By Pepper Parr

March 1st, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

The shift that has taken place in the way city council works now is almost seismic.

Burlington voted for five new council members in October. Two of the five were the result of former councillors who decided not to run again. The other two were defeated at the polls.

The Mayor lost his chain of office – Marianne Med Ward now wears that symbol of office.

The 2010 to 2018 Council was almost always mean spirited – the Mayor was not able to change the culture of that Council. Meed Ward’s relationship with then ward 1 councillor Rick Craven was close to toxic; Meed Ward often felt her personal safety was at risk. The Gazette didn’t see it that way, however they certainly didn’t get along.

The 2019 city council – seven people quite pleased with themselves – they have every reason to be proud of what they ave done so far.

Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman was almost as bad as Rick Craven – they seemed to feed off each other with former Councillor Lancaster following along and former Councillor Dennison, who should have known better, let them get away with it.

Marianne Meed Ward was determined that this was not the way the city council she was to lead would work. She made that abundantly clear during the final meeting of the 2010 – 2018 city Council.

The question was: Could she pull it off?

Too early to be definitive but if what we are seeing so far – it is and will continue to be a much more collegial and effective city council.

Meed Ward gets to laugh from time to time.

When she realizes after hearing what staff and other Councillors have to say that her opinion needs to change – she is direct and forthright – and changes her mind.

She is also challenging staff in a way they have not been challenged for the past ten years. This is really healthy. There is certainly some chatter amongst the Directors as to how she inserts herself into a situation – they will get over it and come to realize that they are fortunate to have a Mayor who will actually lead.

Meed Ward still has some work to do on getting her council members onside. In an important vote related to the Randall Reef work being done in Hamilton, Meed Ward said she wanted her colleagues with her on this one. The motion passed but it was one of those 4-3 votes Burlington used to see every council meeting.

Councillors Lisa Kearns, Paul Sharman and Kelvin Galbraith did not vote with her on the item which had to do with using reserve funds money for a short period of time.

Randall Reef – The second worst environmental waste deposit in the country had to be cleaned up: Burlington paid $2.3 million over ten years.

Randall Reef is a three government level undertaking to bury tonnes of toxic sludge in Hamilton Harbour. Burlington is in for $2.3 million, Hamilton $6 million – the Region and federal government in for the balance.

The most socially liberal spend came from Councillor Sharman who said free transit for people who do not have enough money to live on “is the biggest gift we can give them” put the expense in the base now.

The Region uses a formula that is made up of LICO + 15%. The low income cut-offs (LICOs) are income thresholds below which a family will likely devote a larger share of its income on the necessities of food, shelter and clothing than the average family.

Thus a household with one person will be eligible for the free transit if their income is below $29,139.

The cut off point for larger households is set out below.
1 person 29,139
2 persons 36,276
3 persons 44,597
4 persons 54,147
5 persons 61,412
6 persons 69,262
7 persons or more 77,113

There were some extraordinary decisions made at the Standing Committee meetings this week. They should hold up at the Council meeting at the end of the month.

Related news stories:

Meed Ward – final 2018 Council meeting.

Randall Reef

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette

By Staff

February 21st, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

It looks as if the Interim is still the Interim and not the Acting.

During the Capital Budget Standing Committee meeting today Tim Commisso was addressed as the Interim City Manager. A couple of chuckles were heard from the Staff Section of the council seating.

No one has said anything about how the title “Acting” got attached to Commisso’s name – clerical error perhaps?

The budget meeting went exceptionally well.  The performance put in by Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte on handling two very complex financial issues – Information and Technology and the Fire department, were lengthy but very well done.

The financial requirement for Information Technology was in the millions and brought to light some serious issues that were not known or discussed at anything length at previous budget meetings.

This council is made up of younger people who are not afraid to ask questions and id they aren’t comfortable they ask a follow up question.

Budget Committee Chair Lisa Kearns

Budget Committee Chair Lisa Kearns was able to match the staff member explaining the technology word for word – she has been down that road before. They also managed to take a decent amount of money out of the Capital budget – they are determined to get any tax increase below 3% – given the rate at which they moved today – you can think in terms of something well below that 2.99% Mayor Meed Ward put on the table.

There is a different tone from this council.

