The City of Castlegar has released its annual report and financial statements for 2017 and an independent auditor presented his findings at last week’s council meeting.
City of Castlegar Annual Report
Michael Murphy with BDO Canada, said the city’s books were in good shape and there were no signs of frauds.
He also said that due to efficiencies in the city’s finance department, they were able to bring the audit in at $5,000 below the estimated cost.
The company presented the city with a “clean” audit report.
Murphy said that the city’s $5 million in net financial assets is a reasonably healthy financial position.
Reserves
He was also satisfied with the city’s level of reserves which stood at $7.7 million. The breakdown of those reserves is: general operating reserves — $611,849, water reserves — $1,497,463, sewer reserves — $507,229, airport reserves — $405,335, development cost charges — $1,194,295, equipment reserves — $1,038,014, development reserves — $1,098,492, land reserves — $958,702, other reserves — $372,322.
Elected officials expenses
Other items in the report include annual salaries for elected officials.
The mayor was paid $32,800.
The city councillors all received $14,000, but their other expenses varied widely. Deb McIntosh had $368 in expenses, Sue Heaton-Sherstibitoff $1,072, Florio Vassilikakis $3,766, Dan Rye $5,965, Bruno Tassone $862, and Mayor Lawrence Chernoff had $13,187. Most of these expenses are incurred for travelling to things such as the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting, meetings with ministers in Victoria or other similar events.
Municipal
comparisons
The report includes a comparison of taxes and user fees for a representative (average) house in municipalities across the region. When ranked by the total costs of the nine sample municipalities, Castlegar is in the middle of the list, but at $3111 is still on the low end of total costs and $1300 less than Nelson. Ranked from lowest to highest, total taxes and user fees were:
Nakusp —$2,789, Trail — $2,921, Warfield — $2,967, Fruitvale — $3,106, Castlegar $3,111, Creston — $3,328, Cranbrook — $3,633, Rossland — $4,300, Nelson — $4,403.
Permits
There were 220 building permits issued in the city during 2017, valued at $9.6 million.
