The following article appeared in the January 5 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
It’s like an elaborate game, perhaps of dominoes, or maybe Jenga — how do you take a block from the bottom and put it on top without the entire structure collapsing? A couple of rounds of meetings have already happened, and there’s more to go. The discussions can seem dry, the topics disembodied. But you could easily argue this is the time of year when councillors make their most important set of decisions.
It’s budget time.
The proverbial Jenga pieces were flying around council chambers all last month as each committee met to hash out how to spend the precious one per cent of the budget — roughly $1.4 million in all — that council has tentatively set aside for new projects. That’s on top of another 3.5 per cent increase to maintain the current level of services.
Is it worth canning sidewalk plowing in favour of every-two-week yard waste pickup? What can be put off or outright cancelled to allow for more frequent bus service?
Managing growth.
Fixing the transit system.
Building a new central library.
When you’re deciding how to spend something like $140 million, it helps to sit down and make a list of priorities.
That’s what council is doing right now. And the list is long and varied — a recent draft included 100 or more items, Councillor Karl Wettstein said. The goal is to get it down to the top 20 or 30.
“There are all kinds of worthwhile projects and initiatives always in front of us at budget time and even between budgets,” Mayor Karen Farbridge said.
So how do you figure out what’s important?
“Priority-setting is very individual,” Wettstein said. “I don’t worry too much about the operations stuff, because I know that will be looked after.”
What’s important to him is making sure council works properly to make decisions that benefit the community. That’s why he’s pushing governance and growth management as his priorities.
For Coun. Ian Findlay, it’s a matter of balancing out choices that reflect his own values with what he hears from his constituents.
And for Farbridge, a lot of it is based on the city’s strategic plan — a high-level document of goals for this term of council.
Of course, while things like the library proposal and extra buses get lots of attention, the bulk of the city’s budget — about 80 per cent — is spent on mundane but essential things like fixing roads and cutting grass.
“We still have to plow the snow, cut the grass, do all of the normal, day-to-day things,” said Hans Loewig, the city’s chief administrative officer. “But now, we have goals on top of that.”
The reality has changed drastically for cities over the last 15 or so years, he said, in a way that’s made planning and goal-setting much more important.
“Historically, municipalities functioned at different levels than they are today,” he said. “They did the traditional thing. But now, we’re doing social services, housing, provincial courts, ambulance. We have to take a more strategic, businesslike approach.”
WHAT RESIDENTS WANT
Deciding how to spend taxpayer money includes the unenviable task of figuring out what residents really want.
That’s tricky, in part because of the apathy surrounding local politics, says Tim Mau, a political science professor at the University of Guelph.
“The beauty of local politics is individuals can participate in ways that are not possible at another level. You and I and everyone else in the community has the opportunity to express our viewpoint, and the ones that do have tremendous opportunity to influence the rhetoric in a big way,” he said.
That became apparent, he said, through the vocal opposition to Wal-Mart’s application to open a store in north Guelph — perhaps the biggest public response to any single civic issue in Guelph’s history. But Mau questions whether that response was indicative of what the community wanted.
“With so many things on the local level, when we talk about public outcry, what does that represent? With Wal-Mart, there was huge public outcry, but thousands of people sat silently waiting.
“If you look at the last year and a bit since Wal-Mart has been active, the store is doing booming business,” he said.
Mau cautions against becoming beholden to that so-called vocal minority.
“In a democracy, it’s ultimately up to the people and elected leaders of the day to determine priorities. More often than not political leaders don’t actively survey constituents,” he said.
But, he says, perhaps they should.
The problem is, people who come to meetings, call their councillors and write letters to the editor aren’t random.
A survey “forces people to take more responsibility for their citizenship instead of casting blame on politicians for unpopular tax increases or spending cuts,” he said. “We can talk to 10 different people and, depending on their perspective, someone will say ‘we need to invest in 20-minute bus service’ and someone will say ‘I don’t use the bus.’ You have to aggregate those opinions.”
