Penhold budget deliberations got underway Nov. 19 with public in attendance but asking no questions of the draft budget, which currently has over $1 million in increases proposed.
In the first of three meetings open to the public, Penhold council heard presentations for proposed general administration, legislative council, fire department, disaster services, municipal enforcement and the economic development committee budgets.
“This is a new budget format,” said Mayor Dennis Cooper. He noted the draft budget has a $1.5-million increase over last year, which would been a 56 per cent jump in taxes. However, he said the plan is to try and cut that jump significantly before heading to the final budget discussions.
Chief Administrative Officer Rick Binnendyk said he'd asked the departments to identify their focus areas.
“Obviously we'll have to look at some cutting,” he said.
The legislative council budget saw an immediate jump in costs because the CAO's salary has been divided amongst various departments and because there will been an election this year.
The election is anticipated to add $7,765 to the budget.
Binnendyk asked council to consider if they'd be interested in having the meetings broadcast via webcam, though noted it wasn't a budget item.
Cooper suggested not sending representatives to the annual Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, which was estimated in the 2013 budget to cost $5,000 to send two people.
When it came to general administration fees, council flagged a few areas to consider decreasing costs, including looking at getting their fees reduced for credit and debit transactions done at the town.
This was because banking fees have jumped about $10,000 over the past several years because more people are paying things like rink time or utilities by debit and credit cards.
Council directed a review of IT services and their costs as well as looking at the cost of freight and phones.
“I think there's a little trimming,” said Coun. Danielle Klooster.
Next up was the fire department, with Fire Chief Jim Pendergast on hand to make the case for equipment and repairs in both his operating and capital budgets.
The proposed fire department budget is $238,750, up from $188,276 in 2012.
Council asked Pendergast to come back and present priority items as not everything requested in the draft can be met.
“Everyone's going to have to take cuts,” Cooper said.
The budget for disaster services remained at $1,500, which is typical.
“It's been $1,500 for a number of years,” said Cooper.
Next up was bylaw enforcement's budget, which was presented by Dana Jones, community peace officer.
Jones asked for a full-time officer to be added to her department to effect greater coverage. Her budget suggested adding a second officer would about double the amount of fine revenue to over $100,000.
She also suggested the town move towards taking over animal control to decrease the cost of its contracted service provider.
The mayor suggested that rather than add an extra officer the amount of patrol hours expected, currently 60, could be decreased. He said part of the reason the hours were put to 60 was concern with youth vandalism and now the town has invested in programs to occupy the town's younger population.
“Maybe we can live with less,” he said of the patrol hours.
The last presenter of the night was Julie MacKinnon, the chair of the economic development committee.
The committee was looking for $10,000 to get a strategic plan prepared and $1,000 for training, as well as marketing materials and money for a business mixer in its draft budget.
“We need to have more education to be more effective in what we're trying to do,” MacKinnon told council.
The strategic plan would be prepared by a professional and help show what needs to be focused on to support businesses already in Penhold and attract more.
Coun. Chad Hoffman suggested council should do a strategic plan themselves to save money. Klooster responded by pointing out the council meeting fees that would need to be paid out would result in little to no cost savings.
She said $10,000 for a strategic plan to be prepared was a good price.
Coun. Heather Klein noted the importance of economic development to council.
“We're nickel-and-diming one of the lowest budget points but one of the highest priorities,” she said.
The public present was offered the opportunity to ask questions or make comments but none of the handful of people there did so.
“Everybody is well aware they've got to come down,” Klein said of the budget process.
The next public budget meeting is Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. at the town offices. A third one will be held Dec. 10 as budget deliberations continue.
