And to think, the Mayor could have saved half the cost of a trip to China by buying a one way ticket.

she could have saved the whole trip by not going…
I guess she never heard of Skype or teleconferencing…of which they are either free or relatively inexpensive

I wish I could get a 6% incease in my income let alone 60%

I don’t think the raise in salaries of 60% is worth it. Its full spend ahead for this management team so far, and then there is the couple million a year to have IPG do half their job. Maybe its time the city management lead by example and make due with what they have.

What the hell are those people smoking? I want some

60% rise in management salaries and benefits (over half a million dollars) from 2013 to 2014.

Is the city management keeping all this money to themselves or is the city creating 20 more completely useless management positions ?

Sooooo 60% increase in operating budget equals how big an increase in taxes?

This Budget is out of control–60%.
The council is bad enough-but the City bureaucrats have got to change too! I agree with kendo! And I don’t smoke!!

Will City managers give themselves a raise in 2014? Providing the union workers take 0% that is.

Wow, just wow!
Cannot believe how bad the optics are for this. How do they imagine the public will view a 60% increase in the budget in order to pay for a pair of “communications” officers when the appearance is that their major challenge will be to convince the rubes that their mere existence makes the costs therein justifiable?

So out of touch . . .

By the way that so called sister city in china, the population there is over 500,000 people, why is she wasting out money going to a c

City that does not give a rats ass about us in the first place. (Sorry got alittle typing happy there)

Good grief! This city is out of control. You could feed a lot of starving kids with that amount of money.

I want to know how much of this is due to restructuring the “City Manager’s office” component of the whole staffing budget.

I am assuming that there will be reductions in other locations of the operations and that those reductions will be in locations other than services which provide direct benefits to the citizens of this community.

Why do they not bring out the full budget first, then deal with the individual ones?

They obviously need someone in communications that knows how to do this and gets the “pencil” to do it.

If they want to avoid such headlines, they need at least a grade 12 graduate, with a C average. ;-)

Absolute joke of a mayor and council.

WOW 60% for the GREEN team.I guess the mere pittance that the guys/gals who actually do the work are asking for doesn’t seem like asking too much. JUST trying to keep up with the cost of inflation, god I love a liebral attitude, smart meter that one BOYS…..FRACK ON!!!!!

Obviously any money saved through hard bargaining with the union goes directly to management positions. Well played City Hall, well played.

So the Corporate Management department would like to brand the CoPG as a Community That Really Doesn’t Give a Rat’s Ass (CTRDGRA)?
Excellent idea! Those grubby, low income, marginalized folks just need to get a job and stop their whining!

If the increase is for the two new communications jobs, then that is pretty pricey. After deducting $76500.00 for election costs, it still leaves over two hundred thousand per annum per job, which of course would include benefits, etc;

People really need to pay attention to whats taking place at this time, because they will want to get all the **dirty** work out of the way so they have clear sailing going into the election.

what a joke, they are out of control I agree but doesn’t surprise me

Dont leave out IPG, they will want an increase as well, after all, it is they who attract all the business into PG. So they say.

Are any severance package payouts included in that budget?

As stated in the story:

“The most significant increase within that budget is for Corporate Management Salaries and benefits, which are proposed to climb from the 2013 budget bylaw amount of $869,735.00 to $1,403,858.00, an increase of nearly 60%. The increase is likely to reflect the two new communications positions which the City is about to fill.”

So, it would seem that the bulk of this increase is for two new positions. Two? Only two? Holy moly, how much does the City plan on paying for each of the two new positions?

Perhaps a more appropriate question would be how long has the City had these positions open and unfilled? Perhaps we don’t need them and we should eliminate the positions altogether? We seem to have survived just fine without them, so why do we even need them?? The short answer is, we probably don’t need them!!

As I’ve been saying all along, it’s time for a complete review, reorganization and rationalization of all level of government, Federal, Provincial and Municipal, from the very top to the very bottom, both exempt and unionized positions!

Perhaps the only way that we will ever achieve it is with a tax revolt!!

If the two communication positions are going to be direct reports to the city manager then I would imagine that the money to run the department would be part of the increase in the manager’s budget and not salary alone as Palopu and Hart Guy suggested.

The positions are in the screening and interview stages, the job postings did not state salary only “a competitive salary
as well as a comprehensive benefits package”.
I would think that it would fall in the range of what Chris Bone or Mike Davis- don’t have time this morning to look it up but if memory serves it was in the 90k range.

