Newsletter: March 7, 2020
Council Update (Part 3 Exposé coming soon)
Part 1: Finance: Five-Year 2020 – 2024 Financial Plan
The 2020 projected 8.05% tax increase continues to follow the District’s unsustainable spiraling budget levels. And taxes are estimated to increase another 20% over the next three years. In 2021 the “promise to the future” property tax is estimated to be just short of 6%
The steady diet of exceptionally high tax increases is finally predicted to level off by 2023/ 2024. Unfortunately promises to the future are not legally binding. Who knows what new surprises, expenditures and additions to administrative staff and salary increases those years may bring. There are expenditures in the 2020 budget that should be delayed until the tax rate will support them.
The 2020 ($1,000,000 annual) staff wish list calls for 8 more new administrative staff. Besides being alarming and concerning to residents, it will be another round of expensive managers and directors. Staff has claimed that the new positions will allow the District, conceptually, to move forward towards modernization and beyond.
The 2020 staff-requested 8 new “admin staff hiring spree” is in addition to the 7 new administrative positions that have already been added since 2015 to move forward and improve efficiency.
If the new positions are approved, the new Council will be following the last Council’s hiring practice of adding more and more costly administrative staff to try to manage, control, spend and compensate for Oak Bay’s shortage of funds. At this point, it would be nice to know what the administrative staff benchmark is for other small BC municipalities.
What could possibly be the rationale for starting $1,000,000 in-the-hole for 8 new, mainly senior, administrative staff when this funding is required for the District’s reported infrastructure deficit, building asset upgrading, and claimed to be across-the-board antiquated systems - all desperately needing attention? Shouldn’t the reasoning be how much is there to spend as opposed to how many more people are needed to spend it?
Two of the new requested senior administrative positions are especially objectionable: The Deputy Director of Corporate Services and Building Asset Manager.
Deputy Director of Corporate Services Position
In 2014 the Deputy Director of Corporate Services salary was not reported because reporting of salaries below $75,000 is not required by legislation. However, in 2015 the Deputy Director of Corporate Services salary was $82,196, and $87,345 in 2017.
In July 2019 the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) announced that the then-vacant Deputy Director of Corporate Services position was not necessary as this was being replaced by a newly created Director of Strategic Initiatives position. She also stated that this staff realignment would not result in any financial impact. The 2020 draft Financial Plan tells a different story. It reports the Administration has announced:
“There are a wide variety of risks to the organization in not having a Deputy Corporate Officer capable of acting in the role when necessary and assisting during times of high volume. The District has an established Deputy role, however, the position has not been funded since July 2019”.
It is probably just as well that residents did not know for the past 7 months they had inadvertently been exposed to such a “wide variety of risks” as more than likely they would not have been able to sleep nights.
The CAO stopped short of suggesting that the previously approved Council decision to create the $150,000 Director of Strategic Initiatives position, be added permanently to the tax bill. This must now be reconsidered if a new $ 146.000 Deputy Corporate Officer position is approved.
For a full account of the New Operating Budget Staffing Requests see District website, February 20, 2020 Financial Plan Meeting, agenda item #1 (also see Oak Bay Watch Perspective)
Building Asset Manager Position
In 2017 a comprehensive, costly consultant-developed Building Asset Management Plan outlined in detail which improvements and upgrading the District’s building assets required. With only limited improvement dollars available annually, it would be worth trying first, and financially prudent, to sub-contract a reliable experienced project management company to prioritize and arrange for the work to be done.
To add a new on-going high salary plus benefits, permanent manager level position seems extravagant and unnecessary.
The trend since 2015 has been to hire more and more expensive staff while continuing to contract a steady stream of consultants: this has significantly added to residents’ budget/tax-hike concerns.
In addition, salary increases for the top salary earners were in 2014 CAO, $158, 717 to 2018 - $182,904 (a $24,000 increase) and, Director of Financial Services from $123,000 to $155,681 (a $32,681 increase). These are 3 times the rate of inflation and far beyond most Oak Bay taxpayer salary increases, and judging from the increasing number of tax deferrals, their ability to pay.
The bottom line, of course, is that if approved these inflationary new staffing costs and salary percentage increases will be firmly in place. They will increase each year as part of any future tax budget increase.
Part 2: Housing Needs Study (HNR) Report
The Planning Department’s consultant assisted, highly criticized, Housing Needs Report was approved by Council on February 24, 2020 with only minor changes. However, Councilor Zhelka and a resident were successful in removing one of the many speculative statements that had no business being in what should have been an impartial information report.
An HNR information report is intended to help form Oak Bay’s comprehensive housing strategy - a housing strategy that is based on maintaining the Community’s character and single-family neighbourhoods. It should therefore recognize:
Comparisons were made with Sooke’s excellent HNR and questions were raised why Oak Bay did not come close to meeting this HNR shining example. One strong possibility is that only outside agencies’ viewpoints were considered important and acceptable by the Planning Department. Their input explained how these agencies would like to see Oak Bay developed according to their advantageous housing needs assessments”.
