At The Citizen we pride ourselves on having the best investigative journalists not only in the city, but in the province, a number of times, and on occasion, the best in the country.
However, even the best investigative journalist needs a bit of hapless luck sometimes, and that is exactly what happened the other day.
After we ran an editorial about how many FOIs we have had to file to get information we believe should be available to the general public, one point in particular struck a chord.
After saying in the editorial we had to file an FOI to get the salary details for senior staff members at the city, we received an e-mail from a kindly city staffer saying all the information we required was readily available on the city's website, in accordance with subsection 2 (3) of the Financial Information Act, and subsection 4(1) of the Financial Information Regulation.
Here is some of what lady luck showed us.
Over the last two years, while businesses were downsizing, sometimes closing and laying off numerous people, when the unemployment lines were getting longer and mills were shutting down, putting hundreds of people out of work, our city went in the opposite direction and increased its workforce by 16 people. The budget for city workers from 2007 to 2009 also increased by $5.472 million, which to put in context, is a whole year's budget for snow removal. Also, the number of people who work for the city and who earn in excess of $75,000 jumped 60 per cent from 131 to 209, and City manager Derek Bates saw a salary increase of 22 per cent, rising from $159,100 to 194,262.
This really shows where the city's head is at.
The nicest among us would say it's in the clouds.
The idea seems to be, if you don't spend all your money there is no way to ask the taxpayers for more each year.
With all those people making all that money you would think the city possessed enough collective brainpower to come up with a proper plan to save money this year. But it seems the best they can come up with are these four lac-lustre snow removal options.
1. Use no contractors, but it would take eight to 10 days to finish the town. (Expected annual savings: $315,000)
2. Hold crews back until the accumulation gets to 150mm. (Expected annual savings: $135,000)
3. No ploughing the windrows of snow and ice off your driveway. (Expected annual savings: $170,000)
4. Leave the big windrows on the major thoroughfares. (Expected annual savings: $375,000).
These options for cutting costs make shooting cocaine from a dirty needle into your arm look like a really clever idea.
Option 1 seems to amount to a bit of kick in the teeth for taxpayers. Option two is also a bit of a kick in the teeth. Option three is a really hard kick in the teeth, and option four is..., well it is just another kick in the teeth thinly disguised as a slap in the face.
Judging from the number of people at the city making more than $75,000 per year, we have come up with four alternative ideas to save money.
1. Cut $5.472 million from the staffing budget.
2. Cut the number of staff working at the city to save $5.472 million.
3. Roll back wages to cut $5.472 million from the budget
4. Get someone new to do the damn budget.
It is about time this city started to show some fiscal responsibility.
Although this council has only been in for a few years, and the huge increases in wages may not have been on their watch, they are on watch now, and it is their responsibility to listen to the taxpayers of this city.
The voters are not happy, and if this council does not start to listen, then the next, completely different council may.
