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Preview of the 2008 operating budget by Carolyn Heiman


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#1 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 27 January 2008 - 08:59 PM

Holy smokes, did you all miss this terrific article by Carolyn Heiman in today's T-C -- Folks who dump sofas ding us for $97,800 ? I see no other references for it on the forum, and didn't myself register its full content until a few minutes ago, because I thought (judging from its title) that it was all about garbage left at curbside.

Not so, it's all about how our tax money is supposed to get spent. Heiman has an explosive sentence at the end of her article, which perhaps gives an indication of her train of thought on this issue: "It fills one with despair about the city's ability to take leadership on real issues."

The article:

Folks who dump sofas ding us for $97,800
Odd little items crop up as city's politicians go over 2008 budget
Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Sunday, January 27, 2008

Watching City of Victoria politicians sift through hold-the-line budget figures is ... well ... a yawn.

But between the numbers are interesting stories. Take last week's preview of the 2008 operating budget during which we learn about the cost of birthday parties, misplaced sofas and other odd tidbits. We begin here with B.C.'s birthday celebrations.

- Everybody loves a party, especially if you're paid overtime to attend. The city is setting aside $60,000 for B.C. Day celebrations on Aug. 4. The money's not to cover cake. That's the cost of paying police and other staff overtime to work the statutory holiday expected to have special events in honour of the province's 150th birth-day. "Maybe we should put it off until next year," Coun. Sonya Chandler jokingly mused.

- Although there are Pollyannas out there when it comes to our real estate and construction market (Edit: Sid Tafler, anyone?), city planning staff are projecting that revenues from planning department fees will drop by more than 40 per cent or $200,000 next year as a result of fewer projects coming through the door.

- Meanwhile, the engineering department feels the pinch of escalating construction costs, said to have jumped by 40 to 50 per cent. Gravel alone has increased 7.5 per cent.

- If you imagine the parks department is in charge of planting petunias and the engineering department the go-to place for potholes, think again. Those departments both put in supplementary budget requests totalling $64,800 and all related to dealing with homeless issues. Parks staff say they can't keep up with cleaning up homeless campsites and engineering wants more for street cleaning.

- Although council nixed the idea of a needle drop box program last year, a pilot project involving five drop boxes is forging ahead under one of the strategies developed in the Mayor's Task Force on Breaking the Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness. Engineering estimates staffing costs to empty the boxes at $22,400 a year.

- Meanwhile, soggy sofas abandoned on boulevards is prompting a $97,800 request for staff to pick them up.

- It's a municipal election year and that no doubt explains council orders to staff to keep the operating budget within two per cent of last year. It is hard, after all, to get re-elected on a platform of raising taxes. The exceptions to the two per cent will be salaries that are up three to four per cent under already negotiated collective agreements and the projected jump in the police budget as a result of their request for 22 more officers.

- Twelve months ago Victoria police were soothing ruffled councillors with assurances that their budget hike to cover burgeoning overtime costs would be a one-time event. Last year, they said they'd be asking for a 1.78 per cent hike, or $1.4 million more. Instead, they want almost $3.9 million more. They're expected to do some explaining Feb. 7.

- Also on the election theme, Chandler sent signals that she's ready to get off the fence on whether she'll run again in November when she questioned whether previouly approved salary increases for councillors were reflected in the budget. The answer is yes, but they take effect for the new council in December 2008. She also wants money spent on getting more people out to vote. The city is budgeting $120,000 to run the 2008 election.

- The fire department wants to hire two firefighters in 2008 and 2009. Chief Doug Angrove said workers' compensation regulations, taller buildings and an aging population are fuelling the need. It takes more manpower to assist elderly people in highrises to exit during a fire call, he explained. Angrove said he's exploring cost savings that could come from merging firefighting and ambulance dispatch operations. The two agencies often show up at the same calls.

Stay tuned for more revelations on the capital budget.

After thoughts: Last year, the startup North Park Neighborhood Association begged the city to erect a bulletin board to help the group develop the neighbourhood. Council got off pretty lucky considering the area plays host to the troublesome Vancouver Island Needle Exchange -- the association rightly could have been demanding more complicated fixes to some of their community issues. Months later, the city is still bumbling around trying to figure out which pot of money the bulletin board should be pulled from. The matter came up for the third time last week with no solution. It fills one with despair about the city's ability to take leadership on real issues.


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#2 Mike K.

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Posted 27 January 2008 - 10:44 PM

- The fire department wants to hire two firefighters in 2008 and 2009. Chief Doug Angrove said workers' compensation regulations, taller buildings and an aging population are fuelling the need. It takes more manpower to assist elderly people in highrises to exit during a fire call, he explained. Angrove said he's exploring cost savings that could come from merging firefighting and ambulance dispatch operations. The two agencies often show up at the same calls.

Give me a break. We haven't built a single tower taller than the ones from the 1960's and the chief is only now recognizing that highrises require a different approach during emergencies? In fact the only highrise fire that I recall from the last several years was in View Towers (coincidentally a building built in the '60's).

What next? The police board telling us they need more funding for cops because highrises now (but never before) require additional resources? If the chief needs more manpower he should be upfront about his department's needs and not play on the populations' insecurity towards buildings over several floors in height.

Perhaps it's just me but I find it amusing how several new highrises in the core are not only scapegoats for concerns over affordability, traffic and crime, they're now a major contributing factor to a lack of firefighting resources.

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#3 spanky123

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Posted 28 January 2008 - 07:31 AM

Haven't seen the article yet but you would have to think that at least one shining star would be the arena. After all, the city is supposed to be receiving a couple of bucks for every ticket sold and with so many concerts selling out and the Skings averaging 5,000 a game now there must be at least $1M a year in revenues coming in the door.