By Staff

January 29th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

We now know what the Mayor would like to see in the way of a Budget increase for the city residents.

Staff have put forward a budget that would see an increase of 3.99% over what they were taxed last year.

Mayor Meed Ward thinks that can be chiselled down to 2.99%
The City is inviting residents to share their feedback about the spending priorities in the proposed 2019 city budget at two town hall events in February.

Mayor Goldring did a Town Hall call in on the budget from the Council Chamber – response was dismal.

Telephone Town Hall
On Thursday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Mayor Marianne Meed Ward will host a live, call-in telephone town hall where residents can listen in and ask questions about the proposed 2019 budget priorities.

Burlington residential phone numbers will be randomly selected to be part of the telephone town hall. Residents who would like to be added to the telephone call list can email getinvolved@burlington.ca by February 5th.

A Public meeting to review the tax rate was held at Central Arena on Drury Lane. It snowed – the hall was empty but the area next door was packed.

Anyone who does not receive a telephone invitation can call 1-800-837-8058 at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 7 to join the town hall.
Town Hall – Central Arena
On Monday, Feb. 11 at 2 to 3:30 p.m., Mayor Marianne Meed Ward will host an in-person town hall in the auditorium at Central Arena, located at 519 Drury Ln.  Senior city staff will be at both town hall sessions to help answer questions.

Burlingtonians will show up for public meetings and share their views. The location and the way the event is organized is critical. And letting the citizen make changes would help as well.

Delegate
Members of the public can also register to speak to Burlington City Council as a delegation at one of the following Committee of the Whole meetings. Both meetings take place at City Hall in Council Chambers, located at 426 Brant St. on the second floor:

Feb. 4, 2019 at 6:30 p.m. Meeting of Committee of the Whole:
Delegations from the public on capital and operating budgets
Feb. 7, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. Meeting of Committee of the Whole:
Delegations from the public on capital and operating budgets

Marianne Meed |Ward standing before the public moments before she was sworn in.

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward reminds people that “Public engagement is one of the most important things when it comes to city matters, particularly budget. With engagement, residents can not only see exactly where their tax dollars are going, but also understand how they and Burlington will benefit. It also gives us, their elected representatives, a chance to hear their thoughts and ideas on what’s been proposed for the 2019 budget. Whether you want to attend in person or call-in to listen, I would encourage members of the community to ask questions and join the conversation.”

It is what she ran her election on – will people show up?

Quick Facts
• The City of Burlington provides 38 services to its residents.
• maintaining existing service delivery levels
• planning for infrastructure renewal
• enhancements to transit service.
• The proposed operating budget results in a 3.99% increase to the city’s portion of the tax bill, including:
• 1.97% to maintain services
• 1.25% for infrastructure renewal
• 0.77% for service enhancements.

IN 2013 members of Council were given a copy of the budget on a memory stick that they could manipulate – there was still a significant tax increase.

• Burlington’s Open Budget tool provides users with 2019 budget information broken down into easy-to-understand graphs and charts. Explore the tool at Burlington.ca/budget.

By Pepper Parr

January 18th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

Director of Finance Joan Ford does a great job of providing the data ad her department does a good job of collecting the taxes as well. It’s the spending side that is causing the long term financial stress. Ms Ford doesn’t do the spending.

Joan Ford, Director of Finance, has been educating the members of City Council for as long as the Gazette has been reporting in this city.

Her department is, without much doubt, the best run department in the city. Ford either has the information a council member asks for at her finger tips or she gets back to them real fast.

This year the educating of council members is a bigger job for the city treasurer; all but two of the seven are new to matters municipal.

There are just two of the new comers who have solid business experience and a demonstrated ability to work with numbers. The rest are going to have a tough time and will stumble on occasion.

Council has some hard decisions to make – the upside is that this new council is asking hard questions – they want to know if the “nice to haves” are really worth it?

Earlier in the month council asked the Finance department to tell them what would have to be taken out of the proposed budget to get either a 3.25%, or a 3% or a 2% tax increase for 2019.

They also wanted to know what the Impact would be if the 1.25% infrastructure levy were removed for 2019. Staff did respond, it wasn’t a pretty picture. That staff response will appear in another Gazette news report.

