City managers were asked to try and cut 1.5 per cent out of their departmental budgets as part of the preparation of the city’s draft 2014 budget.
During a meeting with several of the city’s general managers about the budget, Maya Pungur-Buick, the general manager of corporate strategic services, said the 1.5 per cent reduction was the direction they were given.
“It really is nickel and diming in some areas,” Pungur-Buick said of the processes to try and get the budgets down.
Chris Jardine, community and protective services general manager, said city manager Patrick Draper told them to stop holding onto funds for a rainy day.
Instead, they looked at historical use of various services and expectations, trying to come up with a lean budget that doesn’t hinder staff from addressing any issues that come up.
Jardine said because this year they had several contract renewals, more favourable rates were negotiated thanks to a co-operative market. Anita Ho, chief financial officer for St. Albert, noted they got good deals on electricity and natural gas.
Glenn Tompolski, general manager of infrastructure services, said when it comes to public works, they have to look at an average year in budgeting for items like snow removal.
“We don’t have a lot of wiggle room,” he said.
Several city divisions were able to find savings in line items like contracted and general services.
Community and protective services was the department with the largest increase to their budget over 2014. The 2014 proposed budget estimates show an increase of $1.9-million over 2013. Jardine said those increases are due to a few factors, namely the renegotiated fire services contract and increases to the RCMP contract.
He did point out that the budget for Servus Credit Union Place actually is estimated to decrease $484,300 compared to 2013.
“The place is bursting at the seams,” Jardien said of the busy programs and facilities there.
Pungur-Buick explained a $601,500 bump to the human resources budget by noting training for city staff is now being centralized instead of having each department handling its own. That means training funds are being centralized as well.
Pungur-Buick said the proposed budget has “no frills.” She said she thinks it is doable to maintain current service levels with this budget, and continuous improvement will be looked at to benchmark those.
Jardine said four of the business cases proposed in the budget are needed to maintain services and noted it’d be tough if some of the 32 potential business cases aren’t given the go-ahead by council.
“I would say collectively across the board we cannot do any more work,” Jardine said.
Tompolski noted one of the challenges for his department – which handles public work and transit – is the community’s growth.
Draper and Pungur-Buick noted the need to take a multi-year view. Pungur-Buick said the community sustainability vision process planned for 2014 is something that will help figure out how to retain the unique nature of the city in the coming decades.
“That’s something we believe is required at this point,” she said.
The budget created by staff “is the creature of council policies,” Pungur-Buick said, and council will have to decide if they want changes to those policies or process.
The new council is eager to make their mark, she said.
“We’re here to help them,” she said.