But Wettstein, who chairs the finance committee, says there’s little he can do about people who don’t speak up.
“The silent majority, from my perspective, is somebody who nobody knows what they think,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t respond to the silent majority. The only thing we know about majority is they’re silent. We don’t know if vocal minority represents the silent majority.”
Findlay has a unique and direct way of finding out what people want.
As owner of the downtown Thomas Video, he hears first-hand from video-watchers.
People come in, talk about civic issues, then rent a video, he said.
For Farbridge, finding out what residents want means integrating a whole slew of techniques — from e-mails and phone calls to council presentations and things like phone surveys and focus groups.
There’s not much council can do about people who never say how they feel.
“What’s the alternative — to do no consultation? If we go down a path that’s not supported, we hear back,” she said.
TIME FOR TRANSIT CHANGE
And hear they did when Guelph Transit announced with little warning in August that it was cutting bus service from every 30 minutes to every 40. Staff almost immediately put forward a proposal to increase that service to run every 20 minutes.
But the financial realities made for heated discussion at committee.
Increasing the frequency of service would cost at least $1.5 million — more money than the increase council approved for the entire budget. (Staff say 20-minute service at peak times, with 30-minute service other times, would cost $1.6 million. Running the buses every 20 minutes all day would cost $2.5 million, and 20-minute service day and night would cost $3.3 million — more than twice the budget increase approved by council.)
“To meet the guideline, it would not have been possible for us to make that recommendation,” said Loewig, the CAO.
But residents and council have made it clear more frequent service is a priority. And so discussion was heartfelt as a council committee tried to figure out what to do.
Their options constitute another complex game of Jenga. Should they hike taxes more or increase bus fare? Should they take something out of the budget — sidewalk plowing is an option that’s been discussed. Should they restructure the entire bus system to find efficiencies?
Because of a new budgeting system, which includes bringing proposals to committees before Christmas to give council and staff time to shuffle the pieces, the city has time to reconsider how to provide the service so many people are asking for.
PUTTING THEIR HEADS TOGETHER
Lots of work happens even before those committee meetings. It all starts with city staff, who plot out their department’s budget and then meet as a group to hash it all out.
“The directors need to clearly understand all of the operations as well as their own,” Loewig said. “That’s how we can sometimes get efficiencies.”
It helps, too, to have people from outside of the department review the budget with an outside perspective.
“If you don’t have those interdepartmental discussions, everyone wants their 4.5 per cent (increase),” Loewig said. “Everyone has to take their department hats off and put their corporate hats on and say ‘I might have to give up my one per cent.’ ”
Two departments are working together, for instance, to try to streamline leaf collection with yard waste collection.
HOW IT’S EVOLVED
The reality’s grown more and more complex for Canadian cities, as they’re left tackling more and bigger challenges. They’ve adapted to that by acting more like businesses, developing long-term plans, strategies and lists of priorities, Loewig said.
Cities have also collectively been pushing for more help from the province and the federal government.
And it’s started to come in. The federal gas tax is a big boon to municipalities, giving them a chance to catch up with increasingly crumbling infrastructure, said Susan Aram, who’s spearheading the city’s budgeting process in the absence of a director of finance.
The provincial government finally carried through on its promise to pay half the cost of providing ambulance service — a promise that was made when ambulance service was handed off to municipalities, but was never kept.
And recently the provincial government gave Toronto extra taxation powers so that city could seek more cash to keep things afloat. Those extra taxes could be given to other municipalities in the future.
Many argue it’s essential for all levels of government to contribute to maintaining the quality of life in cities.
“The feds should be contributing more to cities,” said David Amborski, a planning professor at Ryerson University.
“In the Canadian context, municipalities are creatures of the province, but there are items such as major infrastructure and transit that really provide for economic growth. It’s the feds that gain from that via corporate taxes.”
And although he says it just makes sense, he doesn’t see a big change under the current federal government.
“This government doesn’t seem to be too motivated,” he said.
