Red Deer city council questioned how to address staffing levels in the midst of continued financial restraint during the first day of debating the 2012 municipal operational budget.
Civic leaders wondered on Thursday whether to go ahead and approve recommendations from departments regarding a few positions they say are needed to meet growing pressures.
Red Deer Emergency Services had asked for nearly $132,000 to pay for an assistant deputy chief of operations, a new position to support the deputy chief of operations.
City manager Craig Curtis said he felt a realignment of responsibilities was needed in the department, so he recommended against such a position.
While he may be appearing “a little hard nosed” about the position, Curtis said he felt there were adequate administrative resources within the department.
Council agreed with Curtis, but there were still mixed views.
Councillor Chris Stephan voted against the manager’s recommendation, saying he believes it’s important to invest in personnel and safety.
“I certainly believe in safety too . . . but I don’t think we have any demonstration of that (regarding this position),” said Coun. Lynne Mulder.
Coun. Tara Veer said she couldn’t support this new position because layoffs are being contemplated in other municipal areas, plus the city is also not replacing some positions in order to save money. She added she was intrigued by Stephan’s comments, considering how he’s talked about staffing levels being too high.
Coun. Dianne Wyntjes suggested this position could be looked at again for next year.
Making the crime prevention co-ordinator position a full-time permanent position didn’t fly with council. Curtis had recommended not bringing the contract position “in-house.”
The proposal would have cost the city $92,810. A new Safety Charter, or workplan of the city to develop strategies over the next several years involving crime prevention and similar topics, will include reviewing the role of the crime prevention co-ordinator.
Coun. Paul Harris voted against Curtis’ recommendation.
Council approved extending the Aboriginal Employment Initiative for another year at $60,000. This allows the city to partner with aboriginal organizations on providing employment training and jobs to students. The exact budget would fund 12 students.
Mulder said she strongly supported this initiative because it’s building a strong relationship between the city and the aboriginal community.
Wyntjes wondered about cutting the spending in half. Human Resources manager Marge Wray said this would cut the number of students who could apply.
Coun. Buck Buchanan said he liked the program, but he questioned the $60,000 amount. He voted against this funding request, along with Veer.
She said she couldn’t justify such a program right now when the city is not filling some vacant positions.
There was some question too surrounding pay increases for staff, as well as changes to what council would get in pay for committee work.
Stephan voted against “personnel allocations” of $3.1 million within the municipal operational base budget. This money relates to union contract negotiations. He believes the city can’t support its current staffing levels, so this allotment is too high.
And when it came to Red Deer Public Library’s Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)/non-union salary/benefit increases of just over $105,000, Stephan voted against those as well.
“Taxpayers are footing the bill for city staff increases when in a lot of cases, taxpayers aren’t getting the same kind of wage increases,” he said.
Wyntjes, a former regional director with CUPE, said she’s looked at several recent news media reports on the economy, one that shows Alberta tops the list of projected pay hikes.
“If we don’t keep pace, we’re going to be spending dollars on attracting, retention and paying more training dollars,” Wyntjes said.
Harris added that libraries are a collection of people so it’s important “to look after our people well” and in turn, this helps the community become more educated.
The 2012 operational budget is so far set at nearly $269.8 million — up slightly from the 2011 budget of $269.2 million.
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. This cost is related to three special committees they attend — Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Red Deer Regional Watershed Alliance and Inner City Forum on Social Planning — which is outside core business. The decision was made to fund this separately.
“Because they made the decision in November to move to total salary versus a per diem rate (for attending meetings), we eliminated the per diems from this funding request,” said Legislative and Governance Services manager Elaine Vincent.
Council supported an increase of almost $31,000 in council operations. This is related in part to workshops that elected leaders take part in. In 2011, council decided to cut this budget by $10,000, but then they saw an increase in activity levels, said Vincent.
The budget debate continues this afternoon.
Also discussed:
— A total amount of $2.57 million of projects carry forward from previous years is approved. No impact on 2012 tax base.
— Impact of prior year budgets totalling $2.455 million is supported. These are budget amounts approved for two years, so would have initially been approved in 2011. Council just confirms these budgets.
— Council supports City of Red Deer Centennial planning of $40,000, money which would be used for the City of Red Deer to host its own centennial celebration. There is a wider focus and larger municipal-supported budget involving a community committee, which is separate from this. Councillor Chris Stephan was opposed. Money will not be spent without council’s input, but this is the amount budgeted, said city manager Craig Curtis.
— Council keeps in spending $10,580 on Ipsos Reid survey on municipal sustainability and financial planning. There was some debate on lowering amount to $7,000 because several councillors felt the survey could be done at a lower cost. Others felt this survey is very valuable at gathering information for the city.
— Council supports a recommendation from city manager Craig Curtis to reduce the Snow and Ice Contingency reserve of $586,000 by $200,000 so that it’s $386,000. Coun. Paul Harris supported keeping the reserve at the full amount, so he opposed.
— Strategic Communications budget of $24,200 is approved. Mixed views on council about this budget which aims to ensure proper and effective communication of the city’s Strategic Plan as well as the municipal budget.
— Council accepts the manager’s recommendation not to increase the preventative road maintenance budget by $475,000. This money goes towards cracksealing and similar work. Curtis had recommended that the Public Words department reallocate a portion of the large crown paving budget for this purpose. Stephan was opposed to taking out this increase.
— As recommended by Curtis, council accepts to reduce the increased costs of the spring cleaning budget by $100,000. The increase in the budget for 2012 is $28,838, which remains a three per cent increase in the budget. Last year’s total budget for spring cleaning was $1 million. Stephan was opposed to reducing the increase.
— Council unanimously endorsed the increased cost of the RCMP member fee agreement by $617,150. It approved spending $92,508 on a provincial funding shortfall to pay for three officers.
— Council supports budgeting $25,000 towards library facility planning. Some of this money would go towards the already-approved Timberlands branch, but the bulk of the money would go towards planning for a new library on the southeast side. Mayor Morris Flewwelling said the downtown library took nine years to come to fruition. This gets the community dialogue going, said Harris. Councillors Frank Wong and Chris Stephan were opposed.
lauratester@www.reddeeradvocate.com