I have a good idea - why don't we build a new police station and an art centre. That should take the sting out of all these tax increases!

What does the general levy cover? Our fine councils raises and out of town trips. Perhaps more apps for their Blackberries and iPhones. Here we thought the new blood would be different, meh whatever.

I have an idea,

Lets buy more buildings downtown, demolish them at tax payers cost, and plant gardens in place of them. Then we can donate the produce to the needy.

2 thoughts on this, 1st every building bought decreases the tax base and adds another burden to the tax payer and 2nd, were going to need all the donated veggies we can get because there are going to be more people lining up at the food bank the way these guys are going.

I cant wait till the next election, see who the new mayor is because we can rest assured that it isnt going to be Mr Rogers.

Can I suggest where they can stick the carrots from the downtown gardens?

Sure glad Dan and group were elected. Just think how bad it would of been otherwise. Just a 3.69% increase. How lucky can we get. Can't wait until the Citizen publishes the usual story of how PG citizens are among the lowest taxed.
With any luck at all the city will buy a few more buildings downtown to further decrease the tax base. Just think of all the vegetables that can be grown on the old Norgate Autobody site. The city will soon be competing with the local farmer's market. It must be tough to beat out all the other competing bids for these properties.
With the tab for IPG at over a million a year, 1/2 a million to bid for the Canada winter games, PAC, police station, and abandoned building purchases, and community energy system, this city council qualifies as one of the greatest financial planning groups since Bernie Madoff. He fleeced the public and went to jail. Unfortunately our city council does the same but it is considered legal.

Thanks to all the people who voted for Rogers!!!!!

Goodbye PG!

Enjoy your shafting!

Rodgers is nowhere near as bad as Colin Kinsley was. Nor is he as bad as the alternative would have been. (Whats his name)

Rodgers didnt get us into this bloody mess, the problem is I dont think he, or the new Council are going to be able to get us out. They certainly wont if they do not start cutting expenses.

What about the fact that the Regional District has a major decrease in revenues. I hear that they plan to increase the tipping fees from about $40.00 to $60.00. This will mean that we will get another increase in our garbage rates later this year. Seems even though we have the Mayor and 3 Councillors on the Regional District Board of Directors and control the vote, we havent heard anything from the City in regards to this increase.

Whats with that??? If we are not getting up to date information from the Regional District on costs, revenues, etc; then why are we involved. Why do we pay them a percentage of our taxes???

Lets get some of this information out in the open before this budget session is finished.

Why have they not started cutting all of the bells and whistles at City Hall yet? It is beyond comprehension why they have not started to look at their operations and see where they could save some $ and not have to raise taxes once again. It's too bad they are allowed to play with the mill rate every year. Oh and this rise of course will not be included along with the increase in garbage tax. That should also be added on. So what will the real increase be this year? 5% - 6%?

And these people just voted unanimously to give themselves a raise. Roflmao...BEND OVER PG! When are people going to realise that it is NOT HOW WE VOTE but the fact that we do not stand up to these bafoons. Go to city hall and watch your Dan Rogers for one sitting. The guy is NOT THE BETTER CHOICE. Go watch him. We need to be at these meetings...never anyone there. Oh well...whatever.

I see people on here daily complaining about not getting the city to do things for them and then see them complaining about tax increases to pay for it....
reality check:
if you want increased services you have to pay the price.
I will say however that city has to make sure they are careful with the dollars and doing things right the first time...not impressed with the way the pothole patching is being done..
dumping patching compound into a hole full of water and patting it down with a foot somehow doesn't sound right and I am not an engineer....

For years the regional district has preached a reduction in solid waste. Now that the reduction of solid waste has happened there has been a decrease in revenue from tipping fees. Startling surprise. As they say on Law and Oder, connect the dots.
So here we are, less revenue, easiest solution, increase taxes.
Last year the lowest bidder for equipment supply and services at the dump was rejected and the regional district choose the second lowest bidder for an additional cost of a couple of hundred thousand dollars more. Just maybe the lowest bidder knew something the directors did not.
Let's see how to handle this problem.
1. Decrease staffing levels.
2. Decrease payment to contractors.
3. Decrease operating hours.
4. Initiate a wage roll back just as many businesses in private industry have had to do over the past year.

