Outdoor Pool Not Opening Part Of Budget Cuts
In a budget which effectively wipes out Summer the City of Moose Jaw has officially closed the outdoor pool for 2020.
It's all part of a revised Operating Budget debated over 90 minutes which will see property taxes taking a 0.08 percent decrease instead of the previous 2.3 percent increase or just over $670,000 tax decrease from what had been previously announced for 2020.
A large part of the reductions were found by making the decision to not open the Phyllis Dewar Outdoor Pool saving $166,000.
The revised Operating Budget envisions the Moose Jaw Public Library continuing to be closed to public access until August 29th returning $150,000 to City's coffers.
All of the reductions are in the face of the provincial State of Emergency COVID - 19 restrictions.
“There were a lot of reductions made due to the immediacy of the Covid - 19 crisis,” city manager Jim Puffalt told Council as he presented recommendations to trim the budget to no tax increase for 2020.
“We were able to reduce the numbers of people working in those facilities,” Puffalt said about City facilities closed because of provincial Covid - 19 restrictions. “We believe the outdoor pool is not going to happen this year “
On a positive note the City has not seen as many residents and businesses not paying their water bills and property taxes as initially expected.
“We have not seen a major reduction in property taxes collected…water (bill payments) have dropped…(there has been a reduction) but not as much as we thought there would be in the collection of taxes.”
At the present time the City allows property taxes and utility bills to be paid on a monthly basis. About 35 percent make monthly property payment and 15 percent make monthly utility payments.
The City has deferred property taxes and utility bills until the end of September without penalty or enforcement action.
A major effort was made to only hire seasonal employees who had needed skill sets this year with many seasonal employees not being recalled by the City this year.
Instead the City has redeployed permanent staff to other jobs filled by seasonal employees not recalled.
A one percent tax increase assigned to Parks and Recreation capital projects for 2020 was deferred to 2021 saving $295,426.
Administration found a number of expenditure savings through reorganizing their operations due to the COVID - 19 pandemic.
LIST OF SAVINGS FOUND
Parks, Recreation and Facilities One Percent Capital Funding Tax Postponed to 2021 saving ($295,426)
Not opening Outdoor Pool ($166,176)
Funds returned by Third Party Groups ($159,100)
Financial Resources and Human Resources Measures ($51,060)
POTENTIAL PANDEMIC PAYOFF - LEVY STAYING
Puffalt said a recent announcement by the Province to spend an additional $2 billion on infrastructure to restart the economy is good news for the City.
According to Puffalt although the full details are not known at this time the City is looking at an additional $4.8 million over two years for infra structure.
“It is pretty exciting times therr will be funding coming our way. It's unfortunate the pandemic brought it our way. But we do have needs…it’s important to the start the infrastructure levy this year,” Puffalt said.
The levy will be banked and then used once the federal and provincial dollars are no longer available, he said.
Council was originally asked to approve a $100 infrastructure levy following the end of the Hospital Levy.
After discussion Council decided to charge a $30 levy or flat tax dedicated to infrastructure in 2020 and then ramp it up to $100 over three years. The reason for the phased in approach was the levy was financially difficult on lower income property owners.
THE DISCUSSION
Councillor Chris Warren said the pandemic had struck very fast and left the City scrambling when it came to offering residents the facilities they relied upon.
“It's unfortunate not to see the Outdoor Pool open this year…when you look at all of the restrictions it’s going to be a challenge,” Councillor Warren said. “With all of the uncertainty what this (revised budget) does is provide some immediate relief to the pressures we are facing.”
Councillor Crystal Froese spoke out about the effects the revised budget would have on third party organizations who operate facilities for the City.
“I am a little concerned for changing our budget in terms of third parties until the end of this year,” she said, adding why couldn’t the budget be updated on a monthly basis to provide funds back to third party organizations if the restrictions were lifted sooner.
Finance director Brian Acker said the revised budget was not based on the entire year but the re-start of the third party organizations in late August as indicated by the provincial government. All budgets he said were not static but had flexibility in them and Administration adjusted them continually throughout the year.
Councillor Brian Swanson questioned the background report provided and how it was different than an original impact report provided to Council at the April 8th meeting.
