Oblivious to the Obvious

It's 2012 and, since this New Year brought some new faces to municipalities following the November elections, a renewed fervor to fine-tuning budgets appears appropriate.

Those new faces want to prove they deserved your vote.

When the City of Vernon's bureaucrats rolled out their department's wish lists, the potential tax hike of 8.5 per cent likely shocked the newcomers, second only to the reaction of residents.

"We'll be disappointed if we don't knock three or four per cent off," offers newly-elected mayor Rob Sawatzky, reported by The Morning Star newspaper's January 25th issue.

At the risk of giving the newspaper more credit than it deserves, Mayor Sawatzky and New-Crew need simply read the rest of that newspaper's pages (including the political cartoon) to get their toes pointed in the right direction.

But first, let's consider the topics the New-Crew is pondering as they hope to limit increases to "zero to 2.3 per cent":  (from Richard Rolke's article) "...renovating the current library for city staff offices, road rehab on 25th Avenue and Silver Star Road, sidewalks on Alexis Park Drive and $80,000 for a core review of city services."

And maybe increasing parking fees.
That ought to immediately have the Downtown Merchants' Association wringing their hands in disgust.
Why?
Because they're already suffering from free parking offered by the big box stores at the North end of town.

Is that what New-Crew is oblivious to?  Yes, but there's more.  A lot more.

Afoot are plans to have all City of Vernon workers together at one 14,000 square foot site.  This means renovating the current library building--once the library staff have moved to their new digs on 30th Avenue--moving staff from a rental office on 30th Street as well as staff from a city-owned (the old Coldstream Hotel) property.  "Staff with similar duties will be together, and they will be close to city hall," justifies manager Kim Flick.

Plus that allows the ground floor of city hall to be used for the RCMP, whose offices next door to city hall are too small.

So what?

So $600,000 is what!
Plus the planned $80,000 for a "core services review".
Why is it that the sheer number of bureaucratic employees doesn't make it obvious what the problem is?  But let's throw another $80,000 at it to prove we're right in our view that there's too much bureaucracy, too much governance, too many high-paid government employees, especially while the private sector is dwindling.


In an age of fibre-optic corporate intranets, video conferencing, and workgroup emails--all of which the City of Vernon already has, including corporate cars as a last resort--why is this plan even being considered during these cautionary economic times???? 

Because Vernon's economy is improving?  Nope.

Just look at another headline in the same newspaper issue:  "U.S. company acquiring Vernon-based tekmar".
Watts Water Technologies of North Andover, Massachusetts, CFO William McCartney was quoted as saying:  "We remain committed to the facility and the workforce there."

Rings a bell...where have we heard that before?

Oh yes...when Owens-Illinois purchased the Lavington plant of Consumers Glass, a major employer here. OI closed the plant in 2008, with 300 workers out of a job.

Sixty-five employees work at tekmar.

Even the newspaper's political cartoon hints--virtually screams--of the problem:  "Hey, there's no category for adjusting ... salaries...pensions...perks" under author IRice "Balancing My BC Budget".

"Clear to me," intones Kia, "but opaque to Vernon's New-Crew."


So...does this focus on Vernon's woes imply that Coldstream's New-Crew has their budget in line with residents' wishes? 
No, Coldstream's woes are deserving of a separate storyline.

Coldstream's new-crew--with one exception--is the old crew.
Their continuing lack of economic focus designates them as No Clue.