Ridenour redefines the job of mayor

By ADAM ASHTON Modesto Bee

Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour didn't have the power he wanted to lead City Hall. He had a vote on the City Council. He could ask city employees for information. He could influence decisions as the city's elected leader. But the real power rested in the city manager's office, which held the authority to check Ridenour's access to staff and to make every decision that didn't require a council vote. In February, Ridenour asked voters for more influence in City Hall. They gave it to him, passing a measure that made it easier for him to interact with public employees and required the city manager to seek the mayor's guidance when writing Modesto's budget. Ridenour is stepping into his new responsibilities and defining what voters will expect from the city's next mayor.

Voters could see a difference in the mayor two months ago, when he offered a city budget proposal and described it in an opinion piece in The Bee. In the past, the city manager would present a budget to the council, which would debate the plan and make revisions. City employees would adjust it and bring the document back to the council. This time, Ridenour provided the council a slate of his recommended budget cuts and another list of optional reductions. He said that put more authority in the hands of council members. "Before, it wasn't our job. We'd say, 'We're not going to cut parks,' and we'd leave," said Ridenour, who was re-elected to a second and final term in November. The ballot measure "puts it on the mayor and the council that if you don't want to eliminate something, you have to take it from someplace else."
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Don Quixote Note: Modesto is Vernon's Sister City.

Books better than balanced at municipal office

June 4, 2008 The Other Beaver

The news was all good from Lumby Village Council’s annual audit and financial statement as presented in a mercifully brief summary by Chris Henderson of the accounting firm Murray Rossworn and Co. at Monday’s meeting. The bottom line showed a surplus of $116,000 for last year in place of a budgeted deficit of $300,000. That was partly due to deferral of a large project, Henderson said, “but fair enough, these things come and go.” The audit turned up nothing “in error or materially misleading… everything is perfect within these financial statements, and everyone has been doing a very good job,” Henderson told council, with a nod to the village’s director of finance, Ken Klassen. The municipality is required by law to undergo the audit every year.
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Don Quixote Note: The City of Vernon's Auditors gave a full report to the Audit Committee last Thursday and there were no material things to report. These statements will probably be presented to the full Council this coming Monday and should be available online and at City Hall shortly thereafter. The only other subject that may come up is next years audit fee which seems to be projected North of $60,000. This years audit fee will be presented at $42,500 against a budgeted amount of $37,270.

Police Reserve topped back up by required amount for now !

Yesterday at Council in an unanimous vote $787,483 was placed in to the Police Reserve representing the 2007 Police operating surplus. The funds will come out of the Casino reserve in 2008 so as to "that the RCMP reserve funds transferred for the Middleton Road project be rectified. "

There will be a Special Committee of the Whole meeting of Council, Friday, May 16, 2008, at 9:00 am discuss the draft Interim Reserve Policy.

Coun. Beardsell the main proponent of reserve rationalization proposed deferring the meeting for 1 week as he could not attend. As this would preclude two other councillors from attending due to a conference they would be attending the date and time remains the same.

A simple change to a Thursday date this week (*at finance committee meeting perhaps)would have seemed to be a solution where the council could have the proper attendees at this crucial meeting. Another opportunity missed with the results that anything decided by the Council at the Friday meeting will be dissected by Coun. Beardsell when he gets the full report of any important reserve changes that were made.

*May 15, Thursday: Finance Committee 1:00 pm Kalamalka Lake Room
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The expected balance at 2008 year end for these two reserves (before any operating surpluses or revenue) now will be:
RCMP reserve will increase from $61,607 to $849,090.
Casino Reserve will decrease from $1,108,002 to $320,519.

Modesto mayor proposes $10M in cuts.

ADAM ASHTON Modesto Bee May 13

Neighborhood swimming pools, a fire station and tree trimmers are on the chopping block in Modesto Mayor Jim Ridenour's proposal to balance the city budget by cutting $10 million in spending. Ridenour on Monday unveiled his plan for the 2008-09 budget year, which begins July 1. In addition to the cuts, it calls for an additional $3 million in revenue through a mix of fees, including a monthly 75 cent charge that could show up on cable TV bills. A sharp decline in tax revenue is driving the reductions, although Ridenour says he fears the picture could worsen depending on how the state balances its budget. His proposal calls for $120 million in spending from the city's general fund, which pays for such basics as public safety. "We've had to ask the hard questions about programs and services and have come to the realization that we cannot be all things to all people," Ridenour said.

