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Where's the '10 budget?
27 December 2009
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One of the last questions I asked in our final 2009 council meeting was, "Where's the preliminary budget for 2010?" Sometime in January was the vague, and unsatisfactory, response. There was no explanation for its lateness given when I asked the question.
This term we were supposed to see a renewed, revised budget process, where we actually discussed and approved the budget BEFORE the year it was meant to serve. But although department heads had been told to prepare the 2010 budget for council to review in November 09, it still hasn't come to the table. A draft budget was submitted by staff, however, so I don't think staff are to blame for this delay.
The budget committee has not been called to meet and discuss this problem or to make a presentation to council. The committee is chaired by the mayor and he calls the meetings. As chair, he should have informed council of any delays or issues. We've heard nothing this year until I asked at the last council meeting of the year.*
The Deputy Mayor was, until this term, the traditional chair of the budget committee, and we had very good, productive budget discussions held during the day, not during our regular council meetings. Staff was present so council could raise issues, ask questions and get background on items and requests. These were open meetings, and the media and public could attend.
The current mayor didn't attend the budget meetings last term (as councillor), because he was opposed to attending daytime meetings.
The big problem has always been that the budget was presented for discussion early in the year it took effect, and sometimes wasn't finalized until summer. Approval often took weeks, even months, long after money had already been spent on projects and programs. Council was often merely rubber-stamping approvals because it was too late to change anything. It made it almost impossible to plan ahead for some events and activities if the budget wasn't approved until late spring or early summer.
That was all supposed to change, this term, and we were supposed to get the next year's budget BEFORE the current year end. But then, too, there were other changes made. Changes made without council's input or approval.
This term, the mayor managed a coup** to get himself appointed chair of the committee. He then had the budget presented during evening council meetings, contributing to those six-hour council marathons, rather than having the meetings during the day.
But this year, under his leadership, the budget committee hasn't even met to discuss the 2010 budget.
The budget is somewhere in bureaucratic limbo. Council's been kept in the dark about it, and the committee won't meet to begin discussing the presentation until January 13.*
So where's all that accountability we were promised? Where's the 2010 budget we expected to review last month? Ask the mayor. He chairs the committee and he controls the process and how council gets informed.
~~~~~
* I guess that, after three years of this administration, those promises of openness, accountability and transparency are pretty much forgotten by those who made them. But not, I think, by the electorate.
** As I noted in a post back in early 2007, the mayor unilaterally - without any council input. let alone approval - changed the structure of the budget process and committee. First, he appointed his (then) strong supporter, Councillor Jeffrey to the committee. Then he planned tp hold committee meeings behind closed doors (I quickly challenged that - see my post here). At its first (now open) meeting, the mayor left the deputy mayor downstairs, talking to a resident in the foyer of town hall, and he raced upstairs. Rather than wait the extra two minutes for the DM to finish, he opened the committee meeting and called or nominations for chair. Jeffrey - of course - nominated the mayor, and they both voted for him. When the DM arrived, moments later, the coup as over and Sandra had been kicked out of the DM's traditional role without notice, or even a chance to have her say on the matter. How very open and transparent, eh?[/indent]
This term we were supposed to see a renewed, revised budget process, where we actually discussed and approved the budget BEFORE the year it was meant to serve. But although department heads had been told to prepare the 2010 budget for council to review in November 09, it still hasn't come to the table. A draft budget was submitted by staff, however, so I don't think staff are to blame for this delay.
The budget committee has not been called to meet and discuss this problem or to make a presentation to council. The committee is chaired by the mayor and he calls the meetings. As chair, he should have informed council of any delays or issues. We've heard nothing this year until I asked at the last council meeting of the year.*
The Deputy Mayor was, until this term, the traditional chair of the budget committee, and we had very good, productive budget discussions held during the day, not during our regular council meetings. Staff was present so council could raise issues, ask questions and get background on items and requests. These were open meetings, and the media and public could attend.
The current mayor didn't attend the budget meetings last term (as councillor), because he was opposed to attending daytime meetings.
The big problem has always been that the budget was presented for discussion early in the year it took effect, and sometimes wasn't finalized until summer. Approval often took weeks, even months, long after money had already been spent on projects and programs. Council was often merely rubber-stamping approvals because it was too late to change anything. It made it almost impossible to plan ahead for some events and activities if the budget wasn't approved until late spring or early summer.
That was all supposed to change, this term, and we were supposed to get the next year's budget BEFORE the current year end. But then, too, there were other changes made. Changes made without council's input or approval.
This term, the mayor managed a coup** to get himself appointed chair of the committee. He then had the budget presented during evening council meetings, contributing to those six-hour council marathons, rather than having the meetings during the day.
But this year, under his leadership, the budget committee hasn't even met to discuss the 2010 budget.
The budget is somewhere in bureaucratic limbo. Council's been kept in the dark about it, and the committee won't meet to begin discussing the presentation until January 13.*
So where's all that accountability we were promised? Where's the 2010 budget we expected to review last month? Ask the mayor. He chairs the committee and he controls the process and how council gets informed.
~~~~~
* I guess that, after three years of this administration, those promises of openness, accountability and transparency are pretty much forgotten by those who made them. But not, I think, by the electorate.
** As I noted in a post back in early 2007, the mayor unilaterally - without any council input. let alone approval - changed the structure of the budget process and committee. First, he appointed his (then) strong supporter, Councillor Jeffrey to the committee. Then he planned tp hold committee meeings behind closed doors (I quickly challenged that - see my post here). At its first (now open) meeting, the mayor left the deputy mayor downstairs, talking to a resident in the foyer of town hall, and he raced upstairs. Rather than wait the extra two minutes for the DM to finish, he opened the committee meeting and called or nominations for chair. Jeffrey - of course - nominated the mayor, and they both voted for him. When the DM arrived, moments later, the coup as over and Sandra had been kicked out of the DM's traditional role without notice, or even a chance to have her say on the matter. How very open and transparent, eh?[/indent]
