By Staff
November 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith
The following are the Notice of Motions Councillor Kelvin Galbraith, Ward 1 has submitted
Motion for Council to Consider:
Reduce the dedicated infrastructure renewal levy funding in the 2024 budget by $1,000,000.
Reason:
We are making significant investments in infrastructure already, but considering the high budget that we are facing, I think we can start to increase this up to 2% more gradually than hitting that target this year.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Motion for Council to Consider:
Reduce the Multi-year Community Investment Plan funding in the 2024 budget by $1,000,000 (item 2024-015).
Reason:
I am fully supportive of the master plans that this fund supports, but I am hopeful that many of the new applications and development charges that come with them will support the new infrastructure – especially around the new MTSA’s. I am expecting many of these new applications to be approved and begin within the next 2-3 years.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Motion for Council to Consider:
Remove item 2024-020, Winter Maintenance of School Cross Walks, with a value of $88,000 from the 2024 budget.
Reason:
Continue with the current level of service.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Motion for Council to Consider:
Remove item 2024-022, Expansion and Customer Experience in Community Gardens, with a value of $38,200 from the 2024 budget.
Reason:
Allow for volunteers to run the program as much as possible.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Motion for Council to Consider:
Add item 2024-030, Burlington Digital Services, with a value of $677,081 to the 2024 budget.
Reason:
Council has been looking for data and KPI’s in all departments, so we are able to make better decisions about our HR investments into the future. The Data Engineer position has been deemed a very important piece of that data collection and we do not have the capacity to produce this without the staff to support it. Also, as we heard from our internal legal counsel, we will be spending upwards of $600 per hour for an external lawyer when we could use the assistance in-house for all legal work by having our own internal staff that have the expertise in the domain of digital contracts, subscriptions, and intellectual property rights.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Motion for Council to Consider:
Add item 2024-031, Enterprise Business Services Support, with a value of $527,496 to the 2024 budget.
Reason:
Council has approved software investments of $21 million dollars and needs to support that with appropriate staffing. Workday is the software that will give us the internal data that we need to make better decisions.
Approved as per form by the City Clerk,
Reviewed by the City Manager – In accordance with the Code of Good Governance, Council-Staff Relations Policy and an assessment of the internal capacity within the City to complete the work based on a specific target date (quarter/year).
Comments:
City Clerk: none
City Manager: none
Apologies but that should say 98% are in the good, not very good category.
I generally support the direction of Councillor Galbraith’s Motions.
We badly need an overhaul of the CRM system and IT in general.
Assets are evaluated as very poor, poor, fair, good and very good. 98% of the IT is categorized in the very good category. 1990’s IT would never be evaluated as being in the 2nd highest category. A 1990’s mainframe wouldnt even be operable today. The 2% remaining are minor software applications and they are in the poor category. So either the accounting records are lying or council is. I dont know any major accounting firm thats going to sign off on that. That leaves council. There is so much bull coming out of city hall that its hard to spot any truth at this point. The fact is that buried deep in the forecast is the true plan. Implementing a state of the art system complete with AI. That in itself isnt terrible. Hoodwinking the public to shut then up is. They know people arent going to say yes to yet more money. So they cry “we have no choice”. If it was so dire it would have been done last year or year before. Under Commisso’s ridiculously expensive restructure plan was this IT. And instead of breaking things into manageable pieces, they did it all at once. Like i said, either the accounting records are lying and violate gaap or council is lying. But no way 1990 IT is evaluated as near excellent condition
Well said! The “we have no choice” mantra is all they ever say about everything and it’s utter BS. Anything to deflect responsibility from their own actions and decisions. Absolute opposite of what good leaders do. Watching the council members happily tow this line is just too much. Thank you Wendy for spending so much time digging into it all and explaining it so well. They count on people not being able to do that or not taking the time to try.
Wendy don’t forget all the Council records removed just prior to the election that we began addressing in 2022 that they kept saying would be fixed and are not. Council records was the only evidence we had access to prior to election and after to support our transparency and accountability audits. There is no-one else undertaking these audits.
The only Audit of many that we got before Audit Committee as instructed by Chair was removed from the agenda. With a new Clerk and Internal Auditor and the explicit duty of the Audit Committee to receive such audits we believed the audits could be resurrected and all the others waiting to go to Audit Committee dealt with, not so. These audits waiting in the wings deal with issues that have cost taxpayers millions and MMW and PS know how powerful they are. Evidenced truth beats out spin every time. The Clerk tells us the first Audit submitted at the Chair’s request is not in the Committee records despite the records we have showing it was submitted along with a copy of the Chair’s recorded instruction to us. He also will not let us communicate directly with the Clerk’s who know the Audit report was submitted.
Until we get this whole mess properly sorted, hopefully at the Halton Governance hearings, we are dependent on those like Pepper, you, Eric et al to keep banging away at the budget as you are. We don’t have those skills, takes us all our effort to keep our own finances in order. Keep up the pressure.