Smart stunt from a rookie.

I got it form a committee to look into the situation and if that does not work form another one to see why the first one did not work as far as i am concerned the taxes we pay are to high for the service we receive ie. snow removal,pot holes,streets with snow piled up that you are half way out into the street just to see if traffic is coming.The mayor wants to know what level of service we want we want what we pay for

Wilbur has his work cut out for him.

The old timers on council are pretty set in their ways.

And tricks! The Mayor says, "..and what pool do we close?" Plain nonsence and a low blow that is a cop out to his responsibility. When there are tough choices to be made, well Danno has left the building.
I see lots of concern for making administration go back to the drawing board from Basserman, Stolz and Krause. Obviously the problem here is too much concern with keeping the adminstration comfortable while sticking it to the taxpayers.

Wilbur in one easy move has exposed the lack of backbone that this council will be remembered for. A very comfortable council where petitioners and taxpayers can expect no relief or support.

I make a motion we nominate a "pothole czar" this spring. Do I have a seconder?

You go, Dave Wilbur

Wilbur is not even close! Neither is anyone else.

The amount of work per person is where I think the probelm lies. Productivity.

The only way one will get at that is to get someone in who understands what needs to be done, where there is fat, if any, and how to trim it off so that people are working effectively. The existing staff will likely not tell you that.

If everyone was working effectively, then yes, in order to trim the costs, something will have to be closed or be served on fewer hours and/or the user fees will have to be increased.

So take a single example, the garbage service as a for instance. Why is the cost more than it was before? Where are the details? Share them with the people who pay for the service.

There is not one councillor on there who is going to question the effectiveness of the organization. They are all the same. It goes with the territory. Wilbur is uttering words. For him to make changes he needs to know himself where changes can be made. That's his job. He'll just be another paper pusher unless he gets his hands dirty. As a lawyer, he likely has lots of experience pushing paper.

I think Dave was on the money, lets make the powers that be get a grip of their expences. Passing it off to the tax payers is too easy for them.

Maybe they should start by looking at all the special interest groups we are supporting with our tax dollars. If they really believe we suport these groups let them go door to door for the donations. It has become too easy to go to council for the money rather then trying to do the work for themselves.

The city has a massive overhead, compared to private industry they have too many employees overall, and too many buildings, with more to come. Every new rcmp/pac etc. just adds to the burden. What to do about it?
metalman.

What to do about it? Council has said one thing they are not going to do is ask questions, except for Wilbur that is.

In 2007 there were 131 city employees getting paid wages over $75,000.00 per year plus expenses. Many of those employees were getting paid close to $100,000.00 per year plus expenses.
Many more were getting paid more than $100,000.00 per year plus expenses.

It is so mind staggering how many government employees the tax payers pay high wages to. And everyone of these employees need offices with state of the art furniture and inflated expense accounts. Can anyone tell me WHEN all levels of government will cut back? Do you think it will be when we fall out of the recession into a depression? Sorry for any spelling errors. :}

Why is it that administration is not required to come up with plan a, b and maybe even c? They present a budget and it's accepted, period. Someone asks questions and suggests they go back to the drawing board and come up with other options and it is not doable? It is not "fair" to administration? How about what is fair for the taxpayers? At least we could actually see that if we cut services here, and cut services there, this is what we get.

Thuder's idea is not so unreasonable.
There is no reason why the council cannot go back to administration ask then to look at all possible ways to cut costs. There should be no reason that council cannot ask the admin to go back a look again. I know there are places that costs can be cutback.
That was what we had to do in private industry. We all had to go back to our depts. and look at ways to cut cost and we had to keep looking and keep looking until we reached our targets - it's the only way to save our jobs.
Council needs to look hard and give taxpayers some options. Instead they just raise our taxes every year. In 9 yrs my taxes have almost doubled. I think its high time our council takes a second look

I like Thunder's idea.
Why not 3 options?
Councils in the past few years have increased the burden on the taxpayer's and this Council is getting stuck with past decisions. Perhaps too many returning Councillors?
I appreciate Wilbur, Munoz and Greene for trying. Let's get it right next budget for goodness sake or we will have people losing their homes.

I think Gus said it best the problem is productivity, North America has become lazy. As the world repositions itself people need to be prepared to have to work harder for less.Nice to see Wilbur asking staff to work harder, too bad Danno and company are just prepared to rubber stamp it and say oh well

I think Gus said it best the problem is productivity, North America has become lazy. As the world repositions itself people need to be prepared to have to work harder for less.Nice to see Wilbur asking staff to work harder, too bad Danno and company are just prepared to rubber stamp it and say oh well

I am impressed with Dave Wilbur. I think we made a good choice voting him into Council,the fact that he is a lawyer is a bonus for the tax payers.

I also think council should be looking into wadges of City employes. 1OO,OOO.OO
a year thats a lot of money.