Councillor objects to 'Wall Street bank' budget

Donovan Vincent The Star.com:

Merit pay and new hiring among areas of concern in city's $8.7 billion financial plan; 'sacrifice' urged

City hall is being run like a "Wall Street bank," one councillor said after seeing Toronto's proposed $8.7 billion budget yesterday. In the first opportunity most councillors had to pick the budget apart, Councillor Peter Milczyn urged "disciplined and responsible budgeting." Among his concerns: plans to hire about 1,000 new staff (330 to cover expanded TTC service, plus others working in welfare, long-term care and new courtrooms), and the $8.5 million set aside for merit pay for non-unionized city hall staff – about the same paid out last year. "We're running the city like a Wall Street bank. (We're giving) pay increases and bonuses with money we don't have. Hiring extra staff with money we don't have. Banking on future bailouts from governments, when those governments have said, 'Well, probably we can't bail you out,' " Milczyn said.

"I was expecting a survival budget this year. This is a suicide budget. It's digging a bigger hole for us next year,'' Milczyn added. He said later he'd like to see merit pay set aside this year in view of the economic downturn. "When times are bad we all have to sacrifice," Councillor Frances Nunziata said. Budget chief Shelley Carroll told the committee the money is necessary to attract quality staff. But it's a touchy issue at city hall. Finance officials admitted yesterday that most of those receiving merit get the maximum, about 3 per cent of their pay. Even one councillor who sits on the budget committee, Maria Augimeri, acknowledged concerns about how merit pay is structured. "I understand that approximately 90 per cent of the employees get pay for performance maximums. That seems awfully inconsistent with the notion that it's pay for performance. How can everyone be getting the top amount?" Augimeri asked later in an interview. "I want to listen to people and heed their call that it's being given too easily." Carroll said the budget committee isn't the place to address the merit pay question, but rather the employee and labour relations committee. She suggested those with concerns could raise them there before the budget is finalized, March 31 and April 1.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, a fiscal conservative, urged the committee to note General Motors' plans to restructure in the face of trouble, and said the city should do the same. "Instead of tightening our belts, this organization is just getting fatter," he said. Carroll responded that city hall isn't a business, but rather a big corporation that helps people in bad economic times with services like transit, welfare and housing.