During the day long session on Thursday the finance department people set out what the challenges are.

The city created a 25 year Strategic Plan that serves as the reason decisions are made.  Everything is measured against that Strategy.  Along with the four “pillars” the bureaucrats added some additional targets that are more fine tuned.

The Strategic Plan: the guide and foundational document decisions rest on.

The province permits debt up to 25% of assesment; Burlington has set 12% as its debt limit – it has in the past exceeded that for very short periods of time. The reality is- Burlington has significant capacity for additional debt – and if money continues to be cheap it might be an option.

The number that matters is what the city tax bills is going to be – averaging the totals just blurs the picture.

Assessment growth brings gobs of money to the city in the way of development charges. Once a development is completed the city has to take on the maintenance of the streets that were built and providing the services needed. Historically Burlington has seen impressive growth – but the city is now basically built out and for the immediate future there isn’t going to be any tax revenue from the developments in the planning stages. That reduces tax cash flow.

The numbers are in the 000’s The Finance department sets out a business case for a decision. Do we set aside the Infrastructure renewal levy; do we add an additional by law enforcement officer. The financial implications are set out.

The chickens are coming home to roost at the Brant Museum: the refurbished/redesigned site will have to be staffed – there is a pin ball exhibition scheduled. Money for that is going to have to be found. Council will have to decide if they want to act on any of these. There were additional idea from staff that were not even considered by the Budget Leadership Team.

The numbers to the right of the bar graph are millions.

The left pie chart shows what is being collected in the way of taxes and where the tax money is going. The right pie chart shows where Burlington gets the money it needs to keep the doors open

Every 0.5% decrease in city taxes requires $800,000 of budget reductions Translates to $1.76 per $100,000 of assessment ($8.80 / year for a $500,000 home) = 0.21% reduction to the total tax bill

The city Council led by Rick Goldring could not manage to find a way to lower the tax bill. It was always well above inflation. The new council has taken the position that anything above inflation isn’t acceptable – now they have to figure out how to make that happen.

Burlington is the first dark blue bar on the left. The dark blue bar in the centre is the average for the cities surveyed.

The city will know by the end of March how this new city council decides to oversee the financial side of municipal administration.

By Pepper Parr

January 13th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

They now begin to get into the nitty gritty of the job they have been elected to do; deliberations on the budget begin in earnest on Thursday and continue through to March 25th when the Operational budget is scheduled to be approved.  The Capital spending budget is scheduled to be approved on February 25th.

This Thursday council will spend time on an Overview report on both the Capital and Operational budgets.

The broad strokes are for a budget increase of 3.99% over what the citizens were taxed in 2018.

In the report to council the Finance department refers to the base budget, the money that has to be spent just to keep the doors open and the wheels turning – this makes up 1.58% of the 3.99% 0f the budget increase.

Regulatory and contractual obligations amount to 1.03% of the 3.99% increase.

The special hospital levy that was put in place when Burlington was told that it had to come up with a whopping $20 million to pay for part of the hospital rebuild/renovation was to be reduced by $1.7 million this year – that amount is being repurposed to infrastructure renewal.

There is a $2 million infrastructure levy that makes up 1.25% of that 3.99% tax increase.

An additional million is being added to public transit that represents .64% of that 3.99% increase.

There are two business cases that will be debated; additional by-law enforcement officers and additions to the para transit service that amount to $214,000 + which make up .21% of that 3.99% budget increase.

Lisa Kearns will be chairing the budget committee – she has her work cut out for her.

Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns is going to stick handle the budget deliberations.  She has no experience managing a city budget but she has been reading and getting all the help she needs.  Will there be stumbles?  Of course there will be stumbles but Kearns is a quick study and supported by a strong committee clerk.

Some of the city Councillors will struggle to keep up.

This is likely to be a harrowing experience for most of this Council.  Their hearts are in the right place – but their hands are going to slide into your pocket to pay the bills.

The way the Finance department re-purposed the original hospital levy and slid it into the infrastructure account is something that needs a closer look.

The current council didn’t do the dirty on this but the citizens of the city went along with a special tax levy to pay for the hospital rebuild/renovation thinking that when the bills were paid the tax levy would come to an end.

