Thank you Elvena Slump for investigating the smoke and mirrors that has been going on at city hall since 2008.
The core review you referred to was the start of the smoke and mirrors. Apparently the first draft of the core review didn’t give some of the council members the answers they wanted. The report was returned and reworked to justify the firing and laying off of long serving city employees.
The smoke and mirrors, fire them today and when that news story dies down, hire new (inexperienced) management back at the same pay scale to fill the vacancies. Ms, Slump’s investigation of the city finances between 2008 up until today confirms that is exactly what has happened. Unfortunately, Ms. Slump did not take into account the cost of the severance cheques that were paid out to the senior management staff that were fired. It has been reported that the cost was almost $3-million.
Council’s practice/policy since 2008 has been to keep property taxes below inflation. Anyone running a household budget knows that is impossible to maintain that approach and keep their standard of living and maintain their property.
Keeping city taxes below the annual inflation rate the city cannot support the annual escalating costs of operating the city and maintaining the city’s infrastructure. This irresponsible practice over the last eight years is evidenced by the deplorable state of the city’s roads. If the surface of the road is breaking down, the service lines under the roads will eventually collapse and rupture. The result of which it is going to cost the city double the regular maintenance dollars to fix those service lines.
Since 2008, council’s have drawn on the city’s reserves to offset tax increases. Any council can draw on the city’s reserves to offset taxes, but there is a limit. It has always been the practice of past councils (as advised by the staff who were fired) to maintain a high reserve account so that the interest can be transferred to offset property tax increases.
Council should never draw down on the principal beyond a certain figure so there’s money there to cover emergencies. Since 2008 councils have abused the reserve account. A minimum reserve figure was set back in the nineties. One positive financial picture to look forward to, the South Okanagan Events Centre will be paid for in 2017, thanks to Jack Kler, the treasurer who was fired in 2008.
I have recently been asked whether there was a conflict by council members when voting for the revitalization of the 200 block of Main Street. Conflict of interest is when an elected official will “directly or indirectly” receive financial reward from their vote. A councillor must decide to exclude themselves from voting if they believe they do, failure to do so can result in being removed from office. The other conflict is a “perceived conflict” whereby the owner’s of the property is a friend, a relative or direct family member who will be rewarded financially or benefit by the councillors vote. Example, if re-zoning is approved, that councillor is in a perceived conflict and may be removed from office. The councillor who has a conflict should bring it to the attention to staff before the council agenda’s are circulated. The councillor is also in conflict if they discuss their conflict with other councillors. This can be considered as persuading a councillor to vote in their favour. The onus is always on the councillor to declare their conflict. Failure for a councillor to declare a conflict could bring a costly legal challenge for the city, or a costly byelection.
In summation, the smoke and mirrors has been exposed, second we need to know why the city’s grant application for the 200 block revitalization was turned down, is the city losing its credit rating? This year’s budget increase of 5.5 per cent will not be enough to cover what needs to be done, we can expect similar increases in the years ahead. Thanks to these past practices the city is rapidly losing its positive image.
PS: I applied to serve on the Downtown Revitalization and SOEC committees when this council was elected, I was rejected.
Jake Kimberley
Penticton