Colin was old school mayor, at least we enjoyed his antics. Who could not love Colin. He drank to much and chased women. Whats wrong with that. He kept us in the lead.

All Roger's been doing is spinning his wheel and blaming the world for the plight that he is in. He needs a rudder for his boat, or he is going to sink us all.

I cant wait till the next election, see who the new mayor is because we can rest assured that it isnt going to be Mr Rogers.

GOOD COMENT STOMPIN TOM'
THERE IS ALOT OF PEOPLE THAT AGREE WITH YOU
TIME TO CHANGE THE WHOLE CITY CONCIL THAT VOTE YES TO THIS.

Palopu

"Rodgers is nowhere near as bad as Colin Kinsley was. Nor is he as bad as the alternative would have been. (Whats his name)"

Please explain to us how "Nor is he as bad as the alternative would have been" if you cant even name him?

Just to clarify it for you, Don Zurowski is the man who lost out to Daper Dan by a few votes. Mr Zurowski has a very strong business background and has actually had real jobs in his life, he has actually run companies and had employees. The man was able to sell his self made busines's at the age of 36 and go into semi-retirement.

If Mr Zurowski would have taken Daper Dans approach to the election and only tell the people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear, he would be the Mayor today. Sadly most people cant figure this out.

I dont know about you but I would have much prefered to have somebody with a strong business background leading this city than an ex-DJ who never had a real job in his life.

All budget discussions should start with a ZERO percent increase. That would force staff to look for any waste, staffing levels, services reductions, etc.
A chimp could do the job if spending is set and taxes are adjusted accordingly and he would work for a lot less than the 100K plus we are paying some of the top staff.

bubbles for council?

Don Zurowski (Whats his name) was nothing more than a Kinsley **Clone** If he got elected then we would have just more of the same.

All the big projects on the horizen are left overs from the Kinsley, Zurowski era;.
ie; Police Station, Co-Generation scheme, Performing Arts Centre, Boundry Road, and of Course the ill conceived River Road upgrade.

I havent heard of any new projects coming forward from Rodgers and his council. If they do absolutely nothing, then they will save us millions of dollars, because Kinsley and Zurowski would be planning new multi million dollar schemes by this time.

Plus they would all be in Vancouver on our dollar.

Palopu

Thats funny. Rogers has been in Kinsley's back pocket for years, yet you call down Zurowski based on Kinsley. Hell, you didnt even know Kinsleys name.

Tell, what do you know of Zurowski? Give us some back ground, you should have some, your very quick to call him down. Lets see your evidence. While your at it, give us some good that Rogers has done.

I dont need to know anything about Zurowski (and I have known his name for years) other than what I observed at the Council meetings. To me he is nothing more than a self serving Politician.

Seems to me that when he lost the election he was P....d off and stated that he would probably go back to Saskatchewan. Maybe he did go back, who knows, and who cares. Your description on Zurowski's qualifications for Mayor, ie; business background, had employees, etc; etc; discribes many people in this and other towns across Canada, however it does not necessarily follow that he would be a good Mayor.

Kinsley, Zurowski and other like minded politicians are the one's who got this City into its present debt, high tax, situation, I for one am glad to see them heading down the road to where ever they are going.

I doubt that if Rodgers worked 16 hours a day 7 days per week for the next 2 years, he could ever screw up this City to the degree that the previous administration did. (I am aware that Rodgers was part of that council at one time)

My position is that Rodgers over time will do less harm to this City than the other choices.

Didn't Zuroski basically pout like a child after losing the last election, only to effectively tell the people of PG that if he wasn't wanted here, he would take off to pursue other things? Yeah, that's the type of character I want displayed from the person running the city.

As for being a business man, I would hope that you folks would realize that running the city isn't the same as selling tires, rims or spark plugs. Truth be told, your classic small business owner would probably be driven to the brink of insanity if they tried to manage the city like they did their business. The issues are completely different, the span of control is completely different, the reporting requirements are completely different, the responsibilities are completely different, etc.

