1997-11-08_Minutes
86-697
COMMON COUNCIL
NOVEMBER 8, 1997
At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the City Hall in the City of
Saint John, on Saturday, the eighth day of November, AD. 1997, at 9:00 o'clock a.m.
present
Shirley McAlary, Mayor
Councillors Arthurs, Ball, Brown, Gould, Knibb, Trites and
Waldschutz
- and -
Messrs. 1. Totten, City Manager; J. Nugent, City Solicitor; A
Beckett, Commissioner of Finance; C. Robichaud, Commissioner
of Municipal Operations; J. C. MacKinnon, Commissioner of
Environment and Development Services; W. Butler,
Commissioner of Community Services; S. Armstrong, Director of
Engineering; M. Jamer, Director of Water and Sewerage; S.
Galbraith, Director of Works; P. Hanlon, Operations Engineer; B.
Belyea, Budget Officer; J. McDevitt, Budget Control Officer; D.
Gould, Water and Sewerage; G. Sabean, Works; R. Chedore,
Works; D. Anson, Works; B. Reynolds, Works; Mrs. M. Munford,
Common Clerk; and Ms. C. Mosher, Assistant Common Clerk.
MeetinQ Called To Order
Mayor McAlary called the meeting to order and requested Mr. Robichaud
to present the 1998 budget proposal for Municipal Operations (copies of which were
distributed to Council members at this meeting).
Municipal Operations
Mr. Robichaud advised his intent to review, in turn, the activities of
Works, Water and Sewerage, and Engineering and Administration, through a slide
presentation and subsequently, after each, to review the proposed 1998 budgets and
the budget cuts for the respective Divisions.
Mr. Robichaud displayed slides of the four Works' depots and activities
performed at these depots; and reviewed: (1) the year-round programs of the Works
Division, including garbage collection, the maintenance of equipment and carpentry
work; (2) activities carried out during the winter months, including street and sidewalk
plowing, salting and sanding, winter drainage and pothole patching; and (3) summer
activities, including spring clean-up and clean-up week, street sweeping, asphalt repair,
gravel road maintenance, shouldering, curb and sidewalk maintenance and repair,
ditching and culverts, brick sidewalk maintenance, catch basin cleaning, catch basin
and storm drainage installation, capital work, and line painting. Referring to the 1998
budget proposal, Mr. Robichaud noted the approved 1997 budget of $14,319,464
which, with the addition of salary increases of $206,625 and a 1 % increase in goods
and services of $65,678, would represent a 1998 guideline budget of $14,586,767 and,
in accordance with the budget guideline to subtract 90% of the 1997 budget, the
guideline required reduction for the Works Division would be $1,699,249, representing
a reduction of 11.87% of the approved 1997 budget. To accomplish this reduction, Mr.
Robichaud suggested that (1) all asphalt resurfacing costs of $667,404, (2) the amount
of $34,000 for manhole and catch basin raising for asphalt resurfacing contracts and
(3) the equipment replacement expenditure of $379,600 be transferred to the Capital
Program; (4) the budget for asphalt street repairs and maintenance be reduced by
$70,000; (5) the budget for garbage collection be reduced by $5,800 related to media
advertising, training and carpenter work in this area; (6) a reduction of $134,800 in
personnel and $246,900 in goods and services for a total of $318,700 in the Spruce
Lake sanitary landfill operation, retaining 5/12 of the personnel budget or $96,300, in
order to cover the cost of the 4 employees during the winter months when no additional
capital work would be available and $134,800 or 7/12 of the salary be offset by utilizing
these employees doing capital work during summer months, representing 173
manweeks); and (7) eliminate Clean-Up Week for a saving of $110,000 and
approximately 60 manweeks of capital work be found in order to cover the salary of the
4 employees displaced by cutting this program, which represents 1,000 of the 18,000
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NOVEMBER 8, 1997
tonnes of domestic garbage collected either by City employees or contractors for the
City, noting that $57,000 would be added to this amount to cover the $57 per tonne for
the 1000 tonnes of garbage collected. Mr. Robichaud apprised Council of issues with
regard to (a) Clean-Up Week's representation of 1000 tonnes of garbage per year and
an additional $57,000 presently not contained in the budget; (b) garbage disposal in
that, while the City did not previously pay for taking its garbage to the landfill site, it now
would be paying for 17,000 tonnes of domestic garbage yearly at $57 per tonne for a
total of $969,000 to be added to the budget; (c) the intent to purchase only 8,000
tonnes of salt in 1998, the City in previous years having used approximately 11,000
tonnes; (d) private roads in that, with more demands being made by people who live on
them, staff was recommending that the City go back to providing more than the
traditional minimum service level of snowplowing and grading and, if there were a
desire to increase or improve private roads, a local improvement by-law be enacted to
assist in funding increased capital work in this area; (e) issues related to personnel as
security clauses in the present collective agreements prevents the City from
considering other alternatives such as contracting out garbage or laying off seasonal
people when not required; (f) Provincially-designated highways as the Province, over
the last two years, de-designated 60 lane kilometres which results in 168 lane
kilometres of Provincially-designated highways in the City at this time, compared to 228
lane kilometres in 1995; (g) and the Equipment Replacement Fund of $380,000 in 1997
which will be greatly overspent.
