An organizational review conducted by the Village of Burns Lake has been completed with its findings submitted to mayor and council.
The review, which began in May of this year and was completed July 22, saw the village examine Burns Lake operations, workload of staff, salaries of staff, service delivery and financial health of the village.
“As a council we thought it was important for our organization to review the services we provide, seek out options to improve effectiveness and efficiency and to re-assess the importance of each service provided,” Mayor Luke Strimbold said.
In particular the village wanted to look at comparable municipal information for compensation on staffing levels and service choices, analyze the asset management plan and review the Lakeside Multiplex operations.
A number of key findings came out of the report
Compared to other municipalities the Village of Burns Lake is in a healthy financial position, however salary expenses have grown considerably over the past few years.
Staffing costs have increased 22 per cent per year over the last five years, including increases for existing staff and the addition of staff for economic development, development services and recreation.
“If not corrected the current levels of expenses at the municipality will likely result in a structural deficit that will erode net financial assets,” Strimbold said.
The village is facing increasing costs pressures, as well, which includes an asset management plan, a long-term plan to replace municipal infrastructure assessed at $42 million.
The review also found that a number of services are discretionary services, such as village economic development functions, social media communications, sustainability programs and recreations services.
In response to the report, a number of decisions have been made by village council.
The position of development services has been eliminated, along with the position of deputy director of corporate services.
As well, the village will create a village clerk position to take over some of the work, and will be paid a substantially lower salary than that of the corporate services position.
Many of the remaining recommendations and findings will be examined by council over the short and long-term future.
The village saves $20,000 by changing from a director of corporate services to a village clerk and $80,000 by eliminating the development services coordinator position, although the final overall number wasn’t known as of Monday.
