Council recently heard that administration has prepared a comprehensive document compiling a detailed list of services provided by the municipality’s various departments, which will help prepare future budgets.
“This is just for council’s information at this point,” said Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, during the June 24 meeting.
The project involved outlining the current levels of service that Sundre provides, with a couple of departments — emergency management and economic development — still to be added for the fall workshop, said Nelson.
“When you look at the numbers that are assigned to these departments, please do not think these are wages — these are the numbers that it costs to run each of these areas.”
Among the objectives, she added, is to host a public open house to invite Sundre residents to look over the levels of service and to provide feedback.
“This will give us our marching orders for the fall workshop where we will come back to council and we will let you know what we heard from the community,” she said, also encouraging members of council to consider what changes they feel should also be discussed.
Administration sought a motion from council to accept the document as presented, as well as to direct staff to arrange a public open house, which was moved by Coun. Cheri Funke and carried unanimously.
Coun. Paul Isaac said he looked forward to engaging with residents, but pointed out people will likely interpret the numbers in the document as wages. However, the process is a good start towards helping future councils get a better handle on assessing service levels and taxes, he said.
Coun. Richard Warnock said the summer hiatus should provide members of council ample opportunity to review the document before the open house in mid to late September, which would still offer time to prepare for the fall workshop.
Nelson added there could potentially be more than one open house, and that the document will be updated annually to always reflect current levels of service based on discussions from the previous year.
Mayor Terry Leslie, joining the meeting by phone, said the level of transparency and discussion provided to the community is exceptional, and expressed gratitude for the work administration has done.