Some of the most prominent proposed cuts include:

• Leaving 21 police positions vacant. That's an increase in spending from this year, when the department froze 26 spots. Keeping the 21 vacancies will save the city $1.8 million.
• Slashing services at the fire station at Modesto Airport. The recommendation would go into effect only if SkyWest Airlines follows through on its plan to eliminate flights to Los Angeles in June. In that case, the city would place just one firefighter at the station instead of three, saving Modesto $775,000.
• Demolishing seven pools at neighborhood parks, saving $256,037 in program expenses. If adopted, this recommendation would leave Graceada Park as the only one with a public pool.
• Cutting the city's tree maintenance program by leaving two positions vacant, saving the city $112,752
• Three layoffs are on the table, although Deputy City Manager Judith Ray said Modesto's Personnel Department would try to find other positions for the employees.
• Reducing the city's $10 million reserve by 1 percent

  Residents can weigh in on the mayor's proposal at four hearings next week. The budget is expected to go the council for a vote May 27.

  Council can choose other cuts
  Some council members have said they wanted to protect police funding for the next budget year. "As a government agency, keeping the public safe is our ultimate priority, because that is something people can't do in and of themselves," Councilwoman Kristin Olsen said. Ridenour said he would be open to filling all the positions if council members find other cuts they would prefer. In addition to the suggested cuts, he's offering $5.8 million in other reductions council members could choose. Those options tend to be more drastic, but they could become necessary if the city's financial outlook continues to worsen. Councilman Brad Hawn said the choices would be difficult. "If you look at one thing on its own, you may make a pretty good case that it shouldn't be cut," he said. "But it takes a different importance when you look at them all together." Ridenour had more sway over the budget than in previous years because of Measure M, the government-reform ballot measure voters approved in February. It gave him more influence over the budget, obliging the city manager to work with the mayor in writing the budget plan. "We are managing to our revenues, and our revenues are in decline, so our expenses must follow suit," acting City Manager Jim Niskanen said. The city's overall $650 million budget is not entirely bleak. Modesto's sewer and water funds do not rely on general tax revenue, instead drawing their revenues from user fees. Both are in the black as the city prepares for hundreds of millions of dollars in improvements to the two systems.

Vernon only pays $175.01 more for the same average house in Kelowna.

When you put in the Vernon 2007 and 2008 average house assessments into the Kelowna Residential Tax Calculator
you get the results on the left. It appears that Vernon is narrowing the tax gap when compared to Kelowna. Although we pay $175.01 for the same valued average house in 2008 this is an improvement from the $237.00 difference in 2007. (See Vernon's published figures here.)

RCMP Reserve to be be made whole at Monday's COW meeting?

INTERIM RESERVE POLICY (P. 8) Agenda - 200Kb
A. THAT Council approves the recommendation from the Finance Committee that the draft Interim Reserve Policy be discussed at a Special Committee of the Whole meeting of Council, Friday, May 16, 2008, at 9:00 am;
AND FURTHER, that the RCMP reserve funds transferred for the Middleton Road project be rectified.
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Agenda Package - 395Kb (p.8)
The Finance Committee, at its May 8, 2008 meeting, reviewed the above-noted item and adopted the following resolution:
"That the Finance Committee recommends to Council that the draft Interim Reserve Policy be discussed at a Special Committee of the Whole meeting of Council; AND FURTHER, the Finance Committee recommends that the RCMP Reserve funds transferred for the Middleton Road project be rectified.
CARRIED.
This information is to be discussed at a Special Committee of the Whole meeting of Council to be held on Friday, May 16th , 2008.
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Don Quixote Note: At a finance meeting attended by four council members although only 2 voted (Mayor and Coun. Cunningham) it was recommended that the RCMP Reserve funds transferred for the Middleton Road project be rectified. This should mean that they will transfer $787,483 into the RCMP reserve probably from the casino reserve. Then they will defer any transfers out of this or any other reserve to a special Cow Meeting on May 16th.

