City of Victoria – Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria

Non residents dominate Victoria council (Update)

Team Grumpy Taxpayers — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 15:44:03 +0000

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this story first appeared in Feb. 2020 there have been a few updates:

In the Dec. 2020 byelection Stephen Andrew was elected to Victoria council – he is a resident of the City of Victoria. In early 2021, Grumpy Taxpayer$ surveyed all provinces to determine the qualifications to run in a local election – British Columbia is the ONLY jurisdiction in Canada that does not require you to live in that municipality. On May 2, 2021, Coun. Sharmarkie Dubow indicated in his Twitter feed that he had moved to North Park in Victoria.

All of Saanich council lives within jurisdiction

How on earth can someone live in one community, sit on the council of another municipality, run their affairs and decide how to spend a $300 million consolidated budget?

It’s a question that’s now being asked about the Victoria council – a by-election is set for Apr. 4 – where four of eight councillors now live outside the jurisdiction.

“It feeds into the cynicism and bewilderment many taxpayers have about local politics and raises lots of questions about governance,” says Stan Bartlett, chair of Grumpy Taxpayer$ of Greater Victoria.

“What’s to prevent someone from Ganges, Metchosin or even Vancouver sitting on Victoria council?”

As of January 2020, Couns. Marianne Alto and and Charlayne Thornton-Joe live in Saanich, , Coun. Jeremy Loveday reside in Esquimalt, according to the 2020 annual financial disclosure statements of councillors.

In municipal elections or by-elections, a residency requirement stipulates candidates must only be a resident of British Columbia for at least 6 months immediately before the day nomination papers are filed.

“If you don’t live in the City of Victoria community, how well do you know the residents and issues and priorities? If you haven’t contributed to the tax base, will you be less prudent with someone else’s tax dollars? If you live in another jurisdiction, why wouldn’t you run there? Do conflict of interest issues surface?” asks Bartlett.

So, do municipal boundaries matter?

It clearly does in Saanich, where the mayor and all of council reside within district boundaries, according to the 2020 annual financial disclosure statements and

SaanichMap

READ MORE:

2020 Municipal By-election, City of Victoria.

Council financial skills training inadequate

Team Grumpy Taxpayers — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 15:11:50 +0000

Ninety-one local politicians have now signed off on their 2021 budget, following a year when our lives and local government was turned upside down.

Pandemic budgets were balanced mostly by delaying or cancelling capital projects, drawing down reserves, increasing various fees, and, of course, successfully lobbying for senior government handouts.

The latter unfortunately had the unintended consequence of councils dodging much-needed structural changes and taking bold steps to get their financial house in order. No apparent need to consolidate services, moderate salaries, merge municipalities, rationalize staffing, and substantially reduce the tax demand.

It raises the questions: Are local politicians sufficiently skilled in managing our finances given their job will be much more difficult for the foreseeable future? Does additional skill training need to be offered?

Let’s start by reviewing the annual filings of politicians under the B.C. Financial Disclosure Act which is available for viewing at the municipal office or website.This transparency allows the public and media to spot conflicts of interest during the spending of hundreds of millions in public tax dollars.

The disclosures may give us insight into whether an elected representative gained certain critical skills at a personal level. For some unexplained reason, if an elected official owns a personal residence, there’s no provincial requirement to report it.

Remember, Victoria and Saanich councillors are on the municipal payroll, get bonuses for committee work or attending meetings. Others, earn additional income by virtue of that position by serving on the CRD, or hold a part or even full-time job.

Granted, budgets are challenging at the best of times: By Statistics Canada standards, both Victoria and Saanich are considered large corporations. Budget documents sometimes exceed 1,000 pages, as do agendas too complex for most mortals.

The financial disclosures reveal that four of the nine-member Victoria council have no assets, liabilities, real property, or corporate assets, according to their 2021 filings. Two of the councillors have only liabilities. Yet, they manage a consolidated budget of $318 million in 2021 and employ about 900.

Four of the nine-member Saanich council also have no assets, liabilities, real property, or corporate assets. Yet, they manage a $360 million consolidated budget in 2021 and employ about 1,100.

When councils aren’t as vested with their own money, are community well-being and stewardship of public assets impacted?