Part 3 is scheduled to be published soon - please continue to keep informed.
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
As indicated in this newsletter update there is obviously little respect for the way the District continues to spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Council has been much more concerned with satisfying staff’s recommendations, wish-lists, and objectives than paying attention to existing residents’ priorities, interests and demands on their disposable income.
It is difficult to track the exact impact staff salaries have had on the annual budget as the extraordinary staff turnover in the last two council terms has resulted in only partial annual salaries being reported. This was further complicated by some senior staff disappearing almost overnight and still remaining on full salary for a year. These sudden senior staff departures were later explained as a retirement and an end of contract to pursue other options.
It is inevitable that, as the staff salary taxpayer burden becomes unsupportable, reorganization downsizing will be the only option. Forced budget-cutting has many inherent pitfalls.
It is not clear to us why the Housing Needs Report needed to be such a fast-tracked effort or why it was so heavily dependent on outside agency housing requirements. However it resulted in, to paraphrase literary critic, Dorothy Parker’s succinct, noteworthy play critique “the Housing Needs Report is the report awful”.
We are also left to wonder how Oak Bay managed to maintain its desirability, peacefulness and livability in the past without the spate of human resources management, strategic initiatives, executive assistant, an army of consultants and million-dollar Planning Department staff compliments. Two possible answers are that the renewed former official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw, described as fair to all and not open to interpretation, were changed to favor over-development.
Be on the lookout for Part 3 update: Council Goals Process Exposé. It is scheduled for release soon - please stay informed.
*******Please help us continue to provide you with information about Community concerns and Council decisions and actions. Oak Bay Watch members also help community groups with their specific development concerns. Donate to Oak Bay Watch - even $5 or $10 dollars provides expenses for door- to- door handouts and helps us maintain our website. Oak Bay Watch is committed to ensuring the Community gets the full range of information on budget, governance and all key development issues – a well-informed opinion cannot be made without this.
(Please use Donate Button at bottom of oakbaywatchnewsletter oak Bay's Worrisome Future Mar 7.2020.com Home Page)
Keep informed please sign up for our “based on facts” newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.
Council Update (Part 3 Exposé coming soon)
Part 1: Finance: Five-Year 2020 – 2024 Financial Plan
The 2020 projected 8.05% tax increase continues to follow the District’s unsustainable spiraling budget levels. And taxes are estimated to increase another 20% over the next three years. In 2021 the “promise to the future” property tax is estimated to be just short of 6%
The steady diet of exceptionally high tax increases is finally predicted to level off by 2023/ 2024. Unfortunately promises to the future are not legally binding. Who knows what new surprises, expenditures and additions to administrative staff and salary increases those years may bring. There are expenditures in the 2020 budget that should be delayed until the tax rate will support them.
The 2020 ($1,000,000 annual) staff wish list calls for 8 more new administrative staff. Besides being alarming and concerning to residents, it will be another round of expensive managers and directors. Staff has claimed that the new positions will allow the District, conceptually, to move forward towards modernization and beyond.
The 2020 staff-requested 8 new “admin staff hiring spree” is in addition to the 7 new administrative positions that have already been added since 2015 to move forward and improve efficiency.
If the new positions are approved, the new Council will be following the last Council’s hiring practice of adding more and more costly administrative staff to try to manage, control, spend and compensate for Oak Bay’s shortage of funds. At this point, it would be nice to know what the administrative staff benchmark is for other small BC municipalities.
What could possibly be the rationale for starting $1,000,000 in-the-hole for 8 new, mainly senior, administrative staff when this funding is required for the District’s reported infrastructure deficit, building asset upgrading, and claimed to be across-the-board antiquated systems - all desperately needing attention? Shouldn’t the reasoning be how much is there to spend as opposed to how many more people are needed to spend it?
Two of the new requested senior administrative positions are especially objectionable: The Deputy Director of Corporate Services and Building Asset Manager.
Deputy Director of Corporate Services Position
In 2014 the Deputy Director of Corporate Services salary was not reported because reporting of salaries below $75,000 is not required by legislation. However, in 2015 the Deputy Director of Corporate Services salary was $82,196, and $87,345 in 2017.
In July 2019 the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) announced that the then-vacant Deputy Director of Corporate Services position was not necessary as this was being replaced by a newly created Director of Strategic Initiatives position. She also stated that this staff realignment would not result in any financial impact. The 2020 draft Financial Plan tells a different story. It reports the Administration has announced:
- The Deputy Corporate Officer salary level will be +/-$146,200 (see District website, February 20, 2020 Financial Plan Meeting, agenda item #1 and;
- After a short 7 month period the CAO now realizes that her staff realignment placed residents at high risk and so she states:
“There are a wide variety of risks to the organization in not having a Deputy Corporate Officer capable of acting in the role when necessary and assisting during times of high volume. The District has an established Deputy role, however, the position has not been funded since July 2019”.