May 16 debate:
At this special meeting the RCMP reserve policy will be formalized along the following lines:

• The RCMP reserve shall have the net annual surplus from policing costs added to the reserve at year end.
• Transfers from this reserve will be authorized Council.
• The costs shall include determinations of overhead costs for internal support.

All reserves will be analyzed as to their history, purpose and upper limits and the rationalization of these reserves will finally occur.

After Monday's meeting and the reestablishment of the correct reserve total for the RCMP and the deferral until May 16 on the Council Reserve Policy I will post the correct reserve balances for all the Cities Reserves and my take on the history, purpose and resolution as I see it.

City Presents a Residential Tax example for 2008 taxes !

For the first time ever the City has made an attempt to show the year over year tax increase for an average residential taxpayer and it is should be commended for the effort.

However I suggest you view the assertions of a 2.04 for the general City's portion of the taxes as being suspect. It does not acknowledge the 11.4% increase for fire protection (in the old city) as part of general taxation as happens in all other cities in the province. As I posted earlier these would increase the taxes to 3.64% in the old city and only up to 2.20% in Okanagan Landing.

There is also 1 other thing that is curious about this comparison. When I made my original comparision I had to assume the improvements %age used was the same as last year i.e. 48% with land coming in at 52%. I cautioned that Your tax increase is dependent on your assessment and whether the land and improvements assessment have varied from the average increase from the last tax year.

In the City's comparison they too have assumed the same proportion this year as last year and I find that this is questionable. They must have an updated breakdown on the land and improvement ratios for their average $418,676 house and I suspect it is not the same as last year.

In my own property's case my land went up 53.6% while improvements went up only 7.9% for a net assessment increase of 23.5%. My actual tax increase all in will be 4.07% compared to the average house increase of 5.88% even though my net assessment is higher. If I recalculated my taxes using the same proportion as in this example my all in tax increase would be 8.32%. My original tax increase of $113.20 would have jumped to $231.61.

It is obvious that a more valid comparison would be one that uses the actual land and improvements values that are for that average house. In my case my land values have increased higher than the average but my improvements must be well below the city average. This has actually reduced my fire taxes this year by .76% compared to the City's average house increase of 11.4%
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This presentation is a good first step and the introduction of an online tax calculator for both residential and business taxpayer as will be debated on Monday at the open Council Meeting will be a valuable tool in next year's budget discussions. An example of such a calculator can be found here.

Raid on Policing Reserve sent to Finance Committee. Possible debate TODAY at 10AM in Kalamalka Room?

Meeting now postponed to THIS Thursday May 8.
Hopefully this will be added to the Agenda. (05/01)
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At the last COW meeting, watched only by a reporter from the Morning Star and Don Quixote the council delayed a decision on the transfer in of the $787,483 that would normally have been done in the year 2007.

Coun. Beardsell proposed a motion as suggested in the report from the CFO Kevin Bertles that this could be accomplished by transferring this money from the casino reserve. Despite some of the councillors who had sat on the previous Councils speaking out that they had assumed that this was an ongoing policy that had been approved by the previous Council NO ONE would second the motion.

Coun. Nichol proposed a compromise motion to send it to the Finance Committee to be looked at with regards to a solution and a future resolution to enshrine this as a resolution to staff that a transfer of the excess in the Policing Budget MUST be made each year to this Reserve. This motion passed 7-0.

The finance meeting is on Thursday following council meetings Hopefully this will be added to the Agenda.

