Here`s another suggestion. Close down the top two floors in city hall and put up a daycare up there. Probably wouldn`t notice the difference

The cost of incompetence.

The following link is to the “City of Prince George Financial Statement Information For The Year 2012”

The first part contains information on employee renumeration.

http://princegeorge.ca/cityservices/finance/Statements%20of%20Financial%20Information/2012%20Sofi%20Report.PDF

Ummmm… I’m actually somewhat speechless after reading the list. $1/hour to park downtown? No thanks, I’ll shop somewhere else. Water and sewer increases again? I think I’m going to sell and move out of town. Close a firehall or two? That extra 5 minutes could be the difference in someone surviving or not.

Hey bcracer you didn’t read 15% arena fee hikes each of the next three years?

If we’re going to maintain the status quo, and there’s no reason to believe anything significant is going to change, be prepared to dig deeper.

The largest saving that is not a service or user fee hike is to get a better price on asphalt by joining the province in a combined bid.

This has been on the radar of the city finance committee for at least the last 3 years. Unfortunately it slips Stolz’s brain(?) until it is time to sign the annual contract then he says ” too late to do anything this year but will try again next year” Rinse. Repeat.

By having someone as incompetent as Spitz controlling the community purse $2,100,000.00 in potential savings have vanished into thin air.

Here is a no brainier no one should disagree with. Supplement the agricultural lands with Industrial Hemp and take the dam fluoride out of the water. Millions in savings and added income for the community! Not to mention the health benefits of having a local supply for healthy Hemp Seed. It would satisfy the goals of community wellness as well as being a prosperous community. O yea. O Yea. Allow the Compassion Club to set up shop here and see real cash flow enter the city. That alone should be incentive enough not to cut any services.

The list is absolute nonsense.

Why spend $250,000 per year on an OCP review when there is virtually no action in town from the point of view of development and Council does not follow it anyway?

OCP reviews are linked to provincial mandated periods, the key one of which appears to be a 5 year minimum window for projected residential development. We build how many housing units at this time? Give it 200/year, if that. That means we have to know, at any given time, at the current rate, where less than 1,000 units will go.

Forty years ago we used to build that amount each year.

I suggest we have a 10 year window at the rate over the last 10 years, which will certainly be less than 200/year, and link review frequencies to the growth rate of residential development. We do not need a $250,000/year planning slush fund for OCP purposes.

What happened to the Smart Growth on the Ground exercise results? Shelved, I assume.

“arena fees and user rates up 15% a year for three years”

That is an effective total increase of 52% over the three years.

Perhaps now is the right time for the mayor to roll out the plan that formed the main part of her election platform…..something about 10% across the board saving that would be easy peasy to find.

Half way through the term better get a move on so those savings can be realized before it is time to pencil to paper on a ballot again. Halifax had a cat run for mayor and as it currently stands you would be in for a fight if a kitty ran here.
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/cat-named-tuxedo-stan-running-mayor-halifax-canada-173242500.html
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Feline traits

Do as they please.
Ignore people unless it suits them or their agenda.
Expect to be waited on hand and foot, petted and pampered.

On second thought….:)

Why is the City Finance Committee, led by a Councillor, in charge of determining what we can do to save money or work more effectively. That is an administrative function.

Administrators have a responsibility and duty in that function of City Hall and they have commensurate authority as well. Most importantly, they can be evaluated on their performance on an annual basis at the least.

Councillors may have some duties and responsibilities, and as a Council they have authority.

What they are lacking is annual evaluations by their peers.

We have to remember that while Mr. Stolz, who is so proud of himself as his name suggests, chastises a fellow Councillor for micro managing, he is guilty of exactly the same thing and does a very poor job of it.

“Shelved, I assume.”

Shoulder to shoulder with MyPG, Mayor’s Task Force, Downtown Prospectus, et al….ad infinitum

Problem is that the “Action Plans” result in no action other than the up and down motion of a few mandibles!

Can anyone tell me whether the PAC was on the core review list?

I do not recall hearing anything about the PAC as a project and where it sits in relation to other projects.

Looks like it is going to be a decent day gus, put your sandwich in a brown bag and head down to city hall that is where those types of discussions are held;)

I say they should hire a couple more bylaw officers at $80000 per year to search the city for “illegal” slow, children playing signs.

It is a misnomer to call this a Core Review if some of the biggest items are not looked at.

Kinda like hiring a personal trainer to help you improve your core then spend a majority of the time working on ear wiggles and eye brow raises (while letting the belt out another notch or two.)

