The slicing and dicing are done and Banff’s budget is ready for approval Thursday (Dec. 18) by council at its final meeting of the year.
In its last finance committee meeting the week before, council removed or scaled back a number of projects to decrease the total municipal tax increase for 2015 from 5.4 per cent to 4.5 per cent.
A number of changes were made, including removing a civic pride project, reducing new staff positions requested and phasing additional requested funds for the Sally Borden pool
That represents a total average increase of approximately $13 a month on tax bills, but it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy Councillor Ted Christensen.
Christensen and other councillors put forward motions to see the budget reduced further, but not all were successful. While he had no more motions to put forward that would reduce the budget further, he voted against sending it to council for final approval.
He said he wanted the tax increase to be the same or below what was passed last year, which was a 3.9 per cent increase.
“I think we need some work on it,” Christensen said. “I don’t know what else to do than what has been done, but I have a problem supporting a 4.5 per cent increase.”
Mayor Karen Sorensen warned against being caught up in the percentage increase to the budget, noting the overall monthly increase in municipal taxes with a 4.5 per cent change is just over $13, whereas at 3.9 per cent it is $11.
“I think those numbers are important to understand,” she said.
Council will consider final approval of the capital and operating budgets on Thursday (Dec. 18) at 2 p.m. Both must be approved or an interim budget approved before year end.
Coun. Chip Olver put forward a failed motion to use $30,000 from the civic pride project budget to increase communications around Banff’s efforts to address parking issues.
“I think we are doing so much around congestion and parking, but I think this is a really key part of that success, especially when the biggest success around demand management was paid parking and we don’t have that this year,” she said.
The total $50,000 budget, however, was removed by a motion made by Coun. Stavros Karlos. He said the social marketing campaign to re-energize the community’s civic pride could be removed without affecting the communications department’s ability to engage with residents.
“Taking this away, I don’t believe, inhibits communications from doing some of that good work,” he said.
The addition of a customer experience staff member at the Fenlands recreation centre was also up for debate. Karlos put forward a failed motion to remove it from the budget, saying until the addition of a marketing and sales coordinator is successful at drumming up more business at the facility, the extra staff is not warranted.
The marketing position request set out a goal of increasing revenue at the facility by $95,000 by renting out more ice time, additional curling ice, use of recreation grounds and wedding bookings. Sorensen questioned whether or not that position could cover additional staff needs on weekends.
But an already stretched staff at the facility was another reason the customer experience position was requested. Administration indicated staff can be creative and cover the added workload, however, customer experience is a concern with regards to getting people to return to the facility.
Olver put forward a successful motion to reduce the $41,000 a year position to $20,000 and implement it part-way through the year.
“As sales and marketing ramp up we may see results toward the end of the year,” she said.
Meanwhile, Coun. Grant Canning put forward a successful motion to move a request for a records management and strategy consultant to 2016. It was suggested Banff could work with Canmore on developing a strategy and split the cost.
A $56,000 position for a coordinator to implement recommendations from the economic prosperity report was put on the table, to be chopped, by Karlos.
The number one issue in the report was affordable housing and Karlos said as the municipality is directing its attention towards the issue, the position could be postponed by a year and changed from a full-time employee to a three-year contract.
The motion was defeated, with Mayor Sorensen pointing out the report dealt with more than just housing and “I feel we need somebody looking after that moving forward.”
Chief administrative officer Robert Earl said administration also does not have the capacity at this time to move forward with the report’s recommendations in-house.
“That is why we came back with the recommendation for the position,” he said.
Christensen put forward a number of motions to remove specific projects from the budget including $70,000 for a summer traffic study, $2,000 for the SHINE celebration held by the Banff Community Foundation, remove an information technology support analyst, a waste characterization study and a fleet services mechanic.
Karlos’s motions totaled removing $80,000 from the budget, however, most were unsuccessful. He proposed removing budget items to increase hours and benefits for outdoor rink maintenance position and a forestry labourer.
Council voted against the motions as administration advised them without the increased hours and benefits there is high turnover, which costs more in the long run.