The other thing that many of you seem to forget is that COUNCIL is responsible for voting on matters. The mayor, alone, can't get the city into a mess, nor can he get us out of one. He/she can work as part of an overall team to do that though. You have problems with the way the city is being managed? Look to EVERYONE on council and not just the mayor. Look at their voting records, look at the committee's they sit on, look at the ideas they bring to the table. Maybe the problem isn't with the mayor so much as with the team he has around him.

Good points NMG. However I would add, that the Job of Mayor allows a lot more interaction with the City Manager, Police, City Clerk, Planning///Engineering departments, etc;,, and therefore he has much more influence on what happens in the City, and what come up for discussion, etc; Coouncillors (as part time employees) do not have the time, nor the resources, nor the authority to do the same.

While the Mayor as an example can have a meeting with the City Manager at any time he chooses, I would suggest that Councillors are somewhat limited.

The position of the Mayor, is much like that of a Chairmen of the Board. The job of the Chairmen of the Board is to get the board of directors to do what he wants done.

The job of the Mayor in some respects is to get the Councillors, and City Staff to push his agenda. Kinsley was very good in this respect, and as a result we spent a lot of money.

Hopefully this excessive spending will stop or at least slow down with Rodgers as Mayor.

I wonder if maybe the city shouldn't up the use fees.
You want it...pay for it....
Watch the bitching and bellaching happen then!

Agreed Palopu. No doubt the Mayor should have significant influence on what happens in the City. If they aren't, then you have to start looking at why. Perhaps they are an ineffective leader? Perhaps council is full of people who aren't suited for the job? Perhaps administraion and city management are incompetent? Perhaps the voters are stupid and elect a council that is conflicted and can't work together?

I'm not sure we've EVER really had a truly cohesive unit working together at the City, at least in the length of time I've been "interested" in local politics. It sure would be nice to get a group together that is all pulling in the same direction.

"I wonder if maybe the city shouldn't up the use fees. You want it...pay for it.... Watch the bitching and bellaching happen then"

Not a bad idea at all BCRacer. Just like any "business", you can cut costs to help address the bottom line and you can also grow revenues. If we can't attract new revenue streams (i.e. property taxes from NEW building), perhaps we should consider raising prices for other products . . .

Mayor Rogers and the rest of City Council have been a major disappointment. If they ran their own households, or ran their own businesses, the way that they run City Hall, they would be bankrupt.

Unfortunately Mayor Dan and his cohorts do not have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the wanton spending habits of the incompetent City bureaucats. There is not a single City Director or manager that could not find at least a 10% saving in their various departments. However, they have NOT been given this direction by City Council.

There is not a single member of City Council that will get my vote at the next civic election, if they do not VOTE AGAINST the proposed tax increases!

Good post Mr.PG
Im with ya.

Wow, talk about a small increase to taxes and people go crazy!!!

Did people forget the overall increase is about $54.00 That's about $1/week. Ok, I own a home that might be considered a bit above average and I pay about $2,400 per year in property taxes and about $650 in utilities. So overall in a year it's just over $3 grand. If I break that down into a per month payment it's about $250/month. For that I get clean water, sewer, garbage, arenas, 2 swimming pools, CN Centre, city roads etc. Is it perfect, no, but when you think of what you are getting, I definitely am getting my money's worth. I just bought groceries for the week and it was $125. That's for one week. $250/month is a bargain.

So some people I notice don't like the City buying old buildings and tearing them down. Well, I for one don't like looking at a building that hasn't been painted or updated since disco was in style. So I think at least there is the possibility that downtown is starting to look a bit better.

For those that want to vote the Mayor and City Council out, go ahead there's always Fetterly to vote for!!!!

I think what people need to see is what really goes into the job as Mayor. I bet it's 2 full time jobs not one.

Hey mwk, why do you think that Prince George needs two swimming pools? If we only had one swimming pool,there would be no need for a tax increase in 2010.

Closing the Four Seasons pool would just be the start of my cost savings.

