Council Discusses Hiring More Temporary Workers To Tidy Up Green Spaces
The pendulum between more staff to help keep City park space more neat and trim versus the economic situation was swinging at the December 9th special budget related meeting of Moose Jaw City Council.
Council was asked by the Parks and Recreation Department to approve three separate requests about hiring additional staff and related equipment to upgrade the Summer park maintenance program.
The first request would see the hiring of a seasonal lead hand to help oversee park maintenance at a cost of $33,145.
The second would see the hiring of two temporary labourers at a cost of $32,500 and a $14,000 road safe utility vehicle to enhance weed trimming.
The third request would see the hiring of a temporary irrigation attendant at a cost of $30,000 and a vehicle for a further $20,000.
Council can approve the requests individually or if they chose all three requests could be approved.
In addressing the proposals city manager Jim Puffalt said the requests fit into “the philosophy of accountability of staff and the problems that we face.”
Puffalt spoke in favour of hiring the supervisory lead hand because of the large number of employees a lone manager is presently in charge of.
“While we are not overmanaged by any stretch of the imagination generally our span (manager to employee) of control is one to six, one to seven or even higher…but when it comes to the park seasonal work we have one supervisor to run or manage a schwak, that is my larger number term,” Puffalt said.
“A schwak of employees they are all over the city. They are running mowers and weed whackers and so I think we need a little bit of coordination of this work,” he said.
Speaking about the requests parks and recreation manager Derek Blais said Administration was cognizant of the financial challenges when making the request for four new seasonal employees and related equipment.
“We do understand at the time of this request considering the circumstances around us right now and some of the financial pressures,” Blais said. “It is something important to our department. It is something we have identified would not only improve the level of our service but staff safety in a number of different items.”
Some of the weeds that got out of hand as heavy rains in July followed by heat in August lead to a weed explosion - MJ Independent file photo
Council was told since 2013 Parks and Recreation have picked up the maintenance responsibilities of several park areas. All at the same time with no increases in staffing.
All of the park maintenance areas picked up since 2013 are newer park areas except for Happy Valley Park which was previously leased to the Moose Jaw Multicultural Association (MJMC). The MJMC returned the park to the City after a major increase to the amount the City charged for maintenance.
Puffalt said there was a belief that hiring the additional staff would in the end save the City money but he was unable to quantify exactly how much the potential savings would be.
Councillor Heather Eby said she supported the initiative.
“I am in favour of all three of these even as Mr Blais said it was really not a great time to bring forward these kind of requests,” Councillor Eby said. “There is just not enough people to do the work.”
“Although it is a bad time because of the pandemic I believe it is a time to take more pride in our community….I think it is the best time to invest in the parks in our city.”
Councillor Doug Blanc spoke about his former employment and how that taught him the need for enough supervision.
“You can have a supervisor spread out too far and then they don’t do an adequate job because they don’t know what is going on,” Councillor Blanc said. “It is certainly a cheap cost…I think it is something we should do.”
Councillor Jamey Logan said he was torn between the need to have a tidy city but at the same time the economic pressures people are facing due to pandemic.
“It’s a tough time to add costs to a budget,” Councillor Logan said.
In response to a question about the City’s ability to do the work in 2020 Blais said the work had been done OK.
“I think we did pretty good with the re-deployments we had and everything we did a good job,” Blais said.
Weeds growing on the property of the proposed Scotch distillery this past Summer were a contentious issue - MJ Independent file photo
One area of the city that did complain to Executive Committee in 2020 about the quality of grass cutting, weed control and upkeep was the Iron Bridge subdivision.
Councillor Dawn Luhning said she was opposed to the additional hirings but that the City should concentrate more to ensure owners of private property keep their lots in better condition.
“Where I hear complaints about weeds is not on City property but on property owned by other property owners,” Councillor Luhning said adding one of the complaints she hears each year comes from the owner of the Mad Greek restaurant and the vacant property adjacent to it that is for sale.
Puffalt told Council he had taken charge of forcing the owners of the property in question to control their weeds by personally contacting the realtor attempting to sell the property on a daily basis to correct the problem.
Despite other members of Council supporting the hirings Councillor Luhning said she could not do so.
“I can’t comfortably keep adding increases at this time to our budget. We have got to keep it in line for our citizens,” she said.
Council then decided to table the issue until later in the budget to see if there were other requests that were more pressing and the effects they might have on the overall tax increase.
SEE RELATED - City Admits To Weed Problem