Council Rejects Core Service Review

Written by Peter McIntyre Tuesday, 27 April 2010 05:57 107.5 KISSFM

The city of Vernon won't be holding a core service review.Council voted 6 to 1 against the idea to have all city services and departments put under the microscope in an external probe costing around $80,000.Councillor Bob Spiers--who pushed the plan---says the city's current spending is not sustainable. "We're going to have problems in the future. Our taxes can't keep on being burdened for all the costs. We've got to decide what are our priorities as far as service in this community." Spiers says the review could have suggested contracting out new services, rather than taking on new staff, like has been done with the Social Planning Council. He says staff salaries went up 4 million dollars in a three year period, and 40 more people were hired over that same period ending in 2008.

Council did approve a motion to have city staff start an internal process to look at the issues raised by Spiers. Councillor Mary Jo O' Keefe says that's a better way to proceed. "And once we have those reviews in place, if council isn't happy, if they don't see some movement of how we can control things, then you go to a core service review." Mayor Wayne Lippert doesn't support a core review in this case. "I've followed up with others that have gone through that and core service review usually sends out a signal that it's slash and cut, everything from services to staff and I do not believe that's what we're after. We're looking to get the best bang for our buck to make sure we're giving the best services the citizens want and that we're doing them well and efficiently."

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Don Quixote Note: Pete McIntyre did quote me accurately but I was wrong in the number of employees (FTE) hired in the 3 year period ending 2008. It was 51 not 40. (In 2009 the number increased by another 28 in 2009 bringing the total to 79 in the 4 years ending Dec. 2009.)