Red Deer city council reduced spending Friday by $100,000 on a major workplan that could decide the fate of adding more RCMP officers and other positions related to crime prevention and safety.
City council was heavily divided on cutting the Safety Charter budget.
In the end, Mayor Morris Flewwelling, and Councillors Dianne Wyntjes, Frank Wong, Paul Harris and Tara Veer approved reducing the recommended $300,000 budget down to $200,000.
Councillors Lynne Mulder, Buck Buchanan, Cindy Jefferies and Chris Stephan voted against.
Council had earlier approved $110,000 to implement the charter. But this additional money, now set at $200,000, can be used toward various endeavors that council sees fit after the 2012 operational budget is passed next week.
The Safety Charter’s key strategies include implementing recommendations from last years’s extensive policing study, as well the development of a Social Master Plan, a mental health pilot project through the RCMP and Red Deer Primary Care Network, a Red Deer drug strategy and a Downtown Community Development project.
Several councillors felt that some of the budget could be lowered, which would result in some taxpayer savings.
Veer said the recommended property tax increase going in to budget talks was set at 4.55 per cent which she said is too high already.
She said residents’ incomes haven’t kept pace, plus utility fees are increasing.
Harris initially wanted the $300,000 to remain within the budget, but feels that the $200,000 was a start as city manager Craig Curtis said.
And if there are some positions or projects that need to be funded sometime midway through the year, council can approve money being taken out of the Tax Stabilization Reserve, Harris said.
Mulder felt the $300,000 would have been a big help while Jefferies said she was disappointed the entire amount wasn’t approved.
“When it comes to any work, the city will now have to endure great patience,” said Jefferies.
Buchanan, part of CrimeStoppers, said he really hopes some of the money could be allocated to crime prevention organizations such as Citizens on Patrol and CrimeStoppers.
Council agreed with city manager Craig Curtis’ recommendation not to approve a number of positions that RCMP wanted — two community peace officers, a criminal analyst position, a court liaison officer position, video capture technician/training and development facilitator, and four RCMP officers (three school resource officers, and one additional officer dedicated to the Mental Health project).
That $200,000 Safety Charter budget could end up being used towards any of these positions.
Buchanan said he believes the RCMP’s request for a criminal analyst position is valid. But he figured it should come in the form of an RCMP member, not a municipal employee one.
“We’ve increased our municipal employee complement by 50 per cent in the last five years at the detachment,” said Buchanan.
The Safety Charter, along with five other charters, arose from the 2012-14 Strategic Direction. It guides administration in creating organizational change, operational strategies and work plans.
The direction expresses council’s understanding of the community’s vision.
Stephan voted against funding all six plans — including the $90,000 for the Effectiveness Charter, nearly $91,000 for the Dialogue Charter, $90,000 on the Design Charter, the $102,000 for the Economy Charter, and the Identity Charter of $59,155.
“The charters came from our Strategic Plan which I didn’t support,” said Stephan later.
“I felt there was a disconnect between what council saw was a strategic plan and what the true needs or desires of the community are.”
Stephan said the city needs to be cognizant of the kind of property tax increase that could come down, thanks in part to this kind of spending.
“While I think the charter work is important, it’s not essential,” he said.
“I think we need to focus more on our essential services like our paramedics, firefighting, policing and road maintenance.”
Stephan said he believes a lot of these budgets will just get gobbled up in administrative expenses.
“By putting these blanket dollars and not allocating them, my fear is that it will get sucked up into administration costs when we could be supporting some of the crime prevention agencies that Councillor (Buck) Buchanan was suggesting, as well as adding police officers,” Stephan told council on Thursday.
Mayor Morris Flewwelling said any expenditure from the charters would have to get council’s blessing and that includes any administrative costs.
HHH
By the end of two days of budget debate, here is what council has made reductions or additions on, affecting the overall operating budget:
l Council made one tentative reduction to the budget and that involved the item of council representation on external boards and committees. It was budgeted at $18,144, but council asked that it be $10,396.
l Reduced Safety Charter budget by $100,000
l Made an adjustment to utilities to provide some tax relief this year. This means there was a reduction in the budget by $113,124.
l Added $10,000 to the fee-for-service agreement to the Waskasoo Environmental Education Society
lauratester@www.reddeeradvocate.com