#4 Mike K.

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Posted 28 January 2008 - 07:56 AM

Interesting point.

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#5 jklymak

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Posted 28 January 2008 - 09:14 AM

The VPD has a Fact Sheet on why they need more police officers (it says 19 in the fact sheet). I'm not sure if I buy their arguments, which are basically that from 2002-2007 BC municipal police forces increased by an average of 10%, but VPD only increased by 2% (though they really rounded down: 6 new officers out of 222 is 2.7%). Just saying we need to keep up with the Joneses is a pretty weak argument: for all I know there were grossly understaffed municipalities that needed the extra help.

I suppose in that time Victoria's population increased something like 5%, so I can see the need for a 5% increase, or another 6 officers. Not sure that crime is such a problem that we need triple that.

#6 spanky123

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Posted 28 January 2008 - 09:56 AM

Even then, there is a baseline requirement for police officers even if the population was 0. To say that a 5% increase in population means a requirement for a 5% increase across the entire police department is hogwash. I can see a 5% increase in the number of officers assigned to patrols or investigative work but that is about it.

With Battershill still collecting his full salary and the ongoing saga of internal investigations and complaints, I would be tempted to simply tell the acting police chief to come back to city hall once he has his house in order. Until that time they can make due with the budget they have.

#7 aastra

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Posted 30 January 2008 - 03:25 PM

There was actually a fire in View Towers the other day. But the opinion expressed in the newspaper article (see link below) by the Acting Batallion Chief is different than the opinion expressed by Chief Angrove in the article above:

Still, explained Matthews, firefighters are well prepared to battle highrise fires in downtown Victoria.

"We follow standard operating procedures in highrise buildings. There's no difference between a fire on the third floor and a fire on the top floor, except if you're on the third floor you might be there quicker.


http://www.canada.co...d0-ff83a7014bb5

Perhaps it's just me but I find it amusing how several new highrises in the core are not only scapegoats for concerns over affordability, traffic and crime, they're now a major contributing factor to a lack of firefighting resources.


And global warming. And global cooling.

I find it especially amusing because -- incredible but true -- no "taller buildings" have even been built yet! All of the new highrises (all five or six of them) are 100% Victoria-sized. Obviously the fire department is perfectly capable of responding to fires in View Towers. They've done it a few times. We can also presume the fire department has always been well prepared for the possibility of fires in any of the city's other very old, very tall highrises (like Orchard House, Roberts House, and Camosack Manor).

If they're concerned about a couple of extra stories on the Hudson towers, they still don't need to worry because those buildings are five years away at least.

#8 Phil McAvity

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Posted 02 May 2008 - 12:23 PM

It's amazing the types of bullshit that people try to peddle to us. The sad thing is, most people don't question it. While I shake my head, others just nod in agreement.

Are the cops really overworked? I don't think so, judging by how often I see them casually driving around town. It doesn't look to me like they are doing much most of the time, and that's when they aren't sitting in Tim Horton's. It's a union job and in my experience union workers aren't exactly overworked. I expect they want to do even less since the more cops there are, the less work each has.

#9 spanky123

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Posted 03 May 2008 - 06:43 AM

Well of course the least overworked guy in the police department right now is Paul Battershill. Here we are in May and he is still collecting a paycheque while the mayor takes a month to read the RCMP report which indicates whether or not there is enough information to actually start investigating the actions of the chief!

#10 Ginger Snap

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Posted 30 June 2008 - 08:46 PM

Whoa. Are you all for real? This is what you think of our police officers? That they just sit around twiddling their thumbs all day, chilling at Timmy's?

#11 yodsaker

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Posted 30 June 2008 - 10:35 PM

In balmy Oak Bay they twiddle their thumbs at Starbuck's.
Often 2 cars parked around the corner simultaneously.
Nice gig:tool around in a late model motor, wear a spiffy uniform with a shiny badge from a box of CrackerJack and carry a gun.
Oh, I forgot the Junior G-Man 2-way radio set!
But don't ask them to do much beyond harassing a jaywalker or two.

#12 Ginger Snap

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Posted 01 July 2008 - 06:40 AM

In balmy Oak Bay they twiddle their thumbs at Starbuck's.
Often 2 cars parked around the corner simultaneously.
Nice gig:tool around in a late model motor, wear a spiffy uniform with a shiny badge from a box of CrackerJack and carry a gun.
Oh, I forgot the Junior G-Man 2-way radio set!
But don't ask them to do much beyond harassing a jaywalker or two.


This article was specifically about Victoria police officers. Not exactly twiddling their thumbs, drinking an ice cap.

#13 Joseph

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Posted 02 July 2008 - 10:39 AM

My issue with the Vic PD is not that the officers called for are not necessary or the current staff underworked...I see both sides of the debate, and witness a much larger non-responding (patrols, breaks, etc.) police presence in other CRD municipalities more than Victoria.

What I can't fathom is why the department chose now, when it is apparently so short of resources, to rebadge itself at a cost of more than $6000 (NOT including a new website which has ran us upwards of $20 grand), install new cameras and equipment in cruisers, and tackle renovations at the station. I have also heard rumors that they want a Victoria-dedicated helicopter, presumably to search for homeless camps as they recently did with Saanich or the RCMP (can't remember which). I understand that these updates are supposed to be recruitment tools, but if it's so hard to find officers that we need to lure them in with flashy titles and high-tech gadgetry, maybe they aren't serving the city to the best of their ability. Council has to learn how to say no on occasion, and the department has to learn that citizen-confidence and support comes from action and reporting and not rebranding.

 



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