At this Meeting I expect a recommendation from the Finance Committee to the next Council Meeting of the following points:

• Make a transfer on the 2008 books of $$787,483 to the Policing Reserve. (any decisions to use this money then can be made by debate and vote at an open Council meeting. )
• A resolution that the Treasurer MUST make a transfer to this reserve (or from this reserve if there is a deficit) at each year end. (This can be rolled into the ongoing reserve policy that has yet to be formalized)
• The amount to be transferred is the Net difference in the entire Policing budget not just the RCMP contract.
• Make a recommendation to use the newly discovered $177,000 in the fines revenue and whatever money is there from the Grants in Lieu (Budget is set at $150,000.) underestimation (est. $35,000), (actual money known by CFO from BC Hydro March 26/08) as a method to reduce the Residential Tax rates by at least 1%.
  

If The RCMP Reserve transfer had been done in 2007 (as it has been done in the 2005 and 2006 years) it will have no effect on the claimed 2.04% tax increase for the average residential owner.

The CFO's statement that policing is no different than any other operating divisions and that there are no operating carryovers in fire etc. is incorrect in that for the first time (published) in 2006 the Clerks Division, the HR and the IS divisions all were allowed carryovers. I'm sure that the same thing happened in 2007.

Lets solve this for all time with a proper resolution that recognizes that when the City Taxes us for Policing that they use this money for Policing unless they have the justification to spend it elsewhere and that justification can be demonstrated in front of the cameras at an open Council Meeting for all the people to see.

Taxing time in Kelowna

Ron Seymour 2008-05-06 Kelowna Courier

Kelowna homeowners will see their municipal taxes rise at least 12 per cent during the next four years, city council heard Monday. A financial plan forecasts a tax hike of four per cent in 2009, followed by subsequent annual increases of four, 2.2 and two per cent. “We are being as fiscally responsible as we can,” Mayor Sharon Shepherd said after the council meeting. Spending on the new Mission Aquatic Centre accounts for much of the predicted tax increase, she said. Without that, she said, tax hikes would be inline with recent annual increases of about two per cent. However, the projected tax increase of 12.2 per cent between 2009 and 2012 is based on the city providing the current level of services. Any decision by future councils to expand services or add new ones would create upward pressure on municipal taxes.

The tax increases outlook was presented as council gave final approval to this year‘s budget, which contains a municipal tax hike of 5.7 per cent for the typical homeowner. For someone whose home has increased in assessed value to $494,000 from $422,000, the municipal tax bill will go up $85, to $1,582 from $1,497. Their total tax bill, including charges for the school board, hospital board, and regional district will rise to $2,374 from $2,252, after application of the homeowner grant. “Like everyone else, I don‘t like to see taxes go up,” said Coun. Norm Letnick. But, echoing comments made previously by finance staff, he said the city has to buy large quantities of material such as concrete and steel, which have risen in price faster than the inflation rate. Given these realities, Letnick described the 5.7 per cent tax increase as “prudent.”

In recent years, the city‘s policy has been to direct half of all taxation revenue from new construction toward capital costs. However, this year, virtually all of that money is going toward operational costs. If that trend were to continue, many projects identified in the long-range capital works plan could not be built. So, finance director Paul Macklem said it was an “opportune time” for council to soon consider both the capital works plan itself, and the long-standing approach of using 50 per cent of new tax revenues to support it.

Traffic fines swell City coffers. City understimates by $177,365 (44%) in 2008 budget !

by Wayne Moore May 3 CASTANET
Southern Interior municipalities have raked in a record $4.3 million in traffic fine revenue this year. The funds help to enhance policing and community based public safety programs. Revenues from traffic fines allow municipalities to explore a wide range of projects, including outreach services for youth, Aboriginal policing, traffic safety programs and methamphetamine awareness programs. "This increased funding has also allowed municipalities to hire 560 new police officers," says Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, John van Dongen.

