New City Councillors And Mayor Inherit Debt.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009 03:45 AM

Mayor Dan Rogers and the new Councillors find themselves heading into budget deliberations without the benefit of cutting some programs that were put on ,"the books" by the old regime of Colin Kinsley and Councillors who felt it was very easy to say ,”Yes”.

It is going to have an effect on the budget deliberations that begin next month and those newcomers who came to Council with the intention of cutting spending at the Hall will find themselves grappling with a problem that is not their making.

Those grandiose ideas (started by the old council and mayor) of building a new performing arts center and police station are still on the table. We have a credit card that , while not maxed out,will be over spent if we think we can slap another $40 million for a police station and at the very least another $30 million for a performing arts center.

The old Council (who were supposed to be seasoned Councillors) should have known that we couldn’t afford these kind of projects regardless of whether the economy went into the tank or not. I recall saying to Glen Moose Scott that the economy was in the tank only to be told that things were "A-O.K." at City Hall.

Can we afford to build new facilities for the homeless in the down town? Not without a substantial contribution from the feds and the province, who are being asked to put money into infrastructure , areas such as roads and the like.

Dan Rogers came to Council hamstrung by past decisions made by the previous municipal leaders. Whether they were intentional or not we will never know. We do know that the former mayor supported Don Zurowski to take over the reins of the city and a lot of debt sitting out there is a great way to start off a new crew that wanted to get the matter of spending under control.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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Posted on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 03:45 AM in Views by Ben Meisner

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Comments

Posted by: dan on January 7 2009 9:35 AM

Hopefully there is some room to add to the snow clearing budget.
Perhaps they can look at the pattern of clearing and find a way to make it more efficient. There seems to be a lot of equipment moving from place to place with their blades up.
Why do they not work their way from one spot to the next?
Seems like an easy place to improve some efficiency.

Posted by: Bridge on January 7 2009 9:39 AM

The poplice building and the PAC have not gone out to contract so why couldnt they be put on hold untill the money is available. And then there is the question do we need either of they projects?

cheers

Posted by: dan on January 7 2009 10:58 AM

That is the question that should have been asked before they even made it this far.
Do we need them???

Posted by: lifesucks on January 7 2009 11:00 AM

Just what I said last week, we got the same thing as Van. for their $500.000.00 as we did for our $4.some million nothing. They are out there putting the hours and no results, I think they can keep up a little better than they are. Maybe they are saving our equipment to lend it to Vancouver next year for the olympics. What you do not use will not get broken. I hope that the new mayor does a lot better job than the last did, starting a new year does not appear so. There are a lot of folk out there that might say stop complaining but what are we paying the taxes for. Or stay home, pretty hard when some people really have to work for a living and cannot get there.

Posted by: gus on January 7 2009 11:32 AM

I agree with Bridge. The PAC is nowhere near where the Police Station is at.

The thing with the plice station is that it is virtually ready to be built. The feds are likely to be coming down with a budget with a similar concept as the USA - if it is ready to build, build it, here is the money. Until we know that, I would not spend a dime other than getting it ready to dig for the foundation, that is when the big spending starts.

Posted by: gus on January 7 2009 11:36 AM

dan, the police in this community ask and they get. We are spending more of our dollars per household on police than any other community of similar size in BC, other than possibly Abbotsford. When compared to some cities, it is substantially more. I wonder how the funding for new facilities is accounted for; whether it is put into the policing cost or simply a capital investment category.

Posted by: Junco on January 7 2009 1:34 PM

A new police station is not out of line.
As far as the PAC we simply can't afford it at this time.

Posted by: Palopu on January 7 2009 4:49 PM

A new Police Station may not be out of line, however this particular station at this particular location may very well be.

Why does it have to be so fancy?
Why does it have to be located at 4th and Victoria?

As previously stated above we have more police per capita that most cities in BC, and our population and crime has been decreasing since 2001.

The police station should be modified to properly reflect what is required for this City, and it should be located on the City property that was going to be used for the ill advised hot water treatment plant. That is in the area of 3rd Avenue and Kingston St. The City owns lots of property in this area and it would be ideal for the station. It is within a stones throw of the court house.

Part of the planning for the new police station should also include perhaps building it in conjunction with a new Fire Hall. As this no doubt will be next on the list.

Overall staffing at City Hall, the Police Station, Fire Halls, Recreation Facilities, etc; should all be looked at by this Council with a view to making some serious reductions.

Posted by: Chester on January 7 2009 8:10 PM

Past committments, contracts and obligations from previous administrations have pretty well handicapped the current council. Only a very small portion of the annual budget is really up for discussion. So, this will be a process of reducing, cutting and eliminating only where there are opportunities to do so. Good Luck. It's a hard place to do actually do a whole lot right away.