Frontenac County Council - Apr. 4

Jeff Green | Apr 12, 2012

Frontenac County holds the line with 2012 budget 

Frontenac County Council completed their 2012 budget last week, on April 4. A last-minute decision to take $200,000 from the county’s working capital reserve funds mitigated against a proposed $82,700 increase in the amount that local townships will be paying into county coffers, resulting in a 1.4% decrease overall.

Costs for major county services are up in 2012, with the Frontenac County land ambulance budget rising by 3%, to above $15 million. The increase was attributed to increased salary and benefits costs.

The budget for Fairmount Home is up by 2.55%, topping the $10 million mark for the first time, with nursing costs, dietary services and administrative costs making up most of the increase.

Costs for both services are subsidized by provincial grants as well as by City of Kingston taxes, leaving Frontenac County ratepayers to cover only a small percentage of costs.

County administrative costs, which impact the county levy directly, are up by $100,000, or 3%, with about half the increase coming from administration costs and the other half coming from projected costs for running council committees, an expense that has never been included in county budgeting.

Frontenac County ratepayers will pay just under $800,000 towards operations of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, a marginal increase of $5,000 over 2011. Grants for $54,000 towards the Hospital Foundation of Kingston's Capital fund ($54,000) and to Frontenac Transportation Services ($86,000) were identical to those in 2011.

Minor increase offset by transfer from working capital reserve

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle kicked off the final 2012 Frontenac County budget meeting by proposing that all of the spending in the budget remain the same, but that the amount charged to county ratepayers be cut by $250,000. That money could be found in the working reserve fund that the county has at its disposal, a fund that was projected to hit $4.8 million by the end of 2012.

Doyle said that in going through the budget in detail, he found that on many occasions spending in 2011 was lower than budgeted and the extra money then went into working capital. Those were the funds he wanted to target.

“We could go line by line through the budget and find savings, but in the interest of saving time, I suggest we just transfer the $250,000 and lower the tax burden,” he said.

Even before Doyle’s motion could be formally read into the record, Warden Janet Gutowski intervened.

“I would like to express the concern that the county is very large; it has a declining population, and we may be heading towards another recession,” she said “and I don't think it is time to be hindering our capacity to respond to financial pressures that we may face.”

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison (who has two votes at county council) also said he would not support it.

“I'm going to speak against spending reserves. I'm just mystified. I don't understand why we are even talking about our reserves,” Davison said.

Councilor John Purdon (Central Frontenac) thought the matter of reserves should be referred to a newly constituted finance committee of council.

Dennis Doyle explained that his intention was not to deplete any of the county’s capacity to act, but to make sure that monies that are collected in one tax year and are not spent, are not then collected again following year.

“The perception among the public is that we are recycling money - that we are collecting taxes, not spending the money, and then taxing people again for the same programs,” he said.

“I have a question for the treasurer,” said Councilor David Jones. “Is a $5 million working reserve sufficient for a $40 million operation? Is there a standard to go by?

Chief Administrative Officer Liz Savill replied, “There isn't anything established. I can report that among Eastern Ontario municipalities we are higher than average, but are certainly not the highest.”

At this point, Warden Gutowski relinquished the chair so she could speak freely on the motion.

“As I read this motion I certainly cannot support it. This is a thinly veiled attempt by Frontenac Islands to reduce their levy from the County. I disagree with handling budgets in that manner. This implies that past county councils have been careless, which has no basis in fact. My opinion is that we have a couple of councillors here who are looking at the county budget from the perspective of their own township.”

John Inglis, the only representative from North Frontenac at the meeting (NF Mayor Bud Clayton was not in attendance) stood up for his compatriots from the Islands.

“I categorically disagree with your analysis of the situation,” he said to Gutowski, “I believe Councilor Jones and Doyle are working for the county as a whole.”

“All we are trying to do it effectively manage the reserves; that's what this is all about,” reiterated Denis Doyle.

Gary Davison then softened his own position somewhat.

“If you are going forward with this I suggest you lower the figure to $150,000.”

At that point the meeting went into recess for a 15-minute break. After the break, Dennis Doyle proposed transferring $200,000 from the working reserve to general revenue to offset the tax levy.

The motion was approved. Mayor Davision did not vote on the motion, and Warden Gutowski, seeing five hands raised in favour and none opposed, declared the motion approved.

The final county levy for 2012 is $8.28 million, down about 1.4% from the 2011 levy of $8.4 million.

Other items -

150th anniversary gets $30,000 backing

Gary Davison returned to a matter that had been before council at their previous meeting. At that time, Davison proposed that the county allocate $150,000 from already existing reserve funds towards a new reserve fund for events to mark the 150th anniversary of Frontenac County. The proposal sparked opposition, particularly from Councilor Jones.

“This isn't just 10 people getting together waving a flag,” said Davison, “we've talked about a three-day celebration on the last weekend of August, 2015. We're not talking about just the mayor of Kingston being invited. We're looking at inviting a representative from the Queen, the prime minister, former politicians from the county, an honor board, all kinds of events, etc. As a committee, we need to be able to say we have a commitment of some money of our own before we can ask for sponsorship. I'd say we need at least $30,000 to point to.”

“I'd support the $30,000 on the understanding that you will come forward with a more complete plan,” said Dennis Doyle.

Janet Gutowski, who sits with Gary Davison on the 150th Anniversary Committee, said, “The committee will certainly be coming back with more detail. I personally am not thinking about the same type of event as has been described today. I think the county is too localized. But we will come back with detail before any of the money is spent.”

“Committees cannot spend money,” pointed out CAO Savill, “all spending must be approved by county council. Creating a reserve does not approve spending that money.”

Council agreed to create the reserve.