The breakdown of traffic fine revenues for interior communities includes:

• Vernon - $580,000
  
• Coldstream - $52,000

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May 03 Don Quixote Note: On April 12 I posted and on Apr. 14 I submitted in writing at the public input the information about the underestimation of fine revenue: Agenda Package - 9.93MB
Summary and responses to the public input session:Tax Increase P.203. P.36-39 of above agenda package is my original input.:

In the 2007 budget the anticipated fine revenue for acct 216200000 Prov. Govt Revenue Sharing Grant was $394,740.
The actual amount received was $495,253 an unexpected windfall of $100,513.
The 2008 budget has been set at $402,635 which is 2% above last years budget and $92,618 below what we received last year.
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The response to my original questions citing other underestimations of revenue and overestimations of expenses was the answer by the CFO:

Mr. Spiers has requested a zero percent increase in taxes. In support of this position he has cited a number of individual items contained within the Financial Plan where he feels there is room for a reduction in expenses or an increase in revenues.
ANSWER: Planned moderate increases in taxation to fund service expansion and cost inflation reflect the real cost pressures and initiatives undertaken by the City.
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As it turns out the revenue that we will actually receive is $580,000 which is $177,365 more than we budgeted for. This is a miss by 44%.
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On April 23rd I sent an e-mail to Anne.(NameWithheld)@gov.bc.ca :
I have seen the publication of the 2008 fine revenue for the Coastal region and the Kootenays so far. Can you advise when we will see the North Okanagan figures.Especially interested in Vernon and Coldstream for budget purposes. Thanks in advance for your help. (End of Message)

The person was the liaison officer named in one of the already named press releases. She did not reply to me knowing full well that the beloved leader Ida Chong would make this news release at the end of the SILGA convention. In this day of cooperation between the municipalities and the province you would have anticipated that the province would have informed municipal treasurers of any large increase so they can present a realistic budget.
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Well it is still before the final vote on the budget on April 12 and this large error of $$177,365 can still be used to adjust our tax increase down by at least 1%. This would cut the announced tax increase (excluding fire) from 2.04% in half. This would also cut the real business tax increase in half. This must be put on the finance committee meeting of Thursday May 8 so the CFO can make these adjustments in preparation for Monday.

Communities get cash

Morning Star May 4

North Okanagan municipalities will see more traffic fine revenue going into their coffers. The provincial government announced Friday that a record $4.3 million in traffic fine revenue will go to 11 Southern Interior communities in 2008. Coldstream will get $52,929 while $73,041 will go to Lake Country and $26,417 to Spallumcheen. There will be $580,656 going to Vernon.
“Through this program, we’re returning funding to local governments to invest in programs or services that make our communities better, safer places to live,” said John van Dongen, public safety minister. It was also announced Friday that unconditional grants are being increased for small municipalities. There will be $464,392 for Armstrong, $345,627 for Coldstream, $405,220 for Enderby, $323,008 for Lake Country and $332,339 for Lumby. Spallumcheen will receive $449,773, and $142,000 for the North Okanagan Regional District.
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Don Quixote Note: In the 2007 budget the anticipated fine revenue for acct 216200000 Prov. Govt Revenue Sharing Grant was $394,740. The actual amount received was $495,253 an unexpected windfall of $100,513.

The 2008 budget has been set at $402,635 which is 2% above last years budget and $92,618 below what we received last year. As it turns out the 2008 revenue that we will actually receive is $580,000 which is $177,365 more than we budgeted for. This is a miss by 44%.

The story from the local newspaper was one that contained large numbers and consequently was confined to the back pages of this esteemed local adrag as been inconsequential and incomprehensible to the average taxpayer. Big numbers or any numbers seem to confuse their reporting staff.

Let's see if the local Council is less confused than the newspaper that covers them and orders a reduction in local taxes at Tursday's finance committee meeting !

Kelowna winds up with $1.9 million left over from ‘07

Kelowna Daily Courier May 3
Higher-than-expected revenues from building inspections helped the City of Kelowna end 2007 with a $1.9-million surplus. Council will receive a report Monday recommending that most of the surplus be directed toward future capital projects, including $1 million for roadwork. Just under a third of the surplus would go toward the snow-removal budget, parkland purchasing and civic facilities. The city normally ends each year with a surplus, which recently has been averaging about $3 million. “We need to budget conservatively, because we can‘t afford to get into a deficit,” finance director Paul Macklem said Friday. Along with higher fees generated by the inspection services department, the city received more money than expected from Victoria through a program designed to share revenues from local gaming operations. As well, some programs that were scheduled and budgeted for last year did not proceed for a variety of reasons. Staff vacancies also generated some of the surplus.
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Don Quixote Note: By contrast Vernon's final surplus from the 2007 draft financial Statements was $84,096. Most of the actual surplus was used on Middleton Way in the amount of $1,420,691 as this underestimated project was completed when no grants were obtained. In addition $787,483 of the intended transfer to Policing Reserves was not done.

