Circling the Wagons post-Petition and post-Core Services Review

Didn't find KPMG's core services review when it hit the streets...
But the 325-page report is indeed available to the public, here.

There is a whack of other links, including the administration report from the City of Vernon.  All links can be accessed from this page:  http://www.vernon.ca/core_review/

Conspicuous by its absence is an administration report from the District of Coldstream.
(Kia wagers 4 cups of kibbles such a [full] report will never be featured on Coldstream's website.)

Directors of Areas "B" and "C" have been relatively vocal against amalgamation via the local newspaper, and they've made some salient points that only the Province of British Columbia could really screw up (which they probably will, in an attempt to prevent a precedent being set in other areas of British Columbia regarding highway maintenance).

Oft-mentioned is how this governance configuration was created:  throwing an open box of push-pins into the air seems entirely plausible.  

Before Coldstream's chief administrative officer Michael Stamhuis retired, he likely did just such a report to Coldstream mayor and council, and it probably ended up not for public consumption.  Stamhuis' successor, Trevor Seibel, moved straight into his new duties but has remained mute on the topic.
Or hushed.

Wagon circling began at Coldstream Council's in-camera meeting on October 21, 2013

However, a rare visit to Coldstream's mayor and council was made by Vernon's mayor and council and chief administrative officer on October 21st, 2013.  
The "special meeting" convened at 3:30; two hours later it was over.

Again conspicuous by its absence was the local newspaper, despite the 3:30 p.m. start time.
Guessing that they were told 99% of the meeting would be held in-camera, i.e. "nothing to report here, folks, move along".

What could all these elected officials have been discussing?
Only a stray tourist would guess it wasn't amalgamation.

Discussions would have focused on the +2,900-name petition from the Greater Vernon Governance Society and whether elected officials will "take it to the province", as Eric Foster MLA indicated is "the process to be taken."

Even IF--and that's a mighty if--elected officials agree to do a study on the pros and cons of unification/amalgamation, the critical component is who will do the study...obviously employees of the City of Vernon, the Regional District and the District of Coldstream can't be expected to be objective on a topic that may affect their and their coworkers' job descriptions.
That'd be a recipe from hell.
But apparently there's no money for KPMG (the authors of the CS review) to do the in-depth plan.

No minutes are ever released from in-camera, but the special meeting's agenda did cover:

• the security of the property of the municipality, and/or;
• the acquisition, disposition, or expropriation of land or improvements, if the council considers that disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality, and/or
• negotiations and related discussions respecting the proposed provision of a municipal service that are at their preliminary stages and that, in the view of the council, could reasonably be expected to harm the interests of the municipality if they were held in public.

Assisting Coldstream Mayor Garlick and council to circle his wagons were:  Vernon Mayor Sawatsky, Councillors Cunningham, Lord, Nicol, O'Keefe, and Spiers; Vernon's chief admin officer Will Pearce, Vernon's finance manager Kevin Bertles, Vernon's manager of public works James Rice, Vernon's recreation services manager Doug Ross, and regional directors:  "B", Bob Fleming, and "C" Mike McNabb.  Also present were RDNO's chief admin officer Trafford Hall and Ms. Mellott, electoral area admin manager, both of whom directed wagon traffic. 

"I'll put away the municipal hall's For Sale sign for now," offers Kia, "but I'm not going to dust it."

a note concerning a comment overheard today in Vernon:
A fellow said "the only reason people want into the city is to hook up to sewer."
His friend replied:  "why don't they simply have their septic system pumped every couple of years?"  
 

The Empire Strikes Back

All this kerfuffle over whether to HOLD a referendum so voters can decide whether Coldstream, Vernon and the electoral areas should unite.

It's not whether to amalgamate.

It's just whether to have a referendum on it.

Vernon mayor Sawatzky says of the Society's petition results that a study into amalgamation would determine whether the benefits of merging four jurisdictions would outweigh any possible negatives, as reported in the Morning Star.

Waxing negative because he doesn't want the empire risked during his watch, Coldstream mayor Jim Garlick was yesterday quoted in the Morning Star:   "They fell short of their 4,000 names and this is just six per cent of the total voters."  (Some time ago, Garlick said that the Society needed 10 per cent of the voters in each area--"if any one area has less than 10 per cent of registered voters, it fails."  But Eric Foster, MLA told me "no, that's not true.")

