City of Vancouver boss puts bloated administration on treadmill

By Lora Grindlay and Andy Ivens, The ProvinceSeptember 29, 2009

Some serious belt-tightening has begun at the City of Vancouver, and according to city manager Penny Ballem — who says 200 jobs will be cut by 2012 — there’s plenty of fat to be trimmed.The aim? A zero-per-cent tax increase next year. The city-wide cost-saving efforts are aimed at dealing with a $61.3-million shortfall in next year’s budget that, if left on the books, would mean a 13-per-cent tax hike for residents and a nine-per-cent hike for businesses. “To cover a $60-million shortfall would require a massive tax hike — and we are simply not going there,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. Council is aiming for “a zero-per-cent tax increase,” he said.

Ballem said the city will cut costs by streamlining services and consolidating financial services, procurement and warehousing of supplies, information technology and management of city facilities. She acknowledged that city staff are “anxious” about the changes, which include the loss of about 60 jobs by next year.

Four-per-cent wage increases for union staff kick in Jan. 1 and will cost $26 million. CUPE Local 15’s Paul Faoro, which represents 2,500 inside workers, said the city’s seven unions representing more than 8,000 employees have benefited from consultation with Ballem, but they know little about the cuts to come.“We don’t know where those positions lie. They could be all managers,” said Faoro.He said the union is concerned about the impacts, but recognizes the difficulty posed as development revenues dropped by 25 per cent due to the recession. Faoro also argued that the city is overmanaged, with 10 unionized employees for every union-exempt manager.

Ballem said Tuesday that the equivalent of almost 60 full-time jobs will be eliminated next year, some through retirement and attrition, and along with other saving strategies that will cut $10 million off next year’s budget. By 2012, 204 positions will be cut for a saving of $29.3 million. Cuts to the budget made in 2009 intended as “one-time savings” — including a hiring freeze — will continue for a saving of $13.6 million. Asked if he is considering selling off some the city’s sizeable collection of properties, Robertson said he would not.

“We’re not looking into tapping into our capital funds to deal with an operating deficit,” he said.“We do have billions of dollars of assets at the city and we have to be careful in how we manage them.” The city’s annual operating budget is about $900 million. The final budget will be presented to council on Dec. 15.