Nope – they are going to keep that tax grab and use it to pay for roads.

By Pepper Parr

November 21st, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

On Jan. 29, 2018, Burlington City Council approved the 2018 Operating Budget with a 4.36% city tax increase, resulting in a 2.64% overall tax increase.

Everything about that statement which appears on the city website is true.

However, the only number that the newly elected city council can do anything about is the city’s budget.

Newly elected city Councillors Shawna Stolte (ward 4) and Lisa Kearns (ward 2) look over the budget book for 2018. They will get the budget book for 2019 later this year.

The tax bill residents receive includes the city’s tax, the Board of Education tax and the tax levied by the Regional Council.

The city has absolutely no impact on the tax levy from the school board. All the city does is collect the money for the Boards of Education.

At the Regional level Burlington has 7 votes out of a total of 21 votes. We have influence but the Regional tax level which covers waste collection, social services, police, part of the water system and health services to name some of what the Region does are not decisions Burlington Regional Councillors make in isolation.

Something many people don’t realize is that half of a Burlington council member’s income comes from the Region.

That 2.64% that the city makes mention of is the result of averaging the three – Boards of Education, Region and the city tax levy.

It is convenient for the politicians to use the average number – it is lower, makes them look better.

Burlington has had annual increases that were either more than 4% or just under that level in each of the past seven years. It was only in the first year of the council that served from 2018 to 2014 when the tax increase over the previous year was 0%.

That feat was achieved for the most part by then newcomer to city council Paul Sharman who just pushed and pushed and pushed and made it happen.

It will be interesting to see if the five people elected to council for the first time  will be honest, open and transparent about how much of your money they are going to collect

By Pepper Parr

June 25th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

With the provincial election out of the way – we will figure out just what kind of a government we are going to have in the weeks and months ahead.

The political focus now shifts to the municipal sector. The 2018 election is going to be a lot different that the one that took place in 2014.

There is an excellent collection of candidates across the board for the municipal side. There is next to nothing new on the Board if Education side – we will leave that to a future news story.

What Burlington is now seeing is a group of younger people who are smart and want to see things done differently. They care about their city in a much different way than most of the current council.  They are open to new ideas and they are putting new ideas forward.

Several have excellent web sites. Some of the candidates are digging into their own wallets and self -funding their campaigns.

It is a little difficult to keep up with all the campaigns. The Gazette is continually scanning the various candidate web sites and looking for imaginative ideas and solutions to problems the city faces put forward by some of the candidates.

Roland Tanner, candidate for the ward 2 city council seat.

Roland Tanner, a candidate in ward 2 and one of the people involved in the creation of the Shape Burlington Report in 2010 has some thoughts on how the city is going to fund transit.

The first big plus is that Tanner actually wants to see transit funded – not something one could say about the current council.

In a report he released on his web site (https://rolandtanner.ca/) Tanner said: “Thanks in large part to community groups like Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit (BFAST), which came into being to protest against transit funding and service cuts made in 2012, Burlington City Council has recently been indicating an increased commitment to investment in Burlington Transit, hand in hand with commitments of $45 million in funding from the provincial and federal governments for Burlington alone. As a result, the Burlington Transit Users’ Forum was characterized by cautious optimism in April.

Tanner want to be sure that the incoming provincial government commits to not reducing the 2 cent gas tax transfer to municipalities?

Tanner points out that those funds “could be threatened by the 10 cent gas tax promised by the incoming provincial government. The 10 cent cut will reduce the overall gas tax received by the province from 14 cents a litre to 4 cents. Of that 4 cents, the province is obliged to pass 2 cents per litre to Ontario municipalities. That means 50% of the remaining gas tax will be going to the cities, not the province. Is it realistic to think the provincial government will be willing to let that continue to happen?

Roland Tanner – a member of the Shape Burlington report committee.

There is in in the conclusion Tanner makes that the 10 cent per litre savings Doug Ford said he would give citizens has the potential to come out of the hide of the transit sector.

Tanner asked City Hall to provide exact details of the financial implications of the gas tax transfer being repealed, and they kindly provided them. In the 2017-18 fiscal year gas tax funding for Burlington amounted to: $2,262,568

Tanner concludes that if the gas tax funding from the province is changed the city would have to increase taxes by 1.47 percent, in order to keep transit funding static.