Taxes for City, Fire and NORD starting to add up.

The 2008 budget was approved by a 5-2 vote on Monday. Voting against the budget were Councillors Cochrane and Beardsell. The claimed tax increase is 2.04% for the average house which is assessed at $418,676. This does NOT include the Fire Taxes for an average house as Vernon remains the only city that has a specified area tax for fire and calculates it separately. (Actually 2 fire specified areas - Landing and old city which have different rates.) I have used the data provided and the table illustrates the effect of the fire tax on an average house assessed at $418,676 using the same improvements %age as was used last year.Tax increase plus fire comes in at 3.64%

Adding in the NORD tax increase which is 8.39% for this average house the final tax increase (excluding Hospital, school, Library and misc) for Old City residents is 5.12% while Okanagan Residents will see an increase of 4.22%.

Your tax increase is dependent on your assessment and whether the land and improvements assessment have varied from the average increase from the last tax year. You can plug in your assessment and use the rates in the table. (Make sure you use the proper rates when the tax is on improvements only (Fire, NORD 2) or on land only as in the case of NORD 1 (S.I.R. program)

Businesses face "extreme" tax increase

107.5 KISSFM Pete McIntyre

The city of Vernon's new budget has been approved--- but not without some opposition. Councillor Pat Cochrane voted against it over concerns about the impact to the commercial taxpayers. Cochrane tells KISS FM, "It's in the range of 12 percent and I consider that an extreme increase and I think that's wrong. "I think we should have taken steps to find a way to get the commercial increase down to a closer percentage increase to the residential increase." Councillor Barry Beardsell also voted against the new budget. For residential taxpayers, the increase is 2.04 percent which works out to an extra $16.39 dollars for the average homeowner (assesed value of $418,000). Mayor Wayne Lippert says the increase is needed to improve infrastructure like roads and sewer.

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Don Quixote Note: The 2.04% increase does not include the fire tax which will bring the City's portion of municipal taxes up to 3.64%.

Contrary to the Mayor's assertion that the increase is for 'sewer', this increase has nothing to do with the increases that will be coming to your sewer rates. The sewer portion of your quarterly payments to the City are a utility charge and are billed separately from taxes.

Tax Increase for City is 3.64%

The 2008 budget was approved by a 5-2 vote yesterday. Voting against the budget were Councillors Cochrane and Beardsell.

The claimed tax increase is 2.04% for the average house which is assessed at $418,676. This does NOT include the Fire Taxes for an average house as Vernon remains the only city that has a specified area tax for fire and calculates it separately. (Actually 2 fire specified areas - Landing and old city which have different rates.)

I have used the data provided and the table illustrates the effect of the fire tax on an average house assessed at $418,676 using the same improvements %age as was used last year.

Tax increase plus fire comes in at 3.64%
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Don Quixote still wants a 0% tax increase !!