To be sure, staff certainly provide an invaluable service by providing checks and balances to the finances of a municipality. That’s reinforced by various provincial standards and requirements enforced by the province.

It’s widely recognized though that local politicians aren’t perfectly minted, and there are bound to be knowledge and skill gaps when someone is elected.

Following the 2018 election, Saanich council participated in a two-week all-day orientation with staff on municipal departments and services. Topics included one session with the finance department.
There was also a joint half-day council orientation session with other municipal councils. There was a day-long joint orientation session with a local governance expert with some other local councils.

New councillors in Victoria are offered facility tours and an in-depth orientation of five two-to-three hour sessions including one on financial management. There may also be additional follow-up meetings as required.

Every year, most municipalities send a couple of councillors to the conference put on by the Union of British Columbia Municipalities for workshops and speakers on a variety of issues including municipal finance.

The need for improving municipal governance through local government and staff leadership development opportunities was recognized and in 2005 the Local Government Leadership Academy (LGLA) was launched.

The Academy says, ‘leadership, understanding, accountability, facilitation, prioritization, big picture vision, stewardship and public engagement’ are the essential elements of leadership excellence and are a guiding force in program development.

Unfortunately, none of these core competencies specifically speak to a knowledge base in municipal finance or budgeting.

There are three levels of certificates in local government leadership open to elected officials: The first level requires attendance at a post election seminar and 15 hours of work, the two others each require 30 hours of course-work.

Despite an influx of neophyte politicians, since 2010 only two of the 91 politicians from the entire capital region completed any of the three levels, according to LGLA posting listing graduates.

If you’ve attended council budget meetings or listened to financial discussions, there’s too often bewilderment or silence around the table. As councils help to generate wealth and to shape our economic destiny, that’s worrisome. After all, everything else depends on it.

When it comes to being financially savvy, learning on the job isn’t pretty.

https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-municipal-councillors-lack-financial-skills-needed-to-deal-with-complex-budgets-1.24303542

ELECTION 2018: Infrastructure deficit of Victoria unknown

Team Grumpy Taxpayers — Fri, 04 May 2018 16:01:03 +0000

While residents now have a new bridge ($105 million plus), and are planning for a new Crystal Pool ($69.4 million), plus fire hall and emergency centre ($35.9 million), tax revenue is needed to upgrade other aging City of Victoria infrastructure.

City staff are now developing asset master plans and condition assessments to determine how much capital investment is actually needed – it will likely be hundreds of millions of dollars.“The infrastructure deficit is the difference between what you need to spend to do upgrades and the funding you will have available in the years you need to do those upgrades,” says Susanne Thompson, director of finance.

“The capital budget funding levels have reached sustainable levels for some assets (water), some are close to sustainable levels (storm drains), some projects are shaped through consultation with the community (park upgrades), some require additional analysis to determine the required funding levels (sewer, equipment and surface infrastructure such as street and traffic lights), and some fall short of recommended levels (facilities, roads and fleet),” says Thompson.

Even though the City doesn’t have the exact number, it knows it has an infrastructure deficit and has already started increasing funding levels for infrastructure renewal. For example, for 2017 the planned spending and saving in reserves from property taxes and user fees was about $44 million combined with utilities which follow a pay-as-you-go approach.

“Never before now has careful stewardship of our assets and tax revenue been more important – until all these infrastructure costs are known and addressed, any financial decisions need to be conservative,” says Stephen Ison, board member with Grumpy Taxpayer$.

Nationally, the Canadian Infrastructure Report (2016) puts the dollar replacement value of assets in poor and very poor condition at $10,000 a household (Page 12). In Victoria there are 49,212 private households according to the 2016 census.

That provides a rough estimate of almost $500 million for its infrastructure deficit, although it may be more since Victoria is considered an older city. The report included costs for potable water, wastewater, stormwater, roads, bridges, buildings, sport and rec facilities and transit.
City of Victoria was one of the few major jurisdictions not to participate in the Canadian Infrastructure Report.

Grumpy Taxpayer$ is a non-profit, unaffiliated, non-partisan, citizen’s advocacy group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste, and more accountable municipal government. DONATE & JOIN US?