elected a mental dinosaur and surprise, surprise we got a mental dinosaur. When will we learn that the ability to accumulate wealth is not the same ability as running a city, province or even country (wealth = political powerand without this you can not realistically run for office).
Want better government? Demand potential electies understand that money is not the only requirement to lead well and corporate wealth is not going to trickle anywhere but into the pockets of the wealthy and not into infrastructure that benifits everyone.
City hall will continue to float around like a rudderless ship until a strong and competent city manager is in place. The city is no different than a public company that needs a good CEO at the helm to succeed and prosper. We need the Steve Jobs of city management to get the city headed in the right direction.
If they follow the pattern of Heather Oland at IPG, take the easiest path and simply remove the “acting” from Kathleen Soltis title it will be a huge mistake. Now is not the time to have a green:( person in that position. It might be a different story if she had mentored under an excellent manager but IMO Derek Bates was marginal at best.
If they do happen to land the proper person he/she will earn every nickle of their salary.
I’m not suggesting for a minute that our Council has tried to curb spending — but to compare PG to Mesa Az is totally out of whack. They have no frost, no snow, no rain — pretty damn easy to keep infrastructure in good shape. The population growth there can be attributed to retired people and a large portion of them from Canada.
Right you are traveller, those snowbird bucks are floating Mesa’s boat. Mesa has no real industry besides visitors, many tens of thousands of visitors, curiously, most of them are nowhere to be found from about May until October, strange. Could it be that their winter is roughly equivalent to our summer, without the mosquitoes and noseeums? Visitors spend millions of dollars every winter in Mesa, all of it taxed by the city, and the state. Frost? only on my beer glass silvousplait.
metalman.
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