Of the 2,930 people who signed the petition, 2032 are in the City (31,693 registered voters, 31% voted in the last election), 611 in the District (7,424 registered voters, with 33% voter turnout in the last election in 2011), with 287 in the two electoral areas (5,550 registered voters, no electoral area election in 2011).

Thinking of the recent referendum on the sports facility, where only 18% of registered voters marked a ballot, 47.65 per cent said No, with 52.35 per cent saying Yes to borrowing $7.5 million.  Neither mayor saw the significance of the thin-win margin.  And neither mayor made reference to the number of registered voters.

The Society has gauged interest based on voter turnout, not the numbers registered to vote.

Considerable interest was shown:  25.3% Coldstream, 22.9% Vernon, 23.7 in the electoral areas.

But since a high turnout is generally seen as legitimacy of the current system, we'll go with Garlick's number.  Six per cent it is then.

High or low voter turnout each can mean something significant depending on whether you're a mayor or a taxpayer.  Especially when mayors have a heavy hand in writing referendum questions (where they reverse-engineer their vision so that it produces the desired result.)

 

So if a study is the focus of any new referendum, many folks are leery of  "local government" (in conjunction with the province) doing the study.   A reliable source said there is no money for KPMG--who conducted the core services review--to do the study. 

But it has to be an "arms-length" group doing the study!
Without objectivity, there's no point.


"Otherwise it's akin to asking the wolf if the fence around the chicken house should be taller," says Kia.

The poor chickens!

Pissing Away Money Like There's No Tomorrow

Are you sitting down?

"A British Columbia family of four could have saved on average $5,302 in municipal taxes..."

Canadian Federation of Independent Business,

Municipal Spending Watch 2013 

Of 153 municipalities in British Columbia, only 10 managed to keep operating spending in line with inflation and population growth in the last decade.

That's 7 per cent of the municipalities in B.C.
Seven per cent.

Over the previous year, Vernon actually reduced its per capita spending by one per cent over the previous year, while Coldstream increased its by five per cent (page 15 of the link provided).

The 25-page report "Municipal Spending Watch 2013" is conducted annually by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. 

It begins: 

A British Columbia family of four could have saved on average $5,302 in municipal taxes over the last 11 years if city councils kept their operating spending to the rate of inflation and population growth.  While operating spending grew at a slower pace than previous years, total real municipal operating spending has increased by 52 per cent from 2000 to 2011, representing $5.4 billion in EXCESS spending far beyond what should be considered as sustainable and fiscally responsible.

As reported in today's The Province by Susan Lazaruk, the CFIB is recommending that municipalities:

• Limit spending hikes to the rate of population growth and inflation.

• Identify "core services" and review them to ensure they're being effectively managed.

• Freeze public sector wages to close the 35 per cent wage gap with the private sector, and,

• Increase the transparency of how financial data is reported. 

Are Coldstream and Vernon listening?
Probably feeling a bit smug that they're not the worst offenders (Vancouver Island...at 46% spending).

But they're far from the best too.


Look at Kaslo in the Kootenays.  Their population grew 13 per cent in the last decade, yet they've been awarded the Most Sustainable Municipality distinction.  Why?  Because they cut back on municipal operating spending per capita by 11 per cent last year alone...in the 11 years of the spending watch report, Kaslo has reduced real operating spending per capita by 9 per cent.  In 11 years!


Congratulations Kaslo...no wonder numerous small businesses have opted to move to Kaslo.
They're not getting gouged with taxes in Kaslo.


Back to core services.
You know...that KPMG core services review that Vernon's politicians read when it arrived, and put on the shelf without determining if Vernon's services were effectively managed.
Makes one wonder why the hell a core services review was done.
More than one letter from a resident chastized City Hall for not releasing the results of the review to the public...you know, the people who paid for it!



As to transparency of financial data, have any of our communities' citizens ever struggled through a Financial Statement for Coldstream or Vernon to learn how much debt each community has?
 
Few of us are accountants, and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) allow sufficient "fuzziness" to make the statements read like Greek to most of us.  Everything balances.  How nice.  Any idea how many millions of dollars Coldstream and Vernon are in debt?  Nope.


"There's a GAP all right," asserts Kia.