Council Approves a Number of Core Review Items
Monday, February 18, 2013 @ 8:28 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Administration for the City of Prince George has been given direction on a number of Core Review ideas as Council has approved the recommendations that came from the Committee of the Whole.:
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Idea
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Potential Savings / or Revenue
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Council Decision
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Real Estate:
Consider continuing the following land sales in progress:
· University Heights single family lots
· RCMP Parking lot
· Tennis Courts off Highway 16
· Wood Innovation Centre
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$3.6 million
No estimate
$3 million
No estimate
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That Staff return a report to Council (most likely closed session)
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Consider the following additional land sales:
· North Nechako City lands
· City owned downtown commercial sites
· Alternate location for Studio 2880-sell site
· Dominion and 6th for student residences
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$1.3 million
No estimate
No estimate
No estimate
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Staff to return a report to Council in closed session
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Ice Rinks:
Consider increasing the cost of ice time at rinks to increase recovery of the operations costs
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Between $600 to $930 thousand
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That administration be directed to return a bylaw with increased adult rates for ice time. The rates to be in line with fees charged in Kamloops . (Kamloops charges $165 per hour, P.G. current rate is $154 per hour)
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Sports Fields and Parks:
· Consider reviewing and revising user fees/rates for sports fields and parks
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$100 -$200 thousand
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Staff to come back with a report on adjusting sport field rental rates for adult use of sports fields and parks.
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Civic Pride:
Remove funding towards operation of Little Prince Steam Train
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$15 thousand
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This item will not be considered
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Planning:
Establish fees in planning department for:
· Providing comparative and analytical information
· Development works agreements
· Legal agreements
· Proforma agreements
· Amendments
· Increase fees for building inspections
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Up to $25 thousand
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Staff to bring forth a report on this idea
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Grounds Maintenance:
· Stop maintaining excess tennis courts, or convert in other community facilities such as sport fields
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$10 thousand
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Staff to bring back a report on tennis courts and maintenance.
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Drinking Water:
· Shut off chemical fluoride injection system and provide drops to those who require it
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$50 thousand
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Have a referendum question in the next election about further use of fluoride, and that staff ask Northern Health to consider continuing to fund the fluoridation
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Community Planning:
· Consider expansion of RS4 zoning (smaller lots) and strata lots
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No estimate
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Administration directed to bring back a report
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Financial Services:
· Collect unpaid property taxes eg: mobile homes, and seize if required
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$0 – $50 thousand
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Administration to bring back a report
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Fleet Services:
· Review usage rate of all vehicles and equipment
· Ensure city vehicle best solution for low volume vehicles and equipment
·
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No estimate
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As this study has already been done, Council will not take any further action
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Customer Service Centre:
· Move more transactions to the website, i.e: tax and utility payments- providing education for users by staff at peak payment times
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$0 – $20 thousand
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Staff will be directed to develop an approach to get more people to make their payments electronically.
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Customer Service Centre:
· Re-design it to be a one stop shop for City administrative services and be the one point of contact for customer/client/citizen enquiries related to all City services, eg: bylaw and development permit questions, managing reservation for City share car and room bookings. Provide a system that manages public points of contact
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No estimate
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Administration to implement this item.
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Economic Development:
· Reform IPG governance to increase accountability and communication with the City. Add more members from Council to the Board
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No estimate
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No further action required.
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Fleet Services:
· Provide fleet maintenance for RCMP vehicles used outside of PG detachment jurisdiction. Also provide maintenance to non-police vehicles such as ambulance North District Fleet
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$0-$100 thousand
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Staff directed to return a report to Council . The cost benefit report indicated it would take about $200 grand for equipment, and costs for extra staff and training as the bulk of the work is body work, brakes, and engine repairs.
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Police Services:
· Re-engineer Police report writing and administrative duties so police can focus on crime reduction
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$250-$500 thousand
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Administration to discuss this with Superintendent Stubbs and if it is feasible, return a report to Council.
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Roads and Sidewalks:
· Change road cut fees to take into account the deterioration of the road- based on age of road surface. (highest fee for new road, declining over time)
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$0-$100 thousand
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Council will be asked to direct Administration to develop a bylaw that would increase the road cut fees.
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Grounds Maintenance:
· Contract out grass cutting for parks and boulevards
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No estimate
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No further action to be taken
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Transit:
· Advertising banners on transit services
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No estimate
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No further action to be taken.
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Synergies:
· Consider synergies between City and Regional District, working together to save money ( eg., Human resources, IT, roads)
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No estimate
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That Administration be directed to return a report to Council.
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Inclusion Programs:
· Consider dedicating a portion of increased revenues from above to enhance inclusion programs to improve accessibility of sport and recreation activities
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Would COST between$225 and $383 thousand
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no further consideration of this item.
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CN Centre and Community Arenas:
· Reduce season/hours of operation to eliminate low usage periods
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No estimate
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No further action
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Fleet Services:
· Stop investing in Green Vehicles until it is the most economic solution based on life cycle costing
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No estimate
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No further action
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Roads and Sidewalks:
· Reduce frequency of street sweeping downtown in summer, ( make it bi-weekly rather than weekly)
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$8-$13 thousand
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No further action
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Transit:
Reduce BC Transit costs by checking riders/hours of all routes and adjusting service:
· Use smaller buses or taxis on low use routes
· Reduce target service level of service within 400 m of 95% of homes
· Adjust routes to better reflect actual demand, reduce low use routes and at low use times of day
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$350-$700 thousand
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No further action
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Comments
“No further action”.
Does this mean nothing will be done by the City or does it tell City staff to proceed with the idea?
Great update. It’s time we the taxpayer start paying for the things we want…yes that means we the users of a building or lawn or whatever. If we can’t pay for it, we shouldn’t have it. I as a taxpayer have expectations and demands that are not realistic. I’ve changed my spending habits since 2008 and it’s time the City does too.
I’m not following the math here on the ice rink proposal. If they increase it to match the rates charged in Kamloops that’s an increase of $11.00 per hour. In order to achieve an increase in revenues of $600,000 that would require 54,545 hours of ice usage. (600,000 dollars / 11 dollars per hour = 54,545.45 hours)
That’s 2272 days. I don’t get it. Or are these rates on a per person basis? That seems excessive; a team of 10 people would not be paying $1,650 for an hour.
We should have 5 rinks by next year but that’s still 454 day’s usage.
Someone help me out here.
axman,
You’re right and I can’t help you. The numbers don’t add up. If we assume the rinks are rented out for 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, then…
24*365*$11/hr increase = $96,360 per year in increased revenue for one rink. If there are 4 rinks, then $385,440 in increased revenue per year. Definitely not $600,000 to $930,000 mentioned.
Are there more than 4 rinks??…
There are 5 rinks currently active (I forgot about the Coliseum!) but there should be 5 next year if (and I suspect that’s a big if) they finish Kin 1 on schedule.
It still doesn’t add up to $600,000.
There should be *6* rinks next year. My kingdom for an edit button.
How come the wasteful trendy green vehicle operation gets a free ride? Hey tens of thousands wasted there for what?
Has the city published any information on these things. If they are such a great idea how come the gov. has to offer a bribe to purchase them .
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