After the last election Mr Zurowski was asked if he was going to run for mayor again or step into provincial or federal politics. I stated that after the election he no longer wanted to be part of public life and was going onto other ventures and would not run for office again.

Im not sure where that comes off as pouting. He is a man of his word and he has integrity, he wont run for office again.

Yes he sold his small business at 36 years old and semi retired, but he then came out of retirement to take a position as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Community Futures Development of Fraser Fort George. He left that position after a number of years to be the manager of the Federal Business and Development Bank, Prince George location.

Yes he was a small business owner, but he also spent considerable time in much more public surroundings. He had the qualifications to make an excellent Mayor.

As for Palopu's statement that "he stated that he would probably go back to Saskatchewan" is a bunch of bullpucky and shows just uninformed Palopu is. Mr Zurowski and his family are still residents of Prince George and have been for nearly 40 years. He never stated he wanted or was going to move to Saskatchewan.

"Closing the Four Seasons pool would just be the start of my cost savings"

I'd like to see the actual figures, but I have a hard time believing that the Four Season pool makes money. If it doesn't, then I think you have a point Mr. PG . . . why do we NEED two pools? Maybe one is perfectly fine and we can forego the operating costs of the Four Seasons and either save those amounts completely, or divert them to other useful purposes (roads for example).

Another thing I would look at would be the library. Between the Public Library, the CNC library and the UNBC library, we have to have more books per capita than any city of 70,000 in Canada. Perhaps there there opportunities to work or partner with UNBC and/or CNC to house the Public Library materials and make those facilities available to the public as a direct replacement for the PG library? Controversial? Probably, but why not consider it if it will save us money?

Ice rinks, again, raise the prices. Same goes for swimming, ball diamonds, room renatls at the Civic Cente, etc. It doesn't have to be major, but everything helps.

I'd also consider REDUCING the frequency of snow removal and garbage pickup. We don't need to plow residential streets when only a few inches of snow falls. It's a waste of gas for the plows, OT wages for the workers, etc. If people have so much garbage that they need it picked up more than once every 10 days, they can go to the dump.

There are things that could be done but they would require changes to the status quo and quite honestly, they would not be popular to some people. Such is life. If the finances are in that much of a mess, decisions need to be made to get things back on track. I think we need some creative thinking on ways to tackle our budget issues instead of the same ole "let's just plow more money into the problems". The same ole doesn't seem to be working too well.

I have no issue with tax increases if we see the results, but to be blunt, I don't think we're seeing increased service levels. If anything, I think we're seeing a decline in service levels for increased dollars. That isn't the way it should be going.

The city also needs to do some serious work in attracting new business to town. Nothing will help more than to get new property owners in town to help with the tax rolls. If we start to address issues such as air quality, the cleanliness of the city, social issues downtown, crime, etc., it will help improve the business climate and the willingness of people to relocate here, thus spurring investment.

In short, we need allot of work. The City has to pull up their socks and get to work and the people in PG also need to stop with the constant negative attitude. We have a great deal of opportunity here, but in my experience, opportunities tend not to develop when you are always dealing with sour pusses. Everyone has a role to play.

I got home from work about an hour ago. I say that, to let you know that I worked all night. At approximately 3:00 AM, I drove south on Ospika Blvd., passing by the CN Center.

As I passed by, I had to take a second look. In the parking lot of CN Center, there was a full size City of Prince George dump truck, a full size City of Prince George loader, and........... a City of Prince George pick up truck (you know the kind, they have the flashing arrows on them to direct traffic.)

What were they doing???? They were removing the windrow's of snow that divide the parking lanes during winter. Loader loading dump truck, and dump truck, when full, hauling away snow. And yes, they had the City pickup truck there for traffic control!

3:00 in the morning folks! Forecast is for plus 5 today. What a waste of tax payers money. This crap goes on all over town at night.

Look for my next report. I am going to start packing my digital with me. I will get pictures for you.

Whoever it is we have running these various departments, need to be given their walking papers. We pay "BIG BUCKS" for these positions, I suggest we fill them with more qualified personal.

Again I will say the phrase, "putting on the hours". Figure it out.