Yorkton Council moved to pass both its operational budgets (see related story this issue) at its regular meeting Monday.
Prior to passing the two budgets, Administrative department heads made brief presentations to Council outlining some of the key elements of their 2011 budgets.
Protective Services is a major area of expenditure with the City.
Fire Chief Dean Clark said revenues have increased to the department through agreements for services with the rural municipalities of Orkney and Wallace.
"However, this is offset by the increased debt to the Fire Department," he said.
The Department will be adding a tanker to its fleet in 2011.
Since this is the first tanker that the fire department has, training is required as to its function, operation, and how to set up shuttling operations (due to the agreements that the City has with the R.M.'s), said Clark.
On the policing side of Protective Services, RCMP Staff Sergeant Joe Millburn said
while the overall budget is large, the City does not pay all the costs.
"The budget for the RCMP for the next fiscal year is $3,035,702, which is a slight increase from last year. This amount provides for 27 full time Members. The province funds three of these positions and makes payments back to the City of Yorkton throughout the year to cover these costs," he said.
"Although $3,035,702 is the projected cost, the City of Yorkton will only pay for the amount of Members that are in positions. For example if we are sitting at 27 Members and a member is transferred out and ends up selling their house and leaving before their backfill arrives then this could potentially lower the number of Members the City ends up paying for."
"Of the $3,035,702, the three major costs would be salary dollars, which comes to approximately $2,000,000. Division administration costs which comes to approximately $448,000 and pension which comes to approximately $238,000."
Darcy McLeod, Director of the Department of Community Development, Parks & Recreation said 2010 was marked by the July 1, flood. He noted a key accomplishment was that the Department "participated in the response and ongoing recovery related to the Canada Day flood including the establishment and co-ordination of the Flood Relief Services Centre at the Kinsmen Arena as well as the co-ordination of volunteer services."
In 2011, McLeod said a lot of his Department's efforts will be focused on community co-operation, including;
*Work with the Yorkton Active Transportation Collaborative to continue improving built environments that encourage active transportation, including multi-use trails.
*Work toward connecting the cultural community of Yorkton, which is a recommendation resulting from the Municipal Cultural Plan.
*Work with the East Central Community Settlement Committee to support newcomers to Yorkton by actively involving them in our community.
Don Kunkel, manager of the Gallagher Centre said the facility has become a definite hub of activity within the city. He explained more than 15,000 people made use of the two ticket services as the Centre so far in 2010, and more than 6,980 transactions have taken place at the ATM machine.
Looking ahead to 2011, Kunkel said they are estimating an increase in revenues of 5.5 per cent.
The new year will also see the pool closed for three weeks in August for maintenance. Kunkel noted it is required since the facility is now five-years-old.
Kunkel concluded, "During 2011 we hope to build on our previous strong growth, complete some major maintenance and repairs to some of the outside facilities and continue to strive to deliver top quality service to our users."
The Public Works Department will expand its staffing to maintain services, said Department Manager Trent Mandzuk.
To maintain present levels of service for winter operations, four seasonal positions will be reclassified to full-time. Funding is available within the 2011 operating budget to sustain the services of these employees year round, he explained.
Michael Buchholzer, manager of Environmental Services with the City said there are some major efforts coming forward in 2011.
The waterworks utility, by mandate of the Provincial Government must prove to be self-sufficient in funding, he said, adding "to facilitate these increases to our operation, meet debt payments and allow for infrastructure growth, the department has incorporated a 2.5 per cent water rate increase for 2011. This proposed increase reflected on the water bill for an average family of four will be approximately $1.80 per month."
Buchholzer said the City will also need to make its landfill operation self sufficient.
"The department is recommending considerable changes in the funding of the landfill," he said.
As part of that process "the cost of residential landfill tipping and garbage collection will be identified on residential water bills (estimated cost approximately $9.00/month).
"This cost is offset by reducing the garbage collection portion of the base tax. Therefore there is no tax increase."
"We are also recommending increasing commercial rates from $9 to $21/tonne. This increase will make commercial rates equal to the existing residential rates."
Gord Shaw, Manager of the Planning & Engineering Department, said 2010 was a strong year in the city."Building permit value continues to be robust as investment in Yorkton continues to grow," he said.To meet the growth Shaw said, we are requesting an additional Full Time Employee (FTE) in Engineering Services to have full time responsibility for a Geographic Information System (GIS). The inclusion of a FTE in this area will improve the delivery of information applications available through this program.
The Human Resources Department also recommended addition of one staff member said City Clerk Bonnie Schenher.
"As Council is aware the City Clerk's department shares an Administration Assistant with the Human Resources Department, the Assistant City Clerk/Assistant Human Resources Director is a shared position, along with a shared part-time research assistant As the City is growing, so does our work load and increasingly the day to day tasks are taking up more of our work time and we are finding it difficult to get ahead," she said.
The City Manager's Office also looked to add a position.
"The growth of our City has increased workloads for all departments and managers. Communication is an area that should be a priority during periods of high activity and it tends to fall by the wayside when resources are stretched and there is pressure to get the work done," said Schenher.
"The Economic Development Committee has identified the City Web Site must be a priority for the City.
The internet is becoming increasingly important as a tool of commerce. Frequently it is our first contact with a prospective business and that we need to communicate to the world that we are a highly desirable community in which to locate and do business. We also need to demonstrate that we make it easy to conduct business using current technology.
"We intend to make the City web site a priority by providing content that is current and informative as well as make changes to make it more user friendly. We must also move to providing more access to City services through the internet."
Director of Finance Lonnie Kaal said the Finance Department also needed to add an additional position.The new person would help in several areas including;
*Re-align the department to allow time to plan, implement change and provide more financial analysis and support for all departments and Council.
*Establish an inventory of all city wide assets and processes required to track all work orders so additions and deletions can be made to the fixed asset pool. Thereafter, review the entire fixed asset database and do the analysis required to move towards a city wide asset management system across all departments utilizing all existing software applications.
Faisal Anwar Economic Development Officer with the City said a new plan will soon be presented to Council.
The initial draft of a three year Strategic Economic Development Plan has been approved by the Economic Development Committee after consulting key stakeholders. The final draft will bring forward to Council in December 2010, for approval and adoption, he said.
Anwar also noted, "The Economic Development Committee is requesting for $105,000 to be allocated for 2011 in order to support and enhance economic development activities in the City.
"The request from the Economic Development Committee can be accomplished by rolling over $25,000 unspent amount from 2010, and utilizing development reserves of $50,000."
