Just when you thought that we had heard the last of the great Millennium hotel, Council in a five to four vote has, without further public input and in a surprise move at yesterday's FPCOW meeting, voted to extend the time available to Millennium and their partners to start building the hotel for another year.
As a sign of their sincerity in meeting their obligation during the coming year, Millennium will post a $100,000 irrevocable letter of credit. We are moving down the food chain. The last irrevocable letter of credit we had from them was for $250,000. It was returned when they signed a contract with ITC to build the hotel IF the hotel were built. What benefit this had for Nanaimo taxpayers remains unknown to me.
Those Councillors who approved this extention were impressed with their ability under the "Points of Agreement" to look for other builders for the hotel during this year. I guess that this means that we will be looking, at taxpayers' expense, for a partner for Millennium and company as it appears that the introduction of any new independant builder/contractor would trigger a new referendum. It appears to me that Millennium has us just where they want us. We pay to find a partner, they get another year to try to get the Arena/Foundry lands.
This response to the question of City pay increases was received on Friday, Feb. 27 from the city;'s Director of Human Resources. I would appreciate your comments on its substance. Is there nothing to be alarmed about in the figures?
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Thank you for your e-mail to City Council on the 2009 budget and financial plan. Included in your e-mail was a bar chart showing percentage increases in Nanaimo City Personnel Costs, 2004-2007, for various employee categories. You indicated that the data used to create the chart had been taken from the City's Statements of Financial Information for the years 2004 and 2007. After providing your opinion that there has been a "rapid, even astonishing rise in the total amounts paid to the top echelons of Nanaimo's civil service during this period," and further, that there has been an equally astonishing small increase paid to those employees making less than $75,000 per year, you asked for comments.
It appears from your e-mail that you believe the increase in remuneration for staff paid over $75,000 per year is the result of: (a) increases in the salaries paid to those employees; and (b) new employees at that level. It seems that you have not considered the possibility that increases in salaries to staff making under $75,000 per year has resulted in their being moved into the over $75,000 per year category.
According to my review of the Statements of Financial Information, in 2004 there were 49 staff (excluding the City Manager group) listed as being paid over $75,000 per year. In 2007, this number had increased to 93 staff. While some of the 44 additional staff in this category would have been new employees at that level (we were in a period of economic growth during this time frame), undoubtedly, many of them were existing staff who moved from the under $75,000 category into the over 75,000 category. Therefore, in order to consider the true increase in remuneration paid to City staff between 2004 and 2007, the remuneration for both groups of employees needs to be added together. The result is an increase in remuneration between 2004 and 2007 of about 19%. This percentage change would include both salary increases and staff growth.
With respect to salary increases, it is important to note that the annual compensation adjustments provided to 85% of City staff are contractual in nature, and therefore are not subject to budget cuts at this time. I can further advise that the average annual compensation increases awarded to management staff during the applicable period was 3.4%. The amount of the annual salary increases to exempt personnel was based on independent surveys, conducted yearly, of the median salaries paid to similar positions in the national public sector market.
Mr. Bolin, you have also asked for information about the City's estimated budget surplus for 2008. I can inform you that this information will be made public after a report to Council has been made.
I hope this information is of assistance to you.
Regards,
Terry Hartley
Human Resources Director
City of Nanaimo
The document below charts and describes staff cost increases between 2004 and 2007 as compared to the BC Cost of Living Index.
| percent_growth_in_cost.pdf |
| File Size: | 42 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
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The application by the Cable Bay folks which involved an informal appearing deal with the adjacent forest company lands was rejected by PNAC. How this will be dealt with when it goes before Council will be interesting. The Sandstone (South Nanaimo Lands) project was presented again as an update. One can expect a Master Plan for these lands to come forward in the next couple of months. Watch for it.
Tomorrow, Feb. 17, at 5 pm PNAC will hold a meeting which will, among other things, deal with the possible approval of an application from the Cable Bay folks and introduce another from the Sandstone (South Nanaimo Lands) people. Documentation regarding these submissions is not available on the City's web site, despite the fact that these meetings will provide significant recommendations to Council on important development matters. Council's advisory committees are there to provide public input for all citizens, not just members selected by Council. More citizens should attend. The Agenda is displayed below:
The first Campaign Organizer recorded in Nanaimo's history has submitted a Disclosure Statement which can be seen at the city's web site:
http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/departments/Legislative-Services/4609/2008Election.html
It is valuable in showing the concern which individuals or organizations may have when dealing with the city and supporting candidates for municipal office.
In a recent article at the Tyee: http://thetyee.ca entitled "BC Teachers Take Pension Hit", It is reported that "Tens of thousands of educators are being told their pensions will no longer grow with the cost of living, and their payouts for medical care will be axed." One suspects that other pensioners will not be far behind as the world financial system unwinds. Yet Nanaimo administrators have seen fit to propose budgets which significantly exceed the cost of living index. How long can this go on? How long will City Council which has been elected to protect the public interest allow it to go on?
This year Council made a start by limiting their own pay increase to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Already this may be too much. But it is a start in the right direction, and the big cuts are yet to come with the adoption of a budget. Keep your eye on the Nanaimo 2009 budget and the 2009-2013 Financial Plan. What do we really need? And what is fat.
It has been three months since the election and five of our Councillors have still not filed their Financial Disclosure Statements as required by law. It is true that another month remains before penalties are involved, but one must wonder how complicated the election donations and expenditures must be that they require the full four months for filing.
We can also look forward to the disclosure statements of those who, while neither candidates nor officially recognized as part of a campaign, but still collected or spent funds promoting a candidate or candidates must also make their actions public. It will be interesting to see if one can determine why they have chosen this method of political activity.
Below find the graph and the text presented to City Council on Monday, Feb. 02,2009.
| nanaimo_tax_presentation.pdf |
| File Size: | 18 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
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| budget_presentation_to_council_feb_9_09.pdf |
| File Size: | 44 kb |
| File Type: | pdf |
Download File
Monday's Council meeting had at two presentations regarding the 2009 budget for which we will all be dinged this year. I presented a plea that citizens should be informed why the cost of running the city should be rising at twice the cost of living and Fred Taylor wondered why, when taxpayers paid about $6 million more in taxes in 2007 than was spent (with an apparently as yet unknown amount last year) , that we should have any increase in taxes at all this year. There was no serious discussion of either of these points, though it was obvious that our City Manager felt that putting money into the City's piggy bank was better than returning it to the pockets from which it had been picked.
I attended the budget presentation of Engineering and Public Works projects to FPCOW (Finance and Policy Committee of the Whole) this evening, hoping to find some justification for an approximate $14 million expenditure on a new public works building on Labieaux Road which I mentioned at Council on Monday as a possible postponement. I am afraid I did not hear any financially justifiable reason for a new structure. $14 million represents about 18.5% points on our 2009 budget and by itself could not only reduce any increase, but could bring about a sizable decrease.
It is not that I object to taxes or to new buildings or to high hopes, but I do expect them to be fully justified, and it is this lack of justification which I have found throughout what I have heard during the budget process. We seem to be dealing with desires and have failed to adequately distinguish them from the requires. We are entering into a period where the requires may be all that our taxpayers can afford.
Nanaimo currently has about $22 million in discretionary reserve funds -nearly 30 budget percentage points- in discretionary reserve (savings) funds. I was incensed on Monday when the City Manager commented that to use any of these funds to reduce taxes would be like someone spending some of their RRSP funds when times were tough. I wish that the city would realize that this is what many of our citizens have to do now and more may have to do in the coming years. The city may have the option to continue to increase their revenue by means of taxes during hard times. Citizens do not.
