Yes, it is the Steno in Legislative Services. It is not a new position but has been vacant so it was not included in the FTE count or funded in the budget in the previous year.
Of the $525,000 set aside from 2010 to 2012 for reducing GHG emissions, $433,366 was spent on projects in 2010 and 2011. A further $417,000 is budgeted in 2012 consisting of the following projects:
- Beban Pool Boiler Replacement
- Cliff McNabb Arena Energy Enhancements
- Heating shutoff when overhead doors are open at Fire Halls 1 and 3 and Fleet Shop
- Implementation of Beban Energy Study recommendations
- Upgrade lighting to more energy efficient technology at various PR&C facilities
- Pilot project reducing street lighting to minimum standards during quiet hours
The explanation of the year over year increase in FTEs explains the increases as well as the decrease resulting from employees transferring to the Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation. The Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation is an arm's length corporation that is separate and distinct from the City. This organization will have funding sources that are in addition to the grant from the City and will have additional employees over and above those transferred from the City. The City provides grants to many organizations. The employees of those organizations are not included in the City's FTE count because they are not employees of the City. Employees of the NEDC are no different and will also not be included in the City's FTE count.
As noted on the bottom of the page R equals recommended. The Internal Auditor and the Seismic Screening were the only two higher service levels that were recommended for inclusion in the budget by the City Manager.
The Nanaimo Economic Development Corporation will be responsible for the salaries of all staff who moved. The City has budgeted a grant for this organization in the amount of $1,375,448 which is equal to the budgets for Economic Development and Tourism in 2011 since the new corporation is taking over those functions. Therefore although the salaries and benefits for the staff who moved are not specifically included in the City's budget, it can be assumed that the NEDC will use the grant funding to cover the salaries as well as other expenses.
Since City employees may have income from sources other than the City we are unable to provide the median total income for City of Nanaimo employees for 2008. The median income from the City only for all City employees in 2008 was $16,478.88.
Part of the explanation relates to timing and part relates to an error on the Annual Debt Payments chart. Total outstanding debt peaks in 2014 because that is the year in which the final borrowing in the 2012 to 2016 Financial Plan is budgeted. Annual debt payments actually increase in 2014 and 2015 and then start to drop in 2016. This is because the City borrows through the Municipal Finance Authority and can therefore has only two opportunities to borrow each year. Therefore, since we usually plan to borrow at the fall borrowing, full payments do not start until the following year. While the debt payments remain fixed for the term of the borrowing, outstanding debt decreases each year by the amount of the principal portion of the debt payments.
Debt payments are correct in the budgets itself and only the chart is incorrect. It will be fixed in the next version.
The City Hall building maintenance budget includes the total cost of operating the City Hall and Annex buildings. It therefore includes items like utility costs, janitorial supplies, etc. All custodial work and some repair and maintenance is performed by City employees. More specialized work is contracted out.
Like most BC municipalities (179 out of 188), the City of Nanaimo has signed the BC Climate Action Charter, which commits us to becoming carbon neutral by 2012. Local governments can achieve carbon neutrality by reducing emissions, by purchasing carbon offsets to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions or by developing projects to offset emissions. Local governments must measure and report annually on their carbon emissions.
Reducing GHG emissions to zero is unlikely and Nanaimo will have to purchase carbon offsets in order to meet our commitments. In 2008, when the commitment was first made, the City of Nanaimo's corporate GHG emissions were approximately 7,000 tons. At an estimated cost of $25 per ton for carbon offsets, the cost to the City would be $175,000 annually. The Province has not yet made it clear who these carbon offsets can be purchased from, although the Pacific Carbon Trust is one potential organization. The City will not purchase any carbon offsets until this is clarified by the Province.
The City has allocated $175,000 per year in its budget since 2010. These funds have been put into the Sustainability Reserve and used to pay for projects that reduce carbon emissions and/or energy consumption, therefore reducing operating costs and/or the amount of carbon offsets that will need to be purchased in the future.
Because these projects have been successful in reducing the City's carbon emissions, it is estimated that the carbon offsets in 2012 will cost about $145,000. The remaining $30,000 will be added to the Sustainability Reserve and used to fund future projects.
The majority of the increase is the result of including funding for a position that has been vacant for a few years. When the position originally became vacant funding was removed from the budget because the department felt they could operate without it. The workload has now increased to the point that it is once again required. Therefore funding for the position has been restored in the budget. There are also increases in the budget related to things like advertising. Since it is a new Council new members are appointed to committees and advertising for at-large committee members is required. the remainder of the increase is inflationary.
