Raid on Policing Reserve sent to Finance Committee. Possible debate TODAY at 10AM in Kalamalka Room?

Meeting now postponed to THIS Thursday May 8.
Hopefully this will be added to the Agenda. (05/01)
-------------------------

At the last COW meeting, watched only by a reporter from the Morning Star and Don Quixote the council delayed a decision on the transfer in of the $787,483 that would normally have been done in the year 2007.

Coun. Beardsell proposed a motion as suggested in the report from the CFO Kevin Bertles that this could be accomplished by transferring this money from the casino reserve. Despite some of the councillors who had sat on the previous Councils speaking out that they had assumed that this was an ongoing policy that had been approved by the previous Council NO ONE would second the motion.

Coun. Nichol proposed a compromise motion to send it to the Finance Committee to be looked at with regards to a solution and a future resolution to enshrine this as a resolution to staff that a transfer of the excess in the Policing Budget MUST be made each year to this Reserve. This motion passed 7-0.

The finance meeting is on Thursday following council meetings Hopefully this will be added to the Agenda.

At this Meeting I expect a recommendation from the Finance Committee to the next Council Meeting of the following points:

• Make a transfer on the 2008 books of $$787,483 to the Policing Reserve. (any decisions to use this money then can be made by debate and vote at an open Council meeting. )
• A resolution that the Treasurer MUST make a transfer to this reserve (or from this reserve if there is a deficit) at each year end. (This can be rolled into the ongoing reserve policy that has yet to be formalized)
• The amount to be transferred is the Net difference in the entire Policing budget not just the RCMP contract.
• Make a recommendation to use the newly discovered $177,000 in the fines revenue and whatever money is there from the Grants in Lieu (Budget is set at $150,000.) underestimation (est. $35,000), (actual money known by CFO from BC Hydro March 26/08) as a method to reduce the Residential Tax rates by at least 1%.
  

If The RCMP Reserve transfer had been done in 2007 (as it has been done in the 2005 and 2006 years) it will have no effect on the claimed 2.04% tax increase for the average residential owner.

The CFO's statement that policing is no different than any other operating divisions and that there are no operating carryovers in fire etc. is incorrect in that for the first time (published) in 2006 the Clerks Division, the HR and the IS divisions all were allowed carryovers. I'm sure that the same thing happened in 2007.

Lets solve this for all time with a proper resolution that recognizes that when the City Taxes us for Policing that they use this money for Policing unless they have the justification to spend it elsewhere and that justification can be demonstrated in front of the cameras at an open Council Meeting for all the people to see.