By the numbers

Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: June 23, 2009 7:00 PM

Now I’m not expecting the City of Vernon’s 2008 annual report to captivate the masses, but the document is certainly worth a peek. Particularly because much of the information either hasn’t been seen before or doesn’t generate headlines. Perhaps the most intriguing tidbit is a list of Vernon’s top 20 corporate taxpayers for 2008. Leading the pack was the Village Green Mall at $462,000, followed by the Smart Centre (Wal/Mart mall) at $281,000, Real Canadian Superstore at $207,000 and the northern portion of the Vernon Square Mall at $132,000. Rounding out the top five was Polson Place Mall at $102,000. Of the city’s total tax base last year, the top 20 corporations accounted for 10.4 per cent of the total.

So even with little industry, Vernon has made the shift away from a strictly residential base. And for those people who have decried the big boxes of the north end, consider that five of the 20 top taxpayers are from that area. Corporations aside, what would be interesting to see in next year’s annual report is a ranking of the highest residential property taxes. Given the extent of construction before the recession and the large houses perched on the hillsides or along lakes, some of those figures could be quite staggering. It would also be intriguing to know how many of the residential heavy-hitters are in the old city compared to Okanagan Landing, where assessments have skyrocketed and fire taxes restructured. Of course revenue also brings expenditures.

A whopping $15.7 million was spent on employees’ wages, expenses and allowances in 2008. But what will surprise many is that 41 individuals earned more than $75,000 each, with the range going from $75,132 to $139,753. Almost half of the 41 (19) were from the fire hall, while second place went to the administration and operations departments at six each. I’m not about to challenge salaries because city workers, by and large, work very hard and many of them have years of seniority. Also, competition for such individuals is intense so big bucks are required if the community wants to attract and retain a certain skill set. But at a time when so many taxpayers have been laid off or seen wages frozen, the growing number of well-paid bureaucrats seems somewhat out-of-touch with reality.

On the very last page, the annual report indicates that there’s 269 kilometres of roads in Vernon, although it doesn’t specify how many potholes there are or if that includes Alexis Park Drive, which is closed more than it’s open. There are also 263 kilometres of sanitary sewer mains, 1,432 fire hydrants and 39 signalized intersections. Missing was any mention of roundabouts. In the end, the annual report isn’t going to keep you up at night and you shouldn’t wait for the movie-of-the-week. But there’s enough inside to give you some inkling of what goes on at city hall.