Council struggles to recommend a budget that can be voted on

Pepper Parr

December 4th, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

Some background on the budget process to put what took place last week in context.

Staff prepare a budget setting out what they believe is needed in the way of funding to operate the city.

They prepare a Capital Budget and an Operating Budget.

There is a lot of work done to get the drafts of the budget completed including presentations to Council at Standing Committees.

That budget is then debated at a Council Standing Committee.  Burlington uses BARs (Budget Action Requests) prepared by each council member setting out where they would like to see changes made in specific items.

Those BARs then become the agenda for the budget meeting

This is the process when Council tells staff what they want made in the way of changes.

The work Staff does is administrative; the work done at Council is both administrative and political.  Council members have views and projects they want to advance; see it as the individual council member’s agenda.

The Mayor also has an agenda.

And 2020 is an election year.

The budget timeline was to have council do its work on the Tuesday and Thursday and send a recommendation to Council that would be dealt with on December 14th.

That didn’t happen.  The four votes required to get a recommendation to Council just weren’t to be had.

Budget Committee Chair Rory Nisan

Between now and the 14th individual council members were asked to review their original decisions and come up with ways they think they could get closer to whatever number is going to be acceptable to the Mayor and Rory Nisan Chair of the Budget Committee.

Council would review the recommendation on the 14th, vote on it and if at least four votes for the budget can be found at council it passes and we would all know what we were looking at in the way of taxes for 2022.

However, if at any point in the process a member asks that the vote be called the Chair has to call the vote.  If the Chair doesn’t call the vote he will be challenged this time and forced to call the vote.

Councillor Sharman tried to force a calling of the vote at Standing Committee on Thursday but got stiffed by Chair Nisan who understood the rules better than Sharman.

As messy as all this has been there was one point that everyone agreed upon before the Standing Committee recessed on Thursday – any ideas for changes would be run by Treasurer Joan Ford who would coordinate whatever was put in front of the Standing Committee on the 14th.

Joan Ford, Executive Director of Finance, has a busy few days ahead of her if there is going to be a Council recommended budget.

Ms Ford has a busy weekend ahead of her – she can expect a majority of the members of council to be on the phone to her.  Fortunately for Burlington this is a treasurer who knows the budget and the ramifications when changes are made.  She has been supported by Lori Jivan who has been crunching the numbers.  At some point Ms Jivan will be treasurer somewhere – she has been doing a great job.

As for Mayor Meed Ward she desperately needs a vote from the Committee that recommends a budget.

Without that her re-election prospects are at serious risk.  As it is, the myth that she leads a Council that is reading from the same hymn book is no more.

Related news items:

Is the budget the first municipal election skirmish?

Sharman pushes Council to get more information when preparing budgets.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.

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1 comment to Council struggles to recommend a budget that can be voted upon

  • Bonnie

    From watching many council meetings, it has become evident to me, that this is a very divided council. I believe the mayor hoped the council members would follow her lead on most matters but that has proven to be untrue. Council members are now able to take a stand against the Mayor when necessary and voice their strong opinions with the support of many of their ward residents.

    I will watch with interest next week to see when asked, where the Mayor feels she can find more tax saving and if she is not able to do so, I believe she will be forced to vote in favor of this current budget. My thinking is she will try to shift items to next year’s budget (after the election), which will lead to an even larger tax increase in 2023.

    It is worth noting, the Mayor supported several of Paul Sharman’s large budget requests this week, which will pour many tax dollars into ward 5. Meedward did not win the vote in this ward in 2018, so obviously this was a political move on her part, as Sharman is seen as a possible contender for her job. By voting in favor of these major facility improvements, she will share the credit rather than allowing Sharman to stand alone on these items.

    The game playing will continue well into 2022 and we will hope the stronger council members continue to challenge decisions when necessary..
    .