Very true Ben, well said. Why is it that politics seems to turn seemingly intelligent, successful people into such idiots?

I have lived in this city for 51 years and have invested lots to this town but I think it is time to take my money and go else where where my money is better spent. Maybe then that way I can wake up in the morning an enjoy life

Thanks Ben for your article, very well said..I think what the average citizen wants is a well run city. We all know it costs money to keep a household running and surely we know it takes money to keep a city running, that is why the householder is taxed for the sake of the city. The problem is “poor management” which equals waste, which causes short falls, which leads to all kinds of “user fees” pulled out of the air or some grade 6 economics class. The citizens of Prince George don’t like to be chiseled and that is what the current management team is doing.

Everytime I read the local news it is tax for this and tax for that. What about Mayor Green’s trips to China (a country that does not acknowledge human rights I might ad) to build a sister city? What about establishing those kind of relationships with, let’s say Quesnel or Vanderhoof? No. She wants a city in China. Maybe she enjoys shopping trips for designer clothes at slave-factory cost? Another thing. Why add Communication staffers at city hall? To tell us what kind of an AMAZING job our mayor and council are doing?(sarcasm) C’mon people of PG. What about a good ol’fashioned RECALL on these bozo’s.

When Mayor Green was campaigning, she promised something she obviously couldn’t do. 10% savings across every department, even though she knew that the departments were pretty well leaned out anyway. She promised a “core review” which cost the tax payer nearly a half million and what was the fruit of it? User fees…in reality it took not only 80 grand to elect herself, but the cost of the “core review” – which our high paid administrators could have and should have done, if it even needed to be done.

If you want those taxpayers to turn against you , look no further than last week when the city was talking about hiring up to three communications officers,

One of those ‘talked about’ positions (Corporate Communications Specialist) had already been posted and since closed as of Nov 22/13 and it appears that the position of Communications Director is still up for grabs.

The City has also posted openings for an Accounting Co-ordinator for Financial Services AND ALSO A Bylaw Coordinator AND a Legislative Assistant for the City Managers Office! I saw these postings while having a look at the Work BC Job board.

You can find these and more at the City’s website: http://www.princegeorge.ca/careers/Pages/JobPostings.aspx

We were gone for 10 days and missed the snowfall.

We drove all the way from Vancouver to PG on bare pavement. Coming into the City from the city limits to our turnoff at 15th and Central, we saw little of the effect of the snowfall. Even along 15th to Ospika and Tabor, there was no snow pile in the center of the street. Here and there a few raised sections of frozen snow started to remind us that we were in PG.

By the time we got into our already shoveled driveway, we had to endure narrowed streets, still unplowed, considerably narrowed bus route streets, and local residential streets which were rutted, frozen, ready to tear out the undersides of cars that dared to place wheels in the ruts rather than on the high frozen snow.

We can report potholes. Well, how about reporting kilometres of roads which do not meet any minimum standard of transportation routes in the modern industrial urban environment.

I do not see any advantage of spending money on paving roads which are allowed to deteriorate to such a level that one has to drive a tank to maneuver them.

Please, please, please, Councillors, spend all the money you want to go to cities in the eastern part of this winter country and experience a storm and the level of snow clearing that can actually occur with LESS money per lane.km.

Pretending that we know how to clear snow properly, effectively and efficiently no longer works.

We know squat!

BTW, forget about the idea of learning from Quesnel as someone had posted.

Going through that City on a few downtown residential roads showed me that there is absolutely no difference!

The city is putting on the winter games yet they no longer provide skating lessons. I mentioned them to a young dad I work with and he informed me that the city’s website says that they have left this up to community groups to provide. So now if he wants put his little guy in skating lessons he has to go thru the figure skating clubs. Public skating is reduced to Friday teen night at the Elks and a couple on the weekends. Nothing during the week where he could get Grandpa to take the little guy. So I guess it won’t be long before they drop all the swimming lessons and cut public swimming as well. Maybe they’ll wait for their study first so that they can use that to justify it.

For years you could do the Monday noon hour skate at the coliseum along with your kids, or grandkids. Something to look forward to. Not this year, all gone.
The cost was minimal to the city as the rink attendants were there anyway and the Y collected the money.
Just another kick at the taxpayer by Green.

