Clearview salaries up 300 per cent?

Letter to The Council of Clearview, February 12, 2012

I am concerned about the rising costs and chatting with a neighbour. Somebody pointed out to me some budget information located here http://only1taxpayer.ca/

But I want to get to the bottom of it using Clearview information, so I went here,

http://www.clearview.ca/home/municipal-services/finance 

that redirects me to here,

http://www.clearview.ca/home/information/publications

But there is no information on the proposed 2012 budget here.

Yet, another button on the website takes you to it  http://www.clearview.ca/home/budget-2012

There is a sheet called

2012 Capital and Operating Project Summaries.pdf

But where are the sheets for the actual operations budget?    Why not post everything for everybody to see?

I did my own look at wages and salaries over the years and wonderes how many were on payroll in order to keep things running.

Year 2000 Wages and Salaries $1,736,525

Year 2010 Wages and Salaries $5,217,662

An increase of about 300% in about 10 years.

What was the increase in population, km of roads, if any of other proportional changes?

I believe during this time we made the following changes in operations,

Hydro, sewer and water went to Collus, Waste went to County, ie. Cleaview has a smaller portfolio.

Of course, all costs that were tied to the province and the provinces unions went up, eg all labour costs including policing. Blame the liberals.

Lately sewers and water cost to residences and businesses has increased some 30%.

Hydro costs to residences and businesses are up thanks to the rich FIT contracts and the liberal provincial government.

Ok, what else is there… interest payments for items including the Hub.  Wasn’t it about year and a half ago that one of the newspapers didn’t think people should be concerned with rising costs.  Another thing I had heard at a Council meeting around that time was that present residents would not be paying for the Hub, so when will the future residents be picking up the current charges?

Hopefully this council will publish the draft operational budget documents so we all can see what the intentions of council are.

We seem to be a bit dated wrt the mpmp reports, eg. the latest one is 2008. Perhaps this is an opportunity for an operational review.  My comment on the Capital part is: it is pretty rich, eg. to buy a new fire truck for almost $400k.   Do the roads that are on the schedule actually need the work this year vs some deferral?  Are there technical decisons being made based on condition assessment and risk management?

Latest census shows Clearview going down in population. My guess this is in proportion to rising costs or anticipated rising costs, people who are able to move, like the Caterpillar Company will move to where opportunities are.  The effects of McGuinty do not bode well for small municipalities far away from cities.  The negative effects of wind turbines will add to the generational shift that results in rural population decreasing over time. This will accelarate.  Clearview should be thinking about decreasing both number on council and number of staff only for key functions such as roads.  If hydro, sewer and water, police are contracted, why not fire, and libraries, and then, waste and tax collection too.  A “make vs buy” analysis should be done. When I look at everything, I sense a lot of opportunities for efficiency.

While everybody else has to tighten their belt including right sizing, with the costs of everything intensely scrutinized; where is this council at in terms of path forward. Why are we hiring people at this point in time?  And then there is a 3% council wage increase buried in one of the presentations.  Most interesting.  This seems to be a budget that union people can afford, but not those on fixed income.  What is the average wages a worker makes in Clearview vs how many are somewhere on the sunshine list? 

Council needs to be asking; what is the purpose and function of everything and each person on payroll.  There is something good managers know when to say, and that is the word ‘no’, and finding ways to live in a less than perfect world.  It’s a part of what’s called managing.

Eric Jelinski

Stayner Ont