It is probably just as well that residents did not know for the past 7 months they had inadvertently been exposed to such a “wide variety of risks” as more than likely they would not have been able to sleep nights.
The CAO stopped short of suggesting that the previously approved Council decision to create the $150,000 Director of Strategic Initiatives position, be added permanently to the tax bill. This must now be reconsidered if a new $ 146.000 Deputy Corporate Officer position is approved.
For a full account of the New Operating Budget Staffing Requests see District website, February 20, 2020 Financial Plan Meeting, agenda item #1 (also see Oak Bay Watch Perspective)
Building Asset Manager Position
In 2017 a comprehensive, costly consultant-developed Building Asset Management Plan outlined in detail which improvements and upgrading the District’s building assets required. With only limited improvement dollars available annually, it would be worth trying first, and financially prudent, to sub-contract a reliable experienced project management company to prioritize and arrange for the work to be done.
To add a new on-going high salary plus benefits, permanent manager level position seems extravagant and unnecessary.
The trend since 2015 has been to hire more and more expensive staff while continuing to contract a steady stream of consultants: this has significantly added to residents’ budget/tax-hike concerns.
In addition, salary increases for the top salary earners were in 2014 CAO, $158, 717 to 2018 - $182,904 (a $24,000 increase) and, Director of Financial Services from $123,000 to $155,681 (a $32,681 increase). These are 3 times the rate of inflation and far beyond most Oak Bay taxpayer salary increases, and judging from the increasing number of tax deferrals, their ability to pay.
The bottom line, of course, is that if approved these inflationary new staffing costs and salary percentage increases will be firmly in place. They will increase each year as part of any future tax budget increase.
Part 2: Housing Needs Study (HNR) Report
The Planning Department’s consultant assisted, highly criticized, Housing Needs Report was approved by Council on February 24, 2020 with only minor changes. However, Councilor Zhelka and a resident were successful in removing one of the many speculative statements that had no business being in what should have been an impartial information report.
An HNR information report is intended to help form Oak Bay’s comprehensive housing strategy - a housing strategy that is based on maintaining the Community’s character and single-family neighbourhoods. It should therefore recognize:
- The for-profit influences and pressures from the market place and;
- That over-densifying the District’s single-family neighbouroods with more basement suites and over-built infill development will not accomplish this.
Comparisons were made with Sooke’s excellent HNR and questions were raised why Oak Bay did not come close to meeting this HNR shining example. One strong possibility is that only outside agencies’ viewpoints were considered important and acceptable by the Planning Department. Their input explained how these agencies would like to see Oak Bay developed according to their advantageous housing needs assessments”.
Part 3 is scheduled to be published soon - please continue to keep informed.
Oak Bay Watch Perspective
As indicated in this newsletter update there is obviously little respect for the way the District continues to spend hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Council has been much more concerned with satisfying staff’s recommendations, wish-lists, and objectives than paying attention to existing residents’ priorities, interests and demands on their disposable income.
It is difficult to track the exact impact staff salaries have had on the annual budget as the extraordinary staff turnover in the last two council terms has resulted in only partial annual salaries being reported. This was further complicated by some senior staff disappearing almost overnight and still remaining on full salary for a year. These sudden senior staff departures were later explained as a retirement and an end of contract to pursue other options.
It is inevitable that, as the staff salary taxpayer burden becomes unsupportable, reorganization downsizing will be the only option. Forced budget-cutting has many inherent pitfalls.
It is not clear to us why the Housing Needs Report needed to be such a fast-tracked effort or why it was so heavily dependent on outside agency housing requirements. However it resulted in, to paraphrase literary critic, Dorothy Parker’s succinct, noteworthy play critique “the Housing Needs Report is the report awful”.
We are also left to wonder how Oak Bay managed to maintain its desirability, peacefulness and livability in the past without the spate of human resources management, strategic initiatives, executive assistant, an army of consultants and million-dollar Planning Department staff compliments. Two possible answers are that the renewed former official Community Plan and Zoning Bylaw, described as fair to all and not open to interpretation, were changed to favor over-development.
Be on the lookout for Part 3 update: Council Goals Process Exposé. It is scheduled for release soon - please stay informed.
*******Please help us continue to provide you with information about Community concerns and Council decisions and actions. Oak Bay Watch members also help community groups with their specific development concerns. Donate to Oak Bay Watch - even $5 or $10 dollars provides expenses for door- to- door handouts and helps us maintain our website. Oak Bay Watch is committed to ensuring the Community gets the full range of information on budget, governance and all key development issues – a well-informed opinion cannot be made without this.
(Please use Donate Button at bottom of oakbaywatchnewsletter oak Bay's Worrisome Future Mar 7.2020.com Home Page)
Keep informed please sign up for our “based on facts” newsletter – bottom of Newsletter Menu Item.