Mr. Robichaud responded to questions in the above regard.
With regard to the Water and Sewerage Division, Mr. Robichaud advised
that no cuts were being recommended in this budget which has no or very little impact
on the City's tax rate as all activities are paid for by revenues received from customers
of water and sewerage; and, through a slide presentation, provided an overview of the
water system and commented on the activities and issues facing the Water and
Sewerage Utility, the issues related to (1) the Wastewater Collection & Treatment
Strategy which identified aging infrastructure with a replacement program and
increases in infrastructure which would result in significant increases in Capital and
Operating funds; (2) the Water Strategy, to be completed in late 1998, which will
address issues such as water treatment, aging infrastructure, water quality issues,
service extensions and others for the next 20 years; (3) user rates, which will most
likely increase to reflect the level of activity carried out as suggested the above-
mentioned Strategies; (4) shrinking consumption due to a reducing population and to a
greater degree water conservation measures being applied by industry; (5) backflow
prevention which is the prevention of accidental contamination of the City water supply
by a customer; (6) watershed protection which the City will continue to pursue with the
Province; (7) personnel issues much the same as in the Works Division, as well as an
aging work force and Provincial training/certification requirements; and (8) Provincial
regulations which, in becoming more demanding, will result in increased costs to the
Utility.
Mr. Robichaud responded to questions in the above regard.
Mr. Robichaud addressed the Engineering & Administration Division's
1998 guideline budget of $1,131,665 representing the 1997 approved budget of
$1,110,328 plus salary increases of $18,879 and a goods and service increase of 1 %
or $2,458; noting that 90% of the 1997 budget would be $999,295 which would result in
a guideline required reduction of $132,370, or 11.92% of the 1997 budget. Mr.
Robichaud presented slides of activities carried out by Engineering; put forth the
following as options to achieve the required budget decrease in Engineering by
$85,300: (1) the elimination of the traffic counting program at a saving of $8,0000, a
reduction in fixed assets at a saving of $2,400, the elimination of all overtime response
to traffic signal problems that cannot be covered by insurance at a saving of $3,015, a
layoff of staff in the Survey Crew area for the winter period which would mean reducing
one survey crew or three employees for four months at a saving of $37,868 although
the collective agreement might prevent this from happening, and transferring the
necessary reduction to the Capital Program by charging directly to specific projects in
the amount of $34,017. With regard to Administration, Mr. Robichaud outlined the
following options to decrease the budget by $46,915: (1) transferring a Stenographer II
position to Water Engineering under the Water and Sewerage Utility and eliminating
the vacant Draftsman II position which is budgeted in that area, which would be a
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reduction in personnel at a saving of $34,869; and (2) transferring the casual Clerk-
Typist position (24 weeks) to Capital at a saving of $12,046. In terms of issues, Mr.
Robichaud commented on (a) the result in reduced senior expertise in Traffic
Engineering and Planning as a result of downsizing; (b) a re-organization plan which
would essentially move more engineering work down to the Engineering Technician
level; (c) records which would be addressed in the reorganization plan and further with
the City-wide information records and retrieval system in place; and (d) the
development of an improved City-wide Capital Projects Budget Reporting System.
Mr. Robichaud responded to questions in the above regard.
The Mayor noted that Community Services was the only remaining major
City departmental budget to be presented, as well as the budgets to be presented to
Council at its forthcoming meeting on November 10; and suggested that other
departmental budgets could be presented at the regularly-scheduled Council meetings,
commencing on November 17 at 3:00 o'clock p.m. or 4:00 o'clock p.m., the latter to be
decided by Council.
The meeting adjourned at 12:20 o'clock p.m.
Common Clerk