Layoffs in Summerland

SUSAN McIVER/Special to The Herald Wednesday, March 11, 2009

SUMMERLAND – In spite of Mayor Janice Perrino‘s original promise not to cut jobs, three municipal staff members have received termination notices. Perrino confirmed the layoffs at council on Monday. A draft of the 2009 budget was presented at the same meeting. “After a lot of discussion, we terminated three positions and created two new ones. Basically, this is to remove non-essential service positions and improve service levels where it is needed the most,” she told council. In February, Perrino told a reporter “it is not the time to take away jobs.” All three terminated positions – waste reduction co-ordinator, water conservation officer and senior engineering technologist with supervisory responsibilities – are in the engineering and public works department.

As part of this year‘s budgetary process, managers of all departments were asked to critically assess their financial requirements and make recommendations that would reduce costs without adversely affecting service levels. “The successful implementation of the curbside garbage and recycling program has substantially reduced the waste reduction co-ordinator‘s workload, and the recommendation was to reassign the remaining duties to administrative staff,” wrote director of engineering and public works Don Darling. The workload of the water conservation officer has been significantly reduced due to successful implementation of irrigation scheduling, the water conservation bylaw and the drought management plan, according to Darling. Darling recommended that a new position of water supply co-ordinator be created to address the current staffing shortage in water operations and to assume the remaining duties of the water conservation officer. He also recommended that the senior engineering technologist with supervisory responsibilities be replaced by an engineering technician without such responsibilities. The net result of these staffing changes is the loss of one position and the reduction of the department‘s 2009 budget by $42,850 . The department‘s budget in 2010 will be reduced by $73,400.

“Following an in-camera meeting of council on March 2, three people got termination notices. This is an astounding decision,” Brent Voss told council. Voss is president of CUPE Local 1136, Summerland civic workers, and held the terminated senior engineering technologist position. “Reconsider cutting these positions,” he said, referring to those held by Beth Cavers in waste reduction and Joe Fitzpatrick in water conservation. Both Cavers and Fitzpatrick are highly qualified and have brought Summerland into a leading position in their respective areas, according to Voss. ’I was absolutely short-sighted,” Perrino said, when asked by Voss about her earlier comments not to cut jobs. She also said that while hating to cut jobs, she felt that the tough decisions made by department managers and council would lead to better management of municipal finances. Voss also questioned Summerland‘s relatively higher staff-to-manager ratio of approximately 4:1 when compared to Penticton‘s ratio of 10:1. “The ratio may be skewed in smaller communities because they must provide the same number of services as larger centres,” chief administrative officer Don DeGagne explained.

Highlights of the 2009 budget were presented Monday by director of finance Ken Ostraat. “We are doing this now because we want to hear the public‘s thoughts on the budget by March 31,” said Ostraat. Property taxes will go up 2.2 per cent, which means an $18 increase for a "typical" home in the $390,000 range. “In my six previous years on council, I‘ve never seen a property tax increase less than three per cent. It‘s usually around five per cent,” Perrino said. The relatively small increase is attributed to the careful scrutiny of the budget by the finance committee, which eliminated close to $2 million of costs from the original draft. The total increase in property taxes will undoubtedly be higher when all components, such as school, regional district and hospital taxes, are included. Total operating expenditures for Summerland in 2009 will be $21.3 million. Approximately $6 million will come from property taxes, with the remainder coming from other sources such as fees and rates, and rental revenue on municipal properties. Capital expenditures for the year will be $19.5 million. Some of the major capital expenditures include $1.2 million for improvements to the sludge-handling system at the water treatment plant, $3 million for the first phase of the separation of domestic and irrigation water systems, and $2 million for domestic water meters. Federal and provincial grants have been secured that offset the cost of water system separation by $1.8 million and of water meters by $1.4 million. “We have budgeted $700,000 for improvements to the sewer treatment plant for better control of odours and air handling. This will be funded partially by debt and by funds collected from developers,” Ostraat said. The capital budget also includes $5 million toward improvements to Prairie Valley Road and Rosedale Avenue. This project will only go forward if the district is successful in obtaining $3 million in grants funds from the BC Canada Building Canada Fund. Cost of constructing a new RCMP building accounts for $4.5 million of the capital budget. Part of the funding for new building will come from reserves and a small grant from the province. The balance will be paid by debt subject to voter approval through the alternate approval process. At least 10 per cent of the eligible voters would be required to sign a counter-petition to force a referendum. “A large part of the funding of our capital projects will come from reserves. This is being done in order to take advantage of federal and provincial grant programs that are available now,” said Ostraat, who acknowledged the need to replace these reserves over time.