Frontenac County Council budget Jan 17/13

Jeff Green | Jan 23, 2013

Frontenac County budget debate: Green Energy Task Force falls prey to budget wrangle

The tone of the 2013 Frontenac County Council became clear when they met on January 17 to consider this year’s budget.

The debate was centred on the budgetary recommendations that were contained in a report by the finance committee, particularly the creation of a contract position in the finance department and a committee support clerk position in the administration office.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Doyle said that as the result of a decision by his own township council to cease contracting out their financial services to Frontenac County as of the end of July, the finance clerk position will not be necessary.

“When Frontenac Islands contracted the service with the county we were told there was ample capacity in the finance department to provide the service without any hiring. We thought of it as a win-win situation, with us paying $40,000 for the service and the county getting a financial benefit. But now we are told there needs to be a new person hired. We don’t want to be responsible for increasing staffing levels at the county,” said Doyle.

“We provided that service as a cost-benefit for $40,000, but we were not aware at the time how much work would be required. I am prepared to stop all services to Frontenac Islands starting next Monday,” said County Treasurer Marion Vanbruinessen, adding, “I am particularly offended that after all of the hours we have spent bringing Frontenac Islands finances to a proper standard, you are questioning our use of resources.”

At this point Dennis Doyle said, “I want to apologise to Marion if something I said indicated we are not happy with the contract. We generally agree we would not continue with the contract, but we are not looking at winding it up next week.”

With the Frontenac Islands contract already set to run out at the end of 2013, the finance position, which is itself a contract position for 2013, was left in the budget.

Dennis Doyle was successful, however, in blocking the hiring of a new committee support staff person.

In a written report, CAO Liz Fulton wrote that the new full time equivalent position, at a cost of $60,000 would be “dedicated to council/committee support (preparation, research, outreach and follow-up work), which would free up the existing administrative staff to complete other tasks that have gone begging since the county has developed a number of committees in recent years.”

“It is just not sustainable to bring in more staff to keep committees going,” said Dennis Doyle. “I support the trails committee but I’ve got to question whether we need to kept the Green Energy Task Force going. I propose we wind that committee up. We would not only save $20,000 in expenses but we would go some way to alleviate the work load on staff. I make motion that the Green Energy Task Force be disbanded, effective immediately.”

In the information package before Council, CAO Savill described the role of the Green Energy Task Force (GETF): “The GETF is committed to pursuing initiatives (offering benefits community-wide and to individual property owners) that will transform Frontenac County into an innovative, healthy, smart, sustainable region that will attract new businesses and residents.”

Dennis Doyle, who sat on the GETF himself, said “anything the task force does should be done by Council as a whole."

“I have a tendency to agree with Councilor Doyle. If he does not see any tangible benefit, then maybe it is time to wrap it up,” said North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton.

“I think there is a courtesy aspect to this, I think the chair of the Task Force should be invited to Council before it is disbanded. However I don’t get a sense of focus to the Green Energy Task Force and I don’t see a benefit to our activities,” said South Frontenac Councilor John McDougall, also a member of the GETF.

"I think this council is bereft of courtesy after what the warden has done. Extending a courtesy is a nonsense,” said David Jones.

“Here, here,” said Dennis Doyle.

The motion was carried and the task force is gone.

Doyle then asked CAO Savill if the committee support position was still necessary.

When she said it was, Gary Davison moved that the Sustainability Advisory Committee also be eliminated, and Dennis Doyle immediately seconded the motion.

“I disagree with this,” said John McDougall. “The sustainability advisory committee has quite a reach into the community. It helps to guide projects that we fund using gas tax rebate dollars. It is probably a more valuable committee than you would expect, especially when you consider the Economic Development budget.”

“I think we are looking at running a tighter ship,” said Davison.”

“Can staff live with the current complement if we keep the Sustainability Advisory Committee in place?” Dennis Doyle asked of CAO Savill.

“I think we can give it a try, but the service will not be at the same level as it is to date,” she said.

With that, Davison and Doyle agreed to rescind the motion, leaving the Sustainability Advisory Committee in place, at least for the time being.

The implications of the changes made by the finance committee and council on the 2013 budget will be calculated and included in a revised budget, which will come before Council at an afternoon meeting on February 20.

What makes Frontenac County paramedics so prone to illness?

In the past year, sick days among paramedics working for Frontenac County Paramedic Services in both Kingston and Frontenac County have gone up by 23%.

Even more alarming, the total is up by 93% over four years going back to 2008.

While it will take time to determine why the paramedics working for the service are so prone to illness, Paul Charbonneau, the Chief of Paramedic Services for Frontenac County, is taking measures to deal with the financial cost that results from paying replacement workers as well as the workers who are off sick.

One of the budgetary mitigation measures that Charbonneau brought to Frontenac County Council last week was a plan to cut down on the number of ambulances on the road in the City of Kingston during the day time hours.

There are seven ambulances working the day shift in Kingston, and from now on if two of the eight scheduled workers on the day shift are not available due to illness, they will not be replaced and only six will be available.

“Through scheduling we will make sure that response times will not be adversely affected by this measure,” said Charbonneau, “but we need to do something in the short term to deal with the year over year increase in costs related to sick leave. They are unsustainable.”

Charbonneau said that the service has no discretion over paying for sick time according to the collective agreement with the paramedics, but the measures taken last week are projected to cut replacement hours to 11,000 in 2013, from 16,000 in 2012.

The projected savings of $250,000 are relatively small when seen in the light of an overall budget of almost $10 million for salaries and benefits for Frontenac Paramedic Services, but they did help keep the global budget for the service to a 1.64% increase.

Frontenac County ratepayers pay about 10% of the total budget for Frontenac Paramedic Services, with the other 90% coming from the Province of Ontario and the City of Kingston.

With some of the sick leave costs addressed in the short term, Charbonneau said that the service will be endeavouring to determine why sick leave keeps increasing year over year.