Agenda Package - 9.93MB
Summary and responses to the public input session:
Tax Increase P.203
Mr. Spiers has requested a zero percent increase in taxes. In support of this position he has cited a number of individual items contained within the Financial Plan where he feels there is room for a reduction in expenses or an increase in revenues.
ANSWER: Planned moderate increases in taxation to fund service expansion and cost inflation reflect the real cost pressures and initiatives undertaken by the City.
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Don Quixote Reply to this Point:
In P.36-39 of above agenda package is my input.
Part of my reply was in regards to the point always brought up by some councillors that they have to at least have a raise each year to cover the cost of living increases etc:
Council may say that a 2.04% tax increase is necessary to ensure that we continue to look forward and not go back to the days of McGrath and the low tax hikes that caused us to fall so far behind in infrastructure maintenance and replacement. Get over it. That was 8 years ago and those small tax increases were funded by growth and a Provincial Government annual subsidy that was removed in the late 90's. It was replaced in the early 2000's by larger than anticipated Casino monies and lately by unexpected (at least to the CFO's if you believe how they budgeted for it) returns on short term investments, unbudgeted building fee revenue and a residential growth spurt that brought in massive sums of new tax money. Despite this growth that in the words of Coun. Cunningham should benefit the existing taxpayer , she don't see no change to her taxes. (Not mentioned was the 2003 tax revenue realized when the landing's 10 year tax holiday ended)
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What I pointed out was that the budget that they were attempting to pass with a 2.04% increase contained all the projects that were required for 2008, all service level adjustments and the COST of LIVING factor was built in to all the necessary line cost items. I then went on to show that there were costs that were overestimated (proved out by budget vs. actual tender) and revenues that were underestimated (Fine revenue, Hydro Grants in lieu) that could easily reduce this TAX REQUISITION to 0%.

We have had large increases in revenue put into this years budget including over $300,000 in building permit fees from a single new development, over $1,200,000 to account for return on short term investments, and large increases in excess of $600,000 in new growth tax revenues.

Growing the tax base should provide a larger revenue pool that should allow some tax relief. It was recently recognized in Spallumcheen when they lowered their residential taxes.

A Quote from Spall's Mayor : "It was “because of the growth that we had. We were able to pass some of that new growth savings back to the homeowners,” he said Tax rates decreased across the board but increased assessments will see the township increase revenue substantially from major industry (nearly $67,000), light industry (almost $22,000), and residential properties (about $30,000). “As long as we achieve a balance and we still offer the same level of services, then we can pass those savings onto the ratepayers and bring those taxes down,” said Hansma.

RCMP Reserve Fund and Middleton Way Grant to be debated Monday at 8:40 AM

Agenda Package - 795Kb (COW MEETING) P.25 -26
2007 YEAR END CARRYOVERS (P. 25) B. Memo dated April 8, 2008, from Mr. Kevin Bertles, Manager, Finance, re: 2007 Year End Carryovers.

In this April 8 memo the Manager of Finance details what he believes to be the present policy with regards to the RCMP Reserve. He suggests that the Council add an ongoing treatment of this particular Reserve to the draft "Interim Reserve Policy" which Council is already in the process of crafting. He states in his last paragraph: "There was no transfer made to the RCMP reserve in 2007 for either the fine revenue or the policing surplus. He goes on to state that if Council wishes to reinstate the $787,483 to the Police Reserve then they must make a corresponding reduction in the Casino reserve to offset the additional expenditures for Middleton Way.

Nothing about a transfer back from the Affordable Housing Reserve is mentioned in this memo or the afternoon's memo "April 17 Summary and responses to the public input session" which can be found at Agenda Package - 9.93MB P.203-204" This summary is in response to the public input that can be found in the same agenda package at pages 34-39.
In that input I argued that the $310,000 that was taken from the RCMP reserve and transferred to the Affordable Housing fund when it was set up should be returned as part of rationalizing the Reserve Policy as was part of the original debate when money was transferred.
Hopefully this will be addressed at the COW debate on Monday morning.
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In the COW memo on page 26 'Middleton Way funding source' is the sentence
" in proceeding with the project prior to an announcement concerning grant funding, the City eliminated the possibility of obtaining grant funds for a project already under construction."
In the response to public input memo on Page 204 is the sentence: "As such the City abandoned grant funding possibilities by commencing the project prior to a funding announcement"

The Grants Status Report confirms that there was a $631,568 grant application put in Jan 24/07 under the MRIF program.
The Middleton project was declassified May 14 from a Dark Side (in-camera) meeting and passed by a 6 to 1 Vote.
No doubt at the Dark Side debate the Council was informed of the status of the Grant and the possible ramifications if it proceeded before the Grant was approved. There is no indication that any such discussion took place at the declassification meeting.
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These are the debates that will occur at the COW meeting at 8:40. Hopefully the RCMP reserve will be restated to its correct levels and a binding resolution on its future treatment reinstated.

