Budget Begins On Monday — MJ Independent

It should be a busy weekend for members of Moose Jaw City Council as they read through the proposed City budget as on Monday night Budget Committee for 2019-2020 meets for the first time.

The proposed budget or rather the scheduled process of approving it was a topic for this past Monday’s regular Council meeting.

Council was told the plan was to have the budget finalized by December 17 but if more time was needed, given it is so close to Christmas, the process would be finalized in January. At Monday night's Council meeting the proposed budget had yet to be finalized and distributed to Council for review.

“The quicker we get it the better,” Councillor Scott McMann said asking if the entire budget could not be delivered soon at least the portions completed “rather than one whole package that gives us a time crunch.”

Councillor Heather Eby, although just recently elected, spoke about past experience from her previous time on Council where time was spent reviewing sections of the budget dealt with already each time Budget Committee met.

“I’m hoping we can be more efficient with time in the way we manage these things. Because you really don’t get a lot done in budget if you drag it on. So we got 11 hours budgeted there so hopefully we can make that work efficiently,” Councillor Eby stated.

Councillor Chris Warren also spoke about the budget running smoothly this year.

“I believe when we talked about this budget this time around…streamline it and potentially not go through like we have in the past every branch's and department’s objectives being that we are in the third budget on this Council. The discussion be more around new initiatives or enhancements or revenue generating or obviously (new) costs, any new costs that might be in the budget. Focus more on that than the usual business type piece,” Councillor Warren said.

Finance Director Brian Acker said plans were to streamline the budget process.

“In April we did have those planning sessions that is certainly one Administration heard loud and clear was to streamline the process. Over the 11 hours we have scheduled we have a tentative schedule that would see us complete the budget process,” Acker stated.

“There is a lot to accomplish in that period of time but the closeness of the meetings will help to some degree when it comes to the repetition. We won’t need that repetition as it will still be in our minds…certainly the intent is to keep things tight and concise and move through the process as quickly as we can.”

The budget schedule was not released soon enough for one councillor who will have to miss a portion of one meeting due to work commitments.

“Getting a little bit more notice would be appreciated because I do not like missing these important meetings and it is (not) something I can move around now after invitations have gone out and stuff like that. We do need to have some notice and think most of us can appreciate that with our busy meetings and work schedules and that sort of thing,” Councillor Dawn Luhning stated.

Councillor Luhning had already stated she had a previously scheduled meeting with a client for the December 5th Budget Committee meeting and was unable to attend at least the first portion of it.

Councillor positions are not full-time jobs in Moose Jaw, only the mayor is a full-time position.

Council voted unanimously to accept the Budget Committee schedule.

Budget Committee's schedule and agenda is as follows:

Monday December 3rd 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm

The itinerary for this meeting is to focus on short executive type summaries from each department including business plans, capital plans and equipment requests.

Wednesday December 5th 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm

This meeting's itinerary is to allow third party groups to present their budget requests to Budget Committee.

Third party groups scheduled to make presentations are Murals of Moose Jaw, Moose Jaw Cultural Centre Inc, Moose Jaw Public Library, Moose Jaw Police Service and the Airport Authority.

Wednesday December 12th 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm

The third meeting of Budget Committee will be the start of the decision making process.

Monday December 17th 7 pm – 9 pm

The meeting intends to deal with:

- Councillor remuneration shortfall report

- Carbon Tax report

- Request for service software report

- Engineering Service capital program adjustments

- Enhancement report

The meetings are open to and the Public is encouraged to attend. The meetings take place in Council Chambers at City Hall.

Although none have made any indication to do so individuals and groups are allowed to make presentations to Budget Committee.

Also new this year the City will not be distributing budget folders to the media as a cost cutting measure, but the documents are now on-line for everyone to view. Simply click on the link at the top of the page just under the title City Council.

The documents are available at https://moosejaw.ca/city-council/city-council

Plans were to televise Monday evening's Budget Committee meeting on Shaw Cable 10 as well as the City's web-site as well as tentative plans to broadcast all 11 hours although those plans were not finalized by press time.