The $140,000 for the Communications Manager is an estimate of all expenses related to the position. Nothing has been budgeted for this position in any year since the request was not recommended by the City Manager.
A 2% inflation factor is added to all expenditures in the second to fifth years of the plan. The remainder is a contractual wage increase.
Higher Service Level requests are completed by the originating departments. One department categorized the required equipment as capital while the other one categorized it as an operating expense. Technically desks, chairs, computers, etc. are operating expenses. Higher Service Level Requests are also just that, requests. As long as the total dollars requested is a reasonable estimate of the expected costs, how they are allocated on the request is not that important. Should the request get approved, both the budget and the actual expenditures would be allocated correctly.
Dates for all meetings of Council are included in the Council Key Date Calendar. It can be found under the 'Public Notices' section of the website under 'Council Agendas/Minutes/Video'.
The budget schedule was also included in the presentations to Council at both the Finance Policy and Committee of the Whole meeting held December 12 and the Council meeting held December 19. In addition, it was advertised in the December City Page in the local newspapers. Since the budget is normally discussed only at regular meetings, there usually no special schedule for budget meetings. This year however, one meeting will start earlier than normal and two additional meetings have been scheduled . These meetings were announced at the December 19 Council meeting and are also included in the Key Date Calendar. The various departments will be presenting information related to their budgets and Council will have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the budget. The public has the opportunity to comment on the budget at all Council and Committee of the Whole meetings from now until the final tax rates and Financial Plan bylaws are adopted in mid-May. Pre-registration is not required.
The departmental budget presentations will be at the following meetings:
January 10 - Special Finance/Policy Committee of the Whole – 1:30 p.m. City Hall Board Room
January 16 - Finance/Policy Committee of the Whole – 3:00 p.m. City Hall Board Room
January 17 - Special Finance/Policy Committee of the Whole – 1:30 p.m. City Hall Board Room
Since the decision to update the park plan was not made by Council until November, and the budget was completed by then, the project was already included in the budget as it was originally submitted by Parks, Recreation & Culture. Once a new park plan has been endorsed by Council the budget will be adjusted to reflect the new plan.
The higher service level request form for the Communications Manager included the required equipment in operating costs. The cost for equipment would be about the same for both positions. The difference in cost is because the Internal Audit position would likely be at a higher salary.
You are correct in your comment that no approved plan for the Maffeo Sutton Park upgrade exists. Since it was agreed that the 2.3 acres if property previously set aside for condo development would be added to the park it was recognized that the previous plan needed to be updated. The current planning process is as follows:
- Develop a Maffeo Sutton Working Group in Q1 2012 consisting of stakeholders like Port Authority, Econ Dev, 2 Councillors possibly, SFN, special event reps, and sample of park users. The Working Group would be sounding board for new ideas.
- One on one meetings to be held in Feb/March with stakeholders like Port, SFN, Lions, DNBIA, special events, vendors, Chamber, RCMP and Bylaw to assess successes, and improvements to identify for future.
- Host a public survey in May
- Hold first open house by May,2012.
- Summer 2012 staff to assess survey results, stakeholder input, open house feedback
- Draft park vision and improvement plan and present to Parks Commission in Sept,2012 -Present first draft to Council in October,2012
- Draft plan presented to stakeholders, and public for review and comments at a second Open House in October,2012
- After public review the plan will be presented to Commission for approval and forwarded on to Council for adoption in November, 2012.
Since the decision to update the park plan was not made until November the project was already included in the budget as it was originally submitted by Parks, Recreation & Culture. Once a new park plan has been endorsed by Council the budget will be adjusted to reflect the new plan. In the meantime there is no impact on property taxes since the project is funded entirely from PILTs from the Port Authority.
In past years Council did establish budget objectives which served as a strategic plan - at least for budget purposes.
It is agreed that it would be a "best practice" for each new Council to agree upon a strategic plan that would provide overall guidance and direction for the organization.
In staff's view a consultant who has expertise in this area will speed up the process by keeping the discussions on track, ensuring good buy-in to the plan and full and equal participation and consideration of views of all members of Council.
There are no costs associated with the implementation of the proposed hotel/motel tax exemptions. If a new hotel is built or an existing hotel is renovated it would be reflected as either new assessment from growth or an increase in assessment due to the renovations. Therefore, in the absence of an exemption, there would be additional revenue. The financial plan does include an allowance for new revenue from growth but a new hotel would be in addition to that. At the end of the exemption period the City would begin to levy property taxes on the new assessment related to the hotel.