This story is a perfect example of why the city needs someone to get the info out in a timely and accurate manner;)

Good points Hart Guy.
Politicians of all levels tend to forget or don’t care where all “their” money to spend,waste,give away…..and the list goes on, comes from. So a tax revolt or General Strike might wake them up, but we need enough people to stick together so they don’t have enough room in the new jailhouse for all of us.

It has been over a week and 3rd ave. has not been plowed yet, what are her prioritys.

So we need to spend more money to get people to tell us why we need to spend more money. Got it.

University degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, or other relevant discipline is required for these positions.

Guess I missed something as I was under the impression the city wanted 1 position and now it is two?

Wonder if a managers at a local rag will apply?

Looking at some of the job descriptions it appears some of the “skills” and job descriptions overlap.

As for the existing management etc., I do hope they do not get a raise….The last time I watched a council meeting, three of the top management could not even tell council how many parkades were in this town….

I’m speechless- I’ve tried a couple of times to express my anger here, but this is so ridiculous that I’m speechless! This City Hall is OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE TAX PAYER AND OUT OF CONTROL!!!

Lonesome Sparrow.

I agree that the salaries would be around $110,000.00 per year per job, however once you facture in Pensions, Benefits, etc; it quickly jumps to around $200,000.00.

Pensions, Benefits, like sick pay, holidays, Eu, WCB, etc; cost a lot of money.

If they can’t handle the job let them go, don’t hire extra people at equivalent salary to make up for a bad employee

If both these ladies are in over their heads call a by-election and put out the call for a new city manager

All my expectations and personal *on the hook for it again* calculations are based on that 10% savings in every department as promised. %-(

A memorable episode, to be sure!

Yes 2 new positions but that doesn’t count on the positions that were lost in 2013. So in fact it is 2 less positions for 2014.

It was not many years ago that public institutions in Prince George got by with 1 or maybe two positions in a “Public Relations” department. Over the past few decades all of the major public institutions have seen these departments grow and the status (and salaries) in most organizations elevated. Led by UNBC, but not far behind, CNC, Northern Health and SD#57 have all seen the bloating of these departments and budgets. It used to be that appointed or elected Board members considered it a part of their role to communicate with the public and the press.

Now (in my opinion) the CEO’s of these institutions are effectively muzzling their Boards and controlling the flow of info to the public (taxpayers). A sign of the times maybe.

In 2007 the previous City Manager Derek Bates made $159,100.76 and by 2012 he made $225.059.23 that’s 36.28% or $65,959 increase. I believe the new City Manager currently makes approx. $235k, Bill Gaal in 2007 made $99,991.85 and by 2012 made $153,835.12 that’s 46.49% or $54,844 increase. Chris Bone (who they fired – oops laid off) was the communications person for city manager. In 2008 she made 81,024.49 and by 2012 she made $116,614.16. Difference of $33,590. Councillors ‘voted’ themselves a 31% increase in 2012/13. Wonder what they’ll ‘vote’ themselves for 2014/15? The union is only asking for 1%, 1%, 2%. Those at the top giving the orders make the most, those at the bottom taking those orders and doing the actual work make the least.

The union’s % of wage increase does not seem so out of line in comparison.

Hello?

The first year or the contract is all but over and you can bet that the city is not going to sign any agreement that includes retroactive pay. They have offered 2% in the third year so all of this is over the 1% in the middle year.

How long are you willing to pound the pavement for the 1%—-won’t take many days and you will be losing coin.

Your handle says it all…hello????

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palpou …About the only place where benefits are equal to wages would be the Senate:) A more normal factor is 30 cents on the dollar.

“In 2007 the previous City Manager Derek Bates made $159,100.76 and by 2012 he made $225.059.23 that’s 36.28% or $65,959 increase.”

2012 was the last year he was employed by the City. That year would include any outstanding vacation pay, sick pay not taken, severance, etc. The last year’s salary is never a good one to look at in order to get a common scope of the works.

Bates, Derek J
2011- salary $203,879… expenses $5,655

William, Gaal
2011- salary $145,075…expenses $64

Soltis, Kathleen
2011- salary $176,165…expenses $4,007

Lonesome Sparrow. I agree, the figure would be closer to 30 cents on the dollar.

I was thinking in terms of an employee making $75000.00 per year would cost a company approx. $100,000.00 per year.

Fingers are working faster than brain.

They’re all overpaid…..this is nothing new. Every person employed, in one form or another, by the city is overpaid….WAY overpaid. Sad really…..

You can tell there is an election coming up. save your money
green is gone
Invest this money into the workers where it will do some good.