Wanna save some cash on the fire departments??? Try not sending an ambulance and 2 fire trucks to every 911 call. We have a elderly person on our block and at least 3 x per week I see this happen. Do you really need 10 people responding to silly calls? I understand if it is a multiple car accident or something like that but a lot of these calls are for stupid stuff, I know cause I listen to the scanner.

Wanna save money on snow plowing? How bout NOT having the sidewalks plowed then 10 minutes later have the grader plow the snow back on the sidewalk. Try hiring someone with common sense to do some actual planning. Not sure how the city plans to cut back on a service that is basically non existant.

Well, I guess I will be shopping downtown even less than I ever have. Won’t be going to eat down there, either. I will choose restaurants elsewhere.

Speciality items? I can order those on-line and not pay a tax for the privilege of being harassed by drug users down town.

Thanks for making my choices a lot easier, City Council!

PGMAKESMECRAZY – A Mr. Meldrum posted on another story exactly how the 911 repondants are selected to attend. It is actually quite a thought out matrix. Aside from that, keep in mind two things:

1) who do you expect to make the call on what level of attendance shows up to what emergency? You? Some guy standing on the street? or maybe we should lose a half an hour while one person arrives and then calls who exactly is needed?

2) Most of these people are being paid anyway at the time they are called. So you can either pay the fireman to sit at the hall or pay him to attend. The difference is a couple of gallons of diesel.

Listen to a scanner… theres no matrix??? It’s…. “ah, hmm… ah send them all”

“The difference is a couple of gallons of diesel.”

Not necessarily, if they are near the end of their shift when called out it could easily mean a whole crew on O/T. There are plenty of fire fighters in the 75K+ club and while I respect the work they do if there is a way to better employ resources to save a few dollars it should be looked at.

About two years ago a loader came by at 10 am to clear the snow from the Fire Hydrant. The Graders were working 3 blocks away. Less than an hour later they came and cleared the street pushing a windrow in front of the Hydrants. The Loaders working with the Graders cleared the Hydrants again. Total waste of time and money. I phoned the Mayors Voice mail about it but never heard from him.

I have said this in the past and stand by my statement.

“It’s not the federel or provincal governments that are breaking me it’s he idiots at city hall with their continous increases and overtaxing burden. Especially on a fixed income.

A couple of weeks ago I answered a knock on the door and it was someone from the city going door to door tying to collect unpaid dog tags.Probably paying him more than he collects. Another waste of taxpayer money.

“Listen to a scanner… theres no matrix”
ok – I guess I should trust someone sitting around in his basement listening to a scanner over someone who worked in Fire Rescue dispatch for most of his career *shrug*

Lonesome, you are correct but even if that does happen occasionally, if they are truly “not needed” then it wont be much overtime. I just dont think the bottom line would not change alot by not sending them and the potential for tragedy outweighs the potential (small) cost savings. IMO of course.

“Can anyone tell me whether the PAC was on the core review list? I do not recall hearing anything about the PAC as a project and where it sits in relation to other projects.”

I don’t believe it was part of the core review. However, when asked about the PAC it was stated that it is still an item of high priority for the city. It looks as if the lot on which to build has already been purchased.

I guess that’s what the steel building is the city just put in at the bottom of the cutbanks hill on PG pulp mill rd. they noticed lots of people use to work out, A ticket booth?

$ 1 an hour to park downtown. That is absolutely ridiculous! it’s hard enough to get people to go downtown, so lets drive them away with parking fees. Actually I take that back, cause nobody will be down there’s once the sidewalks will be covered in snow.

The elimination of planning oversight was the biggest thing Mayor Green did that has cause such mismanagement.

It essentially removed internal oversight.
now they need to get it done externally.
And it means that the city doesn’t have staff that are capable of getting grants for projects to build the city without loans and interest/debt added, or are capable of ensuring that developments provide benefits to the city and are not risks to residents.

That is what we get with a Mayor that bought the election. $$ and politics don’t mix. Get rid of her in the next election, we cannot afford her incompetence in running a city.

I also find it unbelievable that in 2012, Barack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Jacob (Jack) Lew made $172,200 (country of 300 million people), and our acting City Manager Kaltheen S. makes $192,000 dollars and Derek J. Bates was at $225,000! (city of 0.080 Million, and 3750 times less in population). I am not against paying for good employees but seriously, lets put this into perspective!

I also find it unbelievable that in 2012, Barack Obama’s White House Chief of Staff Jacob (Jack) Lew made $172,200 (country of 300 million people), and our acting City Manager Kaltheen S. makes $192,000 dollars and Derek J. Bates was at $225,000! (city of 0.080 Million, and 3750 times less in population). I am not against paying for good employees but seriously, lets put this into perspective!