TAKE A BLOCK FROM THE BOTTOM
In the meantime, councillors and staff are diligently working away, trying to figure out which pieces to take out and which to put in. They’re listening to community members, and weighing what they heard during the election with their own values.
In the end, it’ll be a blueprint for 2008 in Guelph. And it’s all coming your way, between now and Feb. 19, when council votes on the final document.
TRYING TO GET ON TOP
On page A3, four stakeholders state their case for why the projects they represent should be considered top priority for the city’s upcoming budget.
Norm McLeod, Guelph Public Library chief librarian, is advocating for a new central library.
Katherine McCracken, director of Guelph Museums, is advocating to move the Civic Museum into the Loretto Convent.
Todd Dennis, chair of the Clairfields Neighbourhood Group, is advocating for a new community centre in the south end.
Kyle Mackie is advocating for buses that run every 20 minutes instead of every 40.
TRANSIT SERVICE
BETTER BUS ROUTES
Kyle Mackie is advocating for buses that run every 20 minutes instead of every 40.
City hall figures that would cost between $1.1 million and $2.9 million a year, plus the cost of buses.
Mackie’s family has one car and two kids. He usually takes the bus to work.
When buses ran every half hour, it took him about half an hour to get to work.
The 40-minute service adds at least 15 or 20 minutes, he says.
“Adding the extra 10 (minutes) doesn’t seem like a big difference, but it can greatly change your commuting time.”
He’s considered getting a new car. He’s begged for rides and has occasionally taken a cab.
“People won’t take public transit if it’s frustrating or difficult to understand or unreliable,” he says.
REC CENTRE
A PLACE TO PLAY
Todd Dennis, chair of the Clairfields Neighbourhood Group, is advocating for a new community centre in the south end. The city figures that would cost $35 million from 2010 to 2015. Developers would pay the bulk, with the city having to cover the remaining $3.5 million.
“The city has been promising a south-end community centre for 30 years,” Dennis says. “With Guelph’s stated goals of being a healthy, active community, it’s right we have something down in this end of the city. . . . If people have to drive a long way, they’re not going to go.”
He stresses the new facility wouldn’t serve just the south end. The city’s recreation programs are often filled to capacity, so the south-end facility would mean more recreation spots to go around.
Council recently decided to go ahead with a feasibility study for the new facility.
“This was a big step. At least someone will say these are the services needed, and it’s not in 15 years,” he says.
LIBRARY
ROOM FOR BOOKS
Norm McLeod, Guelph Public Library chief librarian, is advocating for a new central library. The city is projecting that will cost $10.3 million in 2012, with another $7 million coming from developers.
McLeod has spent more than 10 years pushing for a new downtown library.
“We need a library system adequate for a community of 150,000, 200,000 people,” he says.
And with around two-thirds of the city’s population holding a library card, it’s a battle he can’t let go of.
“Libraries are one of the few genuinely public places left. It’s important they be good space. We’ve got the relaxing down pat; we’ve got the user-friendly down pat. What we don’t have is enough space — shelf space, seating space.”
Politicians, he says, have long been in agreement.
“This council and every previous council have agreed we need a central library. But we can’t agree on timing and how it will be paid for. It’s proper for the mayor and council to think long and hard.
“We will reap the benefit for another generation. We’ve just got to figure out how to pay for it, because there are so many competing pressures.”
MUSEUM
HISTORIC IMPORTANCE
Katherine McCracken, director of Guelph Museums, is advocating to move the Civic Museum into the Loretto Convent.
The draft budget suggests the city put $700,000 into that this year, $2 million next year, and $10 million the following year — as long as other governments pitch in $6 million.
“To anyone who has been here, it’s not hard to make the point that we need to expand if we’re going to continue to meet our mandate in terms of collecting, researching and exhibiting our history,” she says.
But there’s no room for the museum to expand on its current site. And the museum board would like the facility to stay downtown, and preferably in a heritage building.
“If we don’t pursue the convent, we know there aren’t very many options,” McCracken says. “There are some museums that build new facilities, but in a community like Guelph where there’s a real richness on architectural history, a heritage building is perfect.”