County Council Wrestles With Staffing & The Budget

Article by Valerie MacDonald News Now Network

Above image: (L-R Front: Scott Jibb, Olena Hankivsky, Mandy Martin and Brian Ostrander: Back: Lucas Cleveland, John Logel and Bob Crate/Countyimage

No proposed county council budget has had as many reviews by its councillors in recent years. That review, to determine what taxpayers will pay to fund the 2023 budget, continues with the new county council this week during six separate committee meetings starting Monday and ending today.

Details (already explained several times) are being re-explained for the new council, and debated, like those at the first public works committee meeting held on the morning of Jan. 9 where its members were told by Public Works director Denise Marshall that to maintain $887-million in the county’s public work assets, council needs to spend $26-million annually.

Despite this, this year’s budget won’t meet it and there is a $14-million annual shortfall.

There is no dedicated infrastructure (roads, bridges, culverts, waste and other public work facilities, signs, etc.) tax being proposed this year. Instead, a provincial OCAF funding for 2023 of $500,000 will be used, Marshall said.

The desire to hire additional personnel (at a time when the county has many unfilled positions) was challenged by public works chair and Hamilton Township Mayor Scott Jibb. The County has been shortstaffed for some time.

“Can we afford them (new hires)?” Jibb asked.

At this time public works is operating at about 75% of its staffing complement, he was told, but has been down to 50% at times.

Marshall added that “there is more work than the current team is able to take on” with the current vacancies. Additional hires are need to meet an increasing work load partially due to requirements imposed by the province, but also due large public works projects like the Cobourg East development.

Trent Hills Mayor Bob Crate referenced that old saying “a penny wise but a pound foolish” and offered the comment that refusing to add one position, “can cost us down the road.”

Public works committee members (which include Alnwick/Haldimand Mayor John Logel, Crate and Jibb and who were joined by Warden Mandy Martin) were told by CAO Jennifer Moore that county staff are suffering from burnout and moving to other municipalities where there is a different work load.

This is the situation across all county departments.

Similar financial discussions to those held Monday morning, were held with members of the former county council. So too, were proposed new programs like the Waste Mattress Diversion Program for 2023, introduced several months ago during initial 2023 budget discussions, as a way to save dwindling landfill space.

Detail discussions at the remaining committees (community health, corporate support, finance and audit, economic development, tourism & planning, social services) will conclude Wednesday afternoon on Jan. 11.

The 2023 Budget Review has been going on for some time…

The 2023 issue papers were first presented to all of last term’s council members at the committee level throughout November, 2022, and again at the county council table followed by a draft 2023 budget review by all the outgoing council members.

Then after the inaugural session on Dec. 14 (which saw four new county council session members out of the total of seven swear oaths of allegiance) an overview of the proposed 2023 followed in a special meeting.

The 2022 year’s focus on the budget closed out with the intent set to provide the budget-section by budget-section review with the new council which is ongoing this week.

The members of Council are:

1. Lucas Cleveland, Mayor, Town of Cobourg

2. Olena Hankivsky, Mayor, Municipality of Port Hope

3.Scott Jibb, Mayor, Township of Hamilton

4. John Logel, Mayor, Township of Alnwick/Haldimand.:

5. Mandy Martin, Mayor, Township of Cramahe and County Warden

6. Brian Ostrander, Mayor, Municipality of Brighton and Deputy County Warden

7. Bob Crate, Mayor, Municipality of Trent Hills

Special budget deliberation have already been planned for the county meeting on Jan 18 with approval tentatively scheduled for the regular council session of Jan. 25.

Going into this week’s county committee sessions based on the last draft budget review on Dec. 14, the 2023 draft budget proposes a 4.8% increase after growth of 1.5%, including the dedicated infrastructure levy.

For a home assessed at $259,000, that draft increase translates to a $12 increase on the property tax year-over-year for just the county levy. School and local municipal tax increases will be added to that.

#countycouncil, #northumberland, #politics, #budget