Councillor Swanson questioned the reason to vote for the outdoor pool not opening in 2020 because it was one of the measures already voted for in April and why was it not listed on the May 11th document as it had been on the April 8th document.
Acker said the savings from not opening the pool was merely accounted for differently and in the past it had not conclusively approved at that time.
Engineering Department Takes Hits
In the area of the Engineering Department's operations Councillor Swanson asked about an increase in the revised budget from $300,000 to $400,000 for unfilled positions.
“There were some additional positions going to be vacant and that is how we are going from $300,000 to $400,000,” Acker replied.
Councillor Swanson questioned the staffing redeployments and the overall reduction in the Engineering Department.
He said given the state of Moose Jaw's roads the $800,000 or 15 percent of the department's total budget eliminated was disproportionate to what other departments reduced.
Councillor Swanson expressed concern experienced people in road repairs were not being hired back but rather less knowledgable full time staff were being redeployed to pothole and other repairs.
“The people who have experience they are not being hired…they have lots of experience and we are putting permanent employees in there to save jobs.”
Puffalt replied the majority of people being re-deployed were from the utility and had experience in road patching and repair.
Where Is Budget Committee?
At the start of his presentation Puffalt said Council had previously voted to no longer use Budget Committee but lots if work had gone into whittling down a zero percent budget increase.
It is something which did not sit well with Councillor Swanson who had promised the motion to re-open the Operating Budget process.
“The purpose was to have elected officials to be part of the process…I would have liked to have Budget Committee where we can provide direction and options.”
He felt the cuts, instead of in Engineering, should have concentrated on some recent initiatives and hires in other departments.
“The bottom line is we don’t lose one full-time permanent position when we have businesses that are going to close.”
When it came to halving the budget fir capping and sealing Councillor Swanson Saud it was the wrong move.
“Its a preventative measure you can seal them to prevent freeze and thaw…however we cut it (years ago) what we initially proposed is being cut at 50 percent. It’s not an area where we should be cutting given the state of ourvriads “
Wakamow Dodges Financial Bullet
Councillor Heather Eby said she was concerned about the proposed grant cut to the Wakamow Valley Authority especially since they were not closed like other third party organizations and more people were out using the park than normal.
Since Council would likely not be making any further travel this year Councillor Eby asked if the travel budget for councillors could not be cut and the money dedicated to ensure the Authority would not see any cuts.
“I don’t know why we are budgeting when nobody is going to travel that shouldn'tbeven be in there.”
Mayor Fraser Tolmie offered up some of his travel budget as part of the motion put forward by Councillor Eby.
“I don’t think my travel expenses are going to be that high this year I would cut my travel expenses by 50 percent,” Mayor Tolmie said.
Councillor Warren said he could not support eliminating the cut to Wakamow because they had very healthy reserve funds.
Councillor Swanson said Wakamiw had $1 million in reserves because of corporate and individuals donating and it was not by banking grants given to them.
Council voted 6 - 1 with Councillor Warren opposed to cut the $31,000 from their travel funds thereby not cutting the proposed $7,800 from Wakamow.
Budget Needs Structural Change
Despite the COVID - 19 pandemic seemingly crippling businesses and heavily impacting the City's botton-line Councillor Swanson said in reality it’s being used as a political excuse. He called for major reconsideration of the Budget.
“There is all kinds statistical evidence the Moose Jaw economy was in trouble for years before it (COVID - 19 pandemic) will become the excuse for everything “
Councillor Swanson said Council needed to look beyond the temporary fixes and do some real structural things with the Budget.
Mayor Tolmie said Council needed to focus on the present situation and not the past.
“There is no cure for COVID - 19. So that is the reality that we face…there are challenges here and the key to moving forward is to pivot. ..we may have to re-address this and re-visit the budget…we have a zero percent increase with no expense to capital projects important to this community.”
Councillor Warren said he favoured the reports recommendations. He said during the Operating Budget's initial passing he had proposed some changes but none of them wete approved and such a line by line approach would likely fail this time around due to no support.
In the end all four major cuts were unanimously approved.