Another 35 Recommendations to Go
Monday, July 8, 2013 @ 12:14 PM
Prince George, B.C.- Council for the City of Prince George has unanimously approved eleven recommendations that should save about $154 thousand dollars and approved spending $100 thousand.
That grouping of items that included a recommendation that LED lights be integrated when the High Pressure Sodium lights burns out. That recommendation is expected to save about $54 thousand a year. The other recommendation that brings savings is through the adoption of WorkSafe BC’s return to work program. It is anticipated this move would save $100 thousand dollars in compensation claims.
The grouping also included some items which clarified that Council has no jurisdiction to:
A re-engineer police report writing
B require hospital to provide security guards for prisoners
Here are the decisions on some other items :
1.Sidewalk Snow removal – remove the requirement for commercial property owners to clear snow from sidewalks, instead CITY will continue to
clear sidewalks.
Councillor Krause would like to see this be enhanced. That is something that will be discussed during budget development. Mayor Green says businesses need to look after their properties, that this recommendation “sends the wrong message to property owners”. Councillor Dave Wilbur is concerned the City will be taking full legal responsibility should someone be injured . City Staff will get some legal advice. The original recommendation was defeated, instead, staff have been asked to bring back a broader report .
2. Residential Snow Removal Service level increase the threshold to 12 cms instead of current 10 cms.
KPMG recommended Council NOT do this. In the report to Council, staff say the 2 cm increase won’t have any impact to accessibility, but would save $180,000. Councillor Brian Skakun says he cannot support this as it would mean a service reduction to taxpayers who are paying the same amount as everyone else, “it just doesn’t seem fair”. Councillor Dave Wilbur said he didn’t think people would notice the difference in the level of snow removal, but will notice the cost savings. This was unanimously approved.
3. Quinn Street Sani Dump Closure : This item was not in the KPMG Core Review but is a left over from Council’s decision to move responsibility for Quinn Street transfer station to the Regional District. Many on Council thought this was part of the original closure discussion. The savings will be about $6 thousand a year. Councillor Brian Skakun opposed this recommendation.
4.Northern Lights Festival : That Council no longer subsidize this event ($20 thousand dollars in in kind work) . The Mayor says she supports the idea of Tourism PG being sent a bill for the services provided, but this would be an unfair surprise to Tourism PG which has already established abudget for this year. Instead, council has approved talking with Tourism Prince George about when Tourism Prince George could expect to pick up those costs.
5.That Council direct Administration to, together, with the Prince George Public Library, conduct a cost/benefit analysis and make recommendations to Council regarding operation of the Nechako Branch. This could save as much as $200 thousand a year. Councillor Murry Krause says in addition to the cost benefit analysis, he would like to see the social impact of a possible closure. Approved unanimously
6. Conduct a study on Fire service and Fire Master Plan : SPEND $100 thousand dollars : Councillor Lyn Hall says he is not interested in talking about reducing fire halls, but is interested hearing about what could be done with the aging fire hall. Councillor Frank Everitt says the public made it very clear it didn’t want to make any changes to fire hall service. Councillor Dave Wilbur was saying he was not comfortable with spending a $100 thousand dollars. Before he had an opportunity to complete his comments, City Manager Beth James interrupted to say the report could actually lead to a call for service enhancement. Still, councillors were not too happy to consider spending this kind of money at this time. The item was approved with Councillors Skakun, Wilbur and Frizzell in opposition.
Council has taken a break for lunch, and returns at 12:45 to continue discussion on the remaining 35 items.
Comments
During the discussion of 3.17 firehalls there was quite a few comments that #1 hall was nearing the end of it’s serviceable life and would need replacement in the not to distant future.
What? This building is basically a garage for a couple of truck with some living facilities and meeting rooms attached. With even a minimum amount of maintenance the hall should be usable almost indefinitely.
There are halls in Toronto still in use(circa 1906) that first saw duty when response was by horse and wagon. One fire hall in California has a 100 year old light bulb that is still burning. Now THAT is maintenance!
Maintaining a building on a continuous basis is a lot cheaper that replacing it as is painfully obvious by the new building going up on Victoria. Maybe the old police station could be re purposed to hold a fire truck with the added bonus of having a “room” for firefighters with sticky fingers.
Currently talking about business license fee and a possible 30% increase so it will at least cover cost.
http://princegeorge.ca/citybusiness/businesslicences/Pages/Fees.aspx
Not talking big bucks unless your business is an escort service or rub and tug parlor.
How much did the utility fees go up in one fell swoop not too long ago?
But the cops get a fancy new building! We want one too…..
“Mayor Green says businesses need to look after their properties”
Since when are the sidewalks the property of the businesses?
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“Councillor Dave Wilbur is concerned the City will be taking full legal responsibility should someone be injured”
I have news for the lawyer on Council.
1. the sidewalk is city property. They are responsible for city property maintenance.
2. By making a bylaw to require the adjacent property/business owners to “clean” the sidewalk they require to set standards and to enforce the bylaw to getting it done and done properly. If they do not do that, they are not doing their duty.
3. It is far easier for the City to do it themselves in the first plece.
In either case, the City has responsibilities regarding the state of sidewalk maintenance no matter whether it is concrete which is breaking apart and becomes a tripping hazard, or whether it is ice developing on the surface to make it slippery.
Of course, taking down the canopies has increased the risk to people walking on poorly maintained sidewalks.
A good lawyer will make hay out of the City if they sue an adjacent business or land owner.
Save money on compensation claims??? You’re kidding right? Work Safe BC is not in the business of compensating injured workers, so that equation shouldn’t even be brought up in public! Give me a dam break!
Taxi: that’s probably why they changed their name to Worksafe. It’s like ICBC spending millions on lawyers to get out of paying claims.
Give more. They changed the name from Workers Compensation Board, to Worksafe, BC, because WCB implied that the workers were entitled to compensation. Same thing when they changed Unemployment Insurance, to Employment Insurance.
Shades of Orwell’s 1984 and the benefit’s of double speak.
It appears that when the dust settles on what was accomplished to-day, a review of the fine print will establish that the City will hire a couple of more employee’s, and utilize the services of some more consultants.
Such is the way of an administration that has lost its way.
As one person stated. The Mayors in BC enjoy steak and lobster at Whistler, while the tax paper chews on crackers, and sips canned soup. Whats wrong with this picture.??
80% of the money the city spends is on 20% of the services it provides.
So, how about just looking at the 20% to find 80% of the expenses to reduce.
The nickel and dime issues are a waste of time. (Meters & User fees)
For some reason, we’ve got bold font in the comments section…
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