He adds that: “If Burlington is to grow successfully, it is essential that Burlington Transit receives the investment it needs to provide a better service. City Hall should be acting as soon as possible to ask the provincial government to commit to maintaining the municipal gas tax transfer at 2 cents per litre, and oppose any attempt to download provincial government cuts onto municipalities.”

In a May Toronto Star Letter to the Editor Tanner write:

Until the City of Burlington adopts a much more courageous approach to citizen engagement, Burlington will keep finding itself in a cycle of worsening resentment and distrust towards City Hall and council. Such an approach was recommended by the 2010 Shape Burlington Report, which called on City Hall to ‘re-invent itself’ in order to empower citizen-led entities – community councils, advisory committees and panels chosen by civic lottery – that act a ‘”on ramps” to participation’ for people who otherwise don’t get involved city affairs.

A previous Progressive Conservative government downloaded the cost of a a bunch of services to the municipal sector.  Are we about to see this happen again?

Contacting Tanner:

Web site: https://rolandtanner.ca/

Email  roland@rolandtanner.ca

Telephone  289 259 4023

Facebook:  https://facebook.com/roland4ward2

Follow on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/roland4ward2

Related links:

The Shape Burlington Report.

By Pepper Parr

March 27th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

What we pay our civil servants and what they deliver in the way of service and leadership is of concern to every taxpayer.

The public has direct input on who serves as members of Council – they get to bring in new people or turf those that have not met the standard the public expected. Public service can at time be brutal.

Council cannot get rid of a Staff member. They can go into a closed session and discuss concerns they have with a staff member and they could direct a city manager to get rid of a staff member because city managers serve at the will of Council

Burlington has asked one city manager to look for another place to work – which usually means buying out he contract they have with the city.

Burlington has gone thought Roman Martiuk , Jeff Fielding and Pat Moyle who was an interim city manager – holding the fort until a permanent city manager is hired.

James Ridge became city manager in 2015

Jeff Fielding was an exceptional city manager but he got an opportunity to serve in Calgary with one of the best Mayor’s in the country and he took it.

Roman Martiuk was brought in to get costs under control.  He and Mayor Goldring didn’t see things the same way.  At the time the Mayor told the Gazette that the decision to par ways was for the most part his alone.  At the time many thought that his then Chief of Staff, Frank McKeown, was the man behind that decision.

Burlington was at one point very fortunate to be able to pull a city manager from the ranks of staff. Tim Dobbie served as city manager while Rob MacIsaac was Mayor – those two were almost a wrestling tag team. They worked together very effectively.

Cam Jackson: Election night 2010

When MacIsaac moved on Cam Jackson, a former MPP, ran for Mayor and Dobbie decided the grass was indeed greener in that other field. He now works as a much in demand consultant to other municipalities.

When a city manager is hired the amount he or she is paid is negotiated.

If you’re happy and you know it – clap your hands.

The province of Ontario, when Bob Ray was Premier, decided they would publish a report annually setting out how much every civil servant in the province early more than $100,000 annual gets paid. It was quickly names the Sunshine list and became must reading.

The Gazette has in the past published portions of the report. Downloading the data and formatting it for publication is a time consuming task – it is one that we have decided to do during the Easter Break. There are numerous levels: City, Regional, Education and the Health Sector.

During a meeting with a regular reader earlier this week I was asked when we were going to publish the 2018 numbers and I said during the Easter Break. “You might want to do it sooner the reader suggested, there are some eye popping numbers” he said.

James Ridge with Hamilton city manager Chris Murray

come close to taking home three hundred big ones?” “Really” I responded. (In the parlance of people in those income range three hundred big one is three hundred one thousand dollar bills – before taxes of course.

It gets better the reader advised: on a value based scale, that is how much it costs each citizen,  we pay our city manager far more than other cities. He put something together for us.

Here is what we were given. We checked to ensure that the gross number for James Ridge was correct.

Eye popping indeed.

Does the amount paid to the city manager in the last fiscal year include something other than just salary?

Burlington pays it’s city manager more than the city manager of Hamilton when Hamilton has more than three times the population of Burlington.