Cuts cause concern for Vernon councillor

By RICHARD ROLKE Morning Star Staff Feb 09 2007 http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/

A Vernon politician is increasingly alarmed that belt-tightening may leave the city and residents at risk. Coun. Pat Cochrane believes a one per cent reduction in spending by each department has cut to the core. “There are several examples of where we’ve gone too far,” he said during a 2007 budget input meeting Tuesday. Among his examples is taking $3,000 away from grinding that ensures sidewalk surfaces are even. “If someone trips and falls, our insurance deductible will be gone quickly,” he said, adding that any injuries could be serious for the person involved. It’s also possible fence maintenance at the cemetery won’t occur.

“There’s been concerns of vehicles getting into the cemetery where they do major damage,” said Cochrane. Other items that may be abandoned are replacement of hoses and pagers at the fire department and a reduction in additional staff during the busy property tax season. Cochrane says a planned reduction in safety training could lead to increased work-related injuries, injury claim costs and Workers Compensation Board fines. Departments were ordered to reduce spending by one per cent — or $274,000 — as a way of adding more items to the overall 2007 budget without increasing taxes beyond 2.84 per cent. Cochrane wants some of the cuts reversed but he says it can be done without increasing taxes. “There’s many ways within the budget to maintain the current tax rate or even lower it without putting citizens at risk.” One area he would like targeted is about $100,000 for staff conferences, travel and training. “For the thousands spent every month, we need reports detailing where they went, who went and what benefit there was to the city,” said Cochrane.

Coun. Jack Gilroy continues to oppose the one per cent reduction, saying it directly impacts staffing. “We’re cutting too deep. Some of the cuts are something we shouldn’t do,” said Gilroy.However, the finance committee chairman defends the process. “We’ve been given some level of comfort (by department heads) that we’re not jeopardizing things,” said Coun. Patrick Nicol.

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Budget cuts off base EDITORIAL http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Attempts to trim spending should be appreciated by taxpayers, but Vernon city hall has gone too far. Some of the cuts made in order to keep taxes low and add more projects to the budget are highly questionable — not only because of the minor dollars involved but because of the risk placed on residents. Case in point is not grinding sidewalks to ensure they are even. For all of $3,000 in savings, residents could possibly trip over sidewalks and seriously injure themselves. And, of course, that will leave the city liable, driving up its insurance. Firefighters never know when they will be called into service, but they’ll be tackling emergencies with older equipment. The cuts call for the replacement cycle for hoses to be extended from 10 to 12 years and from eight to 10 years for portable radios and pagers. With public safety being so important, the $3,500 ma year in savings are unacceptable.

No one likes standing in line to pay property taxes and it could only get worse. Among the cuts is not having a part-time finance assistant for a week at tax time. In this case, saving a whopping $2,000 will delay the depositing of funds and, more importantly, undermine customer service.Making all of this even more troubling is the budgeted $100,000 for staff conferences, training and travel. Certainly there may be value to these trips, but is hobnobbing with politicians more important than safe sidewalks or providing firefighters with up-to-date equipment? We think not. Trying to tighten up spending while keeping taxes low is laudable, but not at the expense of basic services. Hopefully council will take another look at its actions before giving the 2007 budget final approval.