Reports contain discrepancies
I was pleased to read the findings of the Maximus Report for the City of Victoria reporting the city’s operations are lean.
What troubles me is the figures that are used to generate such conclusions are so different from what is provided in the city’s most recent annual report and audited financial statements.
For example, when the Maximus Report states the city is lean it is based on a management/staff ratio of 53 managers out of 779 full-time equivalents or 990 full and part-time/volunteer.
However, the city’s annual report states the city has 1,194 employees. If you divide the total city expenditures for salaries and benefits from the city’s 2012 audited financial statements by 990 full and part-time/volunteer staff, the average for a city worker earnings is $101,640 per year. That seems out of sync to me and not particularly lean.
As I found during the last municipal election, figures in city documents are open to question and you use them at your peril.
I do not doubt the quality of work done by Maximus. They are a most credible organization. However, they worked with numbers the city provided and some of these numbers do not seem to compute with those in the city’s annual report and audited financial statements.
Paul Brown, Victoria