I will have a separate posting on the 2.04% tax increase that will occur at the afternoon session of council.

Township taxes trimmed

By Tyler Olsen - Vernon Morning Star - April 25, 2008

A case of beer, trip to the movie theatre or half-tank of gas – thanks to a tax cut, the average Spallumcheen resident will have some decisions to make with an extra $32. The township has cut municipal taxes to the tune of four per cent on an average assessed home, meaning residents of the average Spallumcheen home or farm valued at nearly $257,000, up 13 per cent from last year, will pay $32 less municipal tax. Property owners who saw the assessed value of their home remain the same will pay 15 per cent less. “We were able to lower the mill rate substantially all the way across,” said Mayor Will Hansma. Despite the rate cut, the township will collect nearly four per cent more in taxes in 2008 and nearly two per cent more from residents. Hansma attributed the decrease to recent development.

It was “because of the growth that we had. We were able to pass some of that new growth savings back to the homeowners,” he said Tax rates decreased across the board but increased assessments will see the township increase revenue substantially from major industry (nearly $67,000), light industry (almost $22,000), and residential properties (about $30,000). “As long as we achieve a balance and we still offer the same level of services, then we can pass those savings onto the ratepayers and bring those taxes down,” said Hansma. “We haven’t changed the way we do things. We’re still doing everything the same way.” In total, the Township of Spallumcheen will bring in $3,299,297 in tax revenue in 2008, up from $3,197,785 last year. Total property assessments in the township rose more than 20 per cent, to $794,308,976. Farm assessments, however, dropped by $30,000.

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Don Quixote Note: If Spall can do it why Can't Vernon ?

Agenda is set today - Will RCMP reserve Policy be on it?

Hopefully as the Mayor sits down to prepare Monday's Council Agenda for both the COW meeting in the morning at 8:40 and regular Council meeting at 1:30 he will reflect back to the public input on the 5 year Financial Plan on April 14.

Being the lone public input I requested that Council:

• make the transfer of last year's RCMP surplus of $787,483 into the RCMP reserve account. (As suggested by the CFO in a memo to Council this could be accomplished by taking the money from the Casino reserve where normal infrastructure projects such as Middleton Way are normally financed.)
• Now that the DCC's that will shortly be approved by Prov. Government has made the original stated purpose of the Affordable Housing Reserve moot, then transfer back to the RCMP reserve fund the $310,000 that came from that reserve and was a condition of that transfer. This will leave $190,000 in the Affodable Housing Reserve fund and the purpose and disposition of this reserve can be determined at a full scale review of all existing reserves .
• Introduce a resolution (if one doesn't actually exist) that the City's policy is that the entire Policing surplus each year (both RCMP contract and other expenses) MUST be placed into the Policing Reserve. The disposition of this reserve will only be done by formal resolution in an open council meeting .
  
• Consider reducing the planned 2.04% tax increase (not including fire). I pointed out several areas where the budget revenue was understated or the budget expenses overstated. The BC Hydro grants in lieu ($35,000 underest.) and traffic fine revenue ($90,000 underest.) are examples of this.
• Middleton Way financing: Is there a possibility that increased DCC's can come out of the DCC pot to pay for this project and reduce or eliminate the $305,000 in this year's budget? What is the status of the $631,568 grant applied for Jan 24/07 and is marked as 'not likely- project completed' on Grants report revised on March 26/08. Were Council aware they might be jeprodizing this grant application when they voted on going ahead with Middleton Way?
  

I hope that these items will be debated as an agenda item on Monday. If not I hope that a Councillor will at least attempt to add them on the COW's meeting agenda.

Another City of Vernon tender brought in underbudget !

Tender Filled:
FAF-08-09 2008 Trailer Mounted Hydraulic Brush Chipper Mar 28, 2008 $28,995.75

BUDGET:
228321371 New Brush Chipper Replace #3 Budget P.9 $35,000 Savings: $6004.25 (17%)

Sale of Old Chipper:
FAF-08-14 Sale of Vermeer Brush Chipper Bids Open April 24, 2008 on BC Auction
Place Bids on BC Auction website at www.bcauction.ca