On the subject of roads and plowing just in case Green, Gaal, and Jones missed it there are roads in the Charella area and the snow did exceed 12 cm. How can snow removal cost so much when this area sees a plow 3 – 4 times a year.

Certainly a warm up for pot hole season.

Gladstone Blvd (a school zone and bus route) just got plowed on Sunday. 5 days after the storm. My street wont likely be plowed till Wednesday. Is this poor management or too many dress shirts? Oh and it’s supposed to snow again starting tonight.

You only need to live on a street where CUPE employees live or management and your street is plowed not once but twice – yet there is no bus / school bus route.
Pays to know your neighbours.

I would love for the City to go back to the basics, but it seems they are unable to provide that based on the past week’s snow ‘removal’ activities. For the amount of money we spend on it, the City sure does do a terrible job.

I was ok with my street not being done but I didn’t expect it to be so long for Gladstone.

‘wanting’ is against my religion.
what we need is curbside recycling, especially given our aging population.

Well stated, Ben. City Hall’s and Council’s spending priorities are all wrong and we, the taxpayers, pay for their extravagances. We do NOT need any communications people on the payroll!!!
As a pedestrian, have you tried to cross the Hart Highway at Austin Road lately? Snow removal here is a joint responsibility between the City and YRB.
In November of 2014 Mayor Green has to go. She has totally misrepresented herself, she is very high maintenance and refuses to justify herself to Opinion 250.

Can some one help me out? What was the reason for putting plows on the sand trucks?
I don’t remember the exact reason given at the time, but I can’t help but wonder if it has helped any in snow removal?

When challenged as to the wisdom of their decisions and the order of their priorities some people (most people?) become resentful and defensive! Human nature! Often in order to re-enforce the validity of their actions and decisions they react in a knee jerk manner: They take a stand and rub it in by pursuing even more of the same actions that others are criticizing – just because they are in the position to do so!

I am no psychiatrist but this seems to be one basic response of human behaviour.

Ben, your essay is right on the button!

Woodwoman. Unfair comment about CUPE members or other city staff having their streets plowed already. I live across the street from a senior city manager and my street has not been plowed yet. Neither has the street behind me which is on a school bus route been done. Back up your statements with facts and I will believe them.

Woodwoman…you are barking up the wrong tree.. ;)

interesting piece Ben but you should refer to service level rather than simply spending more money because the actual amount spent depends on how much snow we get and that varies significantly from year to year.

It was the service level that mayor and council cut back just recently, even though I seem to recall her saying she would never ever ever consider reducing snow removal service levels.

What is obvious is that on those few occasions when the city gets hit by a major snowstorm the service levels are difficult to meet with the crew they have.

All of us knew the storm was but it doesn’t seem like the city ramped up in preparing to respond. They already hire a lot of private contractors to help up on normal days so why didn’t they secure some private equipment and contractors well in advance so they would be better ready to respond?

What we REALLY need is a Mayor who knows that she works for the Citizens, NOT for her own personal gains!

With respect to the level of road maintenance in Quesnel…there is a huge difference. I work there 1-2 days every week and Quesnel is heads above PG when it comes to road maintenance. The streets of downtown Quesnel are usually always plowed by the time people get to work in the morning and residetial streets are done within a day or two. We have much to learn from Quesnel in the way of road maintenance and just overall cleanliness of the community. Quesnel deserves a pat on the back.

Public skating has been scaled back due to the fact that we are down one rink right now. It will come back when Kin 1 is reopened. As for Kin 1…don’t get me started on that one. That is the biggest waste of money I’ve ever seen. You wanna build a new rink…fine…build a new rink, but dont tear down a perfectly good facility only to replace it with the exact same thing only newer. Whoever, decided that one should be shot!!

To say that we have a problem with the Management of this City would be a gross understatement.

Snow removal has been a part of this City since 1912. Why 100 years later, is it such a problem??

As mentioned by Ben, the City should stick to the basics, and get the hell out of the real estate, capital projects, and finance business.

Lets think about the Police Station for a minute. $40,000,000.00 plus interest on debt, for a cost over 20 years somewhere in the area of $78,000,000.00.

NOW. How many people in Prince George will ever visit this building??? Basically no one, because why would you go to a Police Station???

Most of the people working in this building including the police will enter the building from the rear, as that is where the parking is.

Soooo. Why do we have such a fancy entrance to a building that will be used by next to no one??? It would have been much more sensible to have the front of this building look more like Duchess Park. That would have saved us at least $1 Million and maybe more.

The design and approval of this building is indicative of what’s wrong at City Hall.

Any candidates ready to declare their intent to run for mayor/council now ? Those with fiscal and common sense will attract the voters interest starting now .

I don’t live in the city, I do not get a vote for City Council (They still get a say in our area though) I have never been so disturbed driving in the city as the past few years. I lived in PG a few times in my younger years and never would I have rather lived out of town in the winter then I do now. The other day, My friend who just moved into the city was unable to get off her road, sadly I “lol”ed her on the text with a comment something like this “You’re in Green district now sunshine…you are so F&*&ed. Doubt we will see you or your car until Spring”
I want to puke every time I look at the new RCMP building driving on Victoria, to the point I don’t even look anymore. My husband was in an accident, we have had 40% of our income lost for the last 8 weeks…. what do you do when money is tight, you tighten your damn belt, not a Christmas with a bunch of presents for our children, there will be no giving to the needy this Christmas for us. There will be less meat on the table and more crappy KD. Bacon…keep dreaming. Sure am not going to build a shop next summer. NO, No, No more pointless spending…. is it time to protest at City Hall yet?

Basics aren’t “sexy”. What’s a more appealing legacy for a politician, doing a good job on snow removal and the basics, or building a gaudy policy station and possibly a PAC and being able to say “I did that”?

Seems to me we are headed down the road of one term mayors in this town.

Kin 1 was a perfectly good facilty?? Are you freakin’ kidding me??!! That place was the dump of dumps. It was beyond shot, it was laughable, it was embarassing. Anyone who says otherwise has obvioulsy no knowledge of rinks whatsoever. The new improved Kin 1 is a HUGE and much needed improvement.
As many, many people on this site like to point out— we need to maintain what we have, not build new stuff. In this case there was almost nothing left to maintain so it had to go.

Let’s stay focussed…

Are we getting good value as taxpayers for the $42 Million per year plus benefits to employ an army of City workers, many doing who knows what? If you think we are then I have a bridge to sell you.

I think this is a very good discussion, one that needs to happen within the city. I’d like to take the dialogue in a bit of a different direction though, because I don’t want people to focus only on the short-term. That is obviously needed, but we also need to think about a longer term horizon when answering the question that Ben posed.

What sort of city do you want to leave for your children? Heck, don’t even think that far ahead. Think more about what sort of city PG needs to be in order to attract and retain residents?

Ben talked about underwear as a metaphor for core services. I would agree that these are needed. That said, he also seemed to discount the dress shirt, as if to say that this stuff wasn’t important. Well, the reality is that if you show up to a job interview wearing underwear and no dress shirt, you probably aren’t getting a call back. The same analogy could be used for a city when it’s trying to sell itself to prospective residents or businesses looking to invest. If you have nothing but underwear, you can bet you are going to lose out to the cities that are wearing a dress shirt or a suit.

Cities are no longer places where people just show up because they can find work there. These days, cities are places where people choose to live. They are places where people desire to live. People seek out cities that match their lifestyle, their needs and their wants. People expect core services (as they should), but in order to take it to the next level, cities have to go above and beyond that. I simply see no possible way that PG can remain sustainable 10, 15, 20 or 40 years into the future if it doesn’t match or exceed what is being done in Kamloops, Red Deer, Chilliwack, etc. PG can’t burry its head in the sand, get “back to basics” and ignore doing what it takes to build a livable city. In this day and age, it’s a recipe for disaster and I would dare say that the population growth trends for PG in the last decade and a half bear this out.

I think the current problem plaguing PG is one of poor decision making, poor planning and poor management. This extends to the finances and making sure that property taxes are at a level which will allow the city to manage both the core services and the “lifestyle amenities” in a responsible manner. A modern city must address both of these components and the people running the place have to be on the ball to know what these components cost, what projects can or can’t be taken on and how future growth plans need to be managed.

What do you really want? If I was still living in PG I’d sure as hell want a city that is trying to be progressive, trying to improve and trying to grow. I’d expect them to ensure core services were met. I’d also be willing to fund this stuff through increased property taxes IF it could be shown that the city was responsible in managing its finances (tough to swallow because I think there are plenty of examples to show that they currently are not doing so).

Getting back to Ben’s analogy, trust me PG, you have to have a full wardrobe if you want to be relevant in the future. Your challenge is finding a group of people who know how to dress for the occasion.

NMG: “I think the current problem plaguing PG is one of poor decision making, poor planning and poor management. “

…not to mention poor geographical location and poor weather. PG is not the only community facing problems with population attraction and retention.

A PAC, or some other expensive white elephant isn’t going to attract people. Jobs are, and even then, with today’s mobile work forces, jobs are no guarantee either. People want to live in bigger cities where the weather is favourable. PG has access to the wilderness and rural lifestyles, neither of which are enjoying much popularity these days. There are no easy answers.

This cities management is setting themselves & the city for a hugh law suite. Streets still not plowed. Not ambulance accesable. Fire hydrantes still buried under snow etc. etc. Tax payers will be digging deep when this happens.

I agree with JohnnyBelt.

The City has plenty of amenities, ie:

Kin 1,2,3, CN Centre, Coliseum, Elks Centre, Northern Sport Centre, Otway Ski Trails, Purden Ski Hill, Tabor Ski Hill, Hart Ski Hill, Ice Oval.

Theatre Northwest, Playhouse Theatre, Vanier Hall, Art Centre, Civic Centre, Library, Railway Museum, Recreation Place, Soccer fields, ball fields, etc; etc; etc:

For a City of 75000 (fudging it a bit) we actually do pretty well. Especially when you throw in the lakes, and rivers in the area.

There is one problem though and that is that a lot of these facilities with the exception of those for Winter Sports, are basically under used.

A PAC would fall in the under used category.

So its not the amenities that keep people away, nor is it the lack of amenities that cause them to leave.

Its the weather, the location, available jobs, and last but not least the inability of the City Administration to treat its citizens as adults, and to quit continually taxing the s..t out of us, to amass millions of dollars, so they can play at being a big city.

PS. Forget the two swimming pools, and Fort George, and Connaught hill parks.

So lets let the amenities lie for awhile, and concentrate on roads, snow removal, sidewalks, sewers, etc;

“So its not the amenities that keep people away, nor is it the lack of amenities that cause them to leave”

==================================

A lower quality of life as compared to competing cities could keep people away, as could it cause them to leave. Amenities are part of that equation, but not the only consideration (crime, air quality, etc.).

I don’t buy the weather argument for a minute. People act as though PG has the worst climate in Canada. It doesn’t. Heck, the bulk of the entire country has four seasons and many cities with much larger (and growing) populations have it far worse than PG. I think the geographic isolation is a far bigger issue than the weather and that is something that PG has to overcome by offering something else that others cannot.

PS. Forgot PAGARA race track, hiking trails, Cottonwood Park, Six Golf Courses, Curling Rink, Roller Rink, etc; etc;

So we have plenty of amenities.

I should add that I would agree that the current amenities are quite good for a city the size of PG. I don’t want to turn this into a PAC discussion because that’s a red herring.

What I was trying to get at was that you have to fund it all. If you keep funding constant and focus more on core services, that means less for the amenities and that will have some negative implications. That is, unless you believe that there is enough waste in city spending to fund it all by simply managing the finances better. That may or may not be true, one would have to look at things critically to find out.

JohnnyBelt “Are we getting good value as taxpayers for the $42 Million per year plus benefits to employ an army of City workers, many doing who knows what? If you think we are then I have a bridge to sell you.” Wow….you REALLY have a hate on for the City workers hey Johnnyboy? Every post you make is about how THEIR salary is 42 million. I notice you NEVER mention what % of that is Managements. I see the poll her shows 71% in FAVOR of the Workers which tells me that some people are objective enought to realize that we actually have to PAY people to do those jobs for the City. The CUPE workers are not the reason this City is in the state its in.

NMG- “I think the geographic isolation is a far bigger issue than the weather and that is something PG has to overcome by offering something else that others cannot.”

LOL…your not thinking PG should build something like an 11,400 ft runway were you ?

It’s not just crime, air quality and the such keeping people away. Drive downtown around 4pm and its a ghost town. Even some restaurants are closed. We had company from out town who was shocked at how dead the downtown was. I realize you cannot force a business to stay open but when you are trying to attract visitors and tourists, it would help if they had places to go. Not everyone wants to shop at Walmart or eat at a chain restaurant.