Much of the discussion had somewhat of a Groundhog Day feel to it, with the council members revisiting much of the same territory that they had explored before.
The Special Council session featured a new attempt from Councillor Mirau to reduce the tax decrease to one percent, while allocating the other one percent towards downtown capital improvements.
Council also moved one step closer to adopting the findings of the Salary committee, defeating a motion from Councillor Randhawa to separate the Council salaries from the Mayors and only take the lost tax break element of the recommendations.
Some background on the work of Council on the evening and the various Agenda elements for the April 15th Special Council session can be reviewed here.
Further information from our overview and placement in the video archive can be found below, with the permanent record of the minutes added as they are posted to the city website.
In attendance Monday, April 15, 2019
Mayor Lee Brain -- Present
Councillor Nick Adey -- Present (by phone)
Councillor Barry Cunningham-- Present
Councillor Blair Mirau -- Present
Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven -- Present
Councillor Wade Niesh -- Present
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa-- Present
Video Archive for April 15, 2019
Regular Council Session
( 0:00 -- 0:30 ) Regular City Council Session for April 15, 2019 -- Mayor Brain called the Regular Council Session to order, with Council adopting the agenda and past minutes of previous minutes.
Reports and Recommendations
( 00.30 -- 1:00 ) Report from the Chief Financial Officer -- Setting up a dedicated reserve fund from the 8.1 million dollar Northern Capital grant from the Provincial government -- The City's CFO Ms. Corinne Bomben outlined the conditions related to the Provincial Capital Funding of 8.1 million dollars, with staff bringing forward a bylaw reserve amendment towards the funding.
Council adopted the motion to create the reserve fund and the reporting process that is required of it.
( 1:00:05 -- 31:30 ) Report from the Chief Financial Officer and Discussion on 2019 Budget and Financial Plan -- Ms. Bomben provided a short overview of the Five Year Financial Plan and Tax Rate Bylaw provisions which must be adopted by May 15th of this year. She also highlighted the other taxing authorities; North Coast Regional District, Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional Hospital District and Northwest Regional Hospital District.
She observed on the requisitions from each for this year:
North Coast Regional District an increase of 43,000 dollars from last year, with the extra funds required owing to increased costs, reduced rental revenue and lower recycling sales.
Northwest Regional Hospital District has an 130,000 dollar increase as part of their requisition this year over last year, principally related to the business plan for Mills Memorial Hospital and the carry over of some major projects from 2018.
The City of Prince Rupert 2019 Property Tax Bylaw will provide for a 2 Percent decrease to the municipal tax rate. Council was then asked to give the first three readings to each of the Bylaws to further the process of the 2019 Budget.
Mayor Brain then invited members of Council to offer up their comments related to the 2019 Budget and Financial Plan. The comments from Council members were as follows:
Councillor Mirau led off the discussion once again, bringing back to the table a request that Council consider splitting the 2 percent tax decrease, with one percent remaining as is and offering a cut to the tax rate, while this time suggesting that Council use the other 1 percent towards downtown capital improvements.
Mr. Mirau reviewed some of the discussion from last week and the range of opinions that Council members expressed then turning to the unknowns that council can face during the course of a year and how there is a need to put money towards something specific in this case downtown improvements.
He posed a question for Council to consider asking to think on the concept of asking the public
"If we were to poll home and business owners and ask them would you rather save an average of 14 dollars a year on your taxes or have thirty percent move paving done"
With Mr. Mirau speculating that the answer would be that everyone would want to see substantial improvement to infrastructure, relative to the amount of money that they average home owner would be saving.
He added that if Council believes that every little bit counts for reducing taxes then every little bit counts in reducing the infrastructure deficit by the same token.
In response, much of the same territory of last week's lengthy discussion was covered by the other Council members who spoke often of the opportunity to send a signal to the taxpayers and to begin to shift the tax burden off the residents.
Others observed as to some of the other measures that the budget has addressed to deal with infrastructure issues and how while Prince Rupert is reducing its taxes other communities are raising theirs, but still haven't caught up to the tax burden in place for this city's residents.
Councillor Cunningham made note that the two percent tax decrease will also help to absorb some of the blow that will be felt from the added taxation from Regional District, School and Hospital Board.
Councillor Adey made note of the lengthy process that goes into developing the budget and how it is perceived by the public.
Mr. Mirau expressed his disappointment at the apparent lack of support for his motion and how it was being perceived by the Council membership, noting of the need to begin to revitalize the downtown area and create an area that people want to visit.
He added how he was trying to look beyond the one year process to the longer term, observing how a municipality is not a business with many costs and obligations.
The Mayor offered some thoughts on his motion and noted the work of Redesign Rupert on the process of downtown redevelopment, as well as recruitment and retention of staff which could cost millions and millions of dollars for those improvements to be made, as for the tax decrease the Mayor noted that the city needs to start the process of lowering taxes for residents and businesses.
With the discussion at an end, Council once again quashed his motion for change to the tax decease, with Council members voting to stay the course with the Five year Financial Plan and the 2 percent property tax reduction.
( 31:30--1:03:00 ) Report from the City Manager on the Blue Ribbon Committee Salary recommendations -- Council members were asked to give first, second and third readings to the Mayor and Council Remuneration Bylaw --
Councillor Randhawa requested that Council separate the two elements of the Bylaw for consideration, asking that they consider the Mayor's salary and the Council Salary as two motions.
The Mayor advised that the two could not be separated and asked what element he wished to change.
Mr. Randhawa noted how the two jobs were different and should require separate bylaws and separate raises as outlined in the current motion.
Towards discussion on the theme, Councillor Adey offered up some language changes towards the structure of the bylaw, using a reduction of the Mayor's salary from 75,000 to 72,000 dollars to start the discussion.
He then recounted many of the same themes he expressed during the April 8th Council session, noting how his suggestion would strike a compromise among those in the community who may have concerns over the size of the salary proposals.
Councillor Niesh made note of the work of the Blue Ribbon select panel and how there was no reason to nickle and dime over three thousand dollars and how Council should follow the recommendations of the panel. Praising the work of the Mayor and the success he has brought to the position, Mr. Niesh called on the progress of the last four years as indicative of the need to accept the recommendations.
Councillor Randhawa expressed his opposition to the element of the 25 percent of the Mayors salary as the benchmark for the council salary structure.
Councillor Cunningham reiterated much of his discussion on the salary increase of last week, along with his praise of last session for the work of the Mayor. Mr. Cunningham also made note of the work of the Salary committee and how he believed their findings were reasonable, noting he had not heard much negativity from the community on the issue.
Councillor Mirau spoke to the awkward situation that discussing their own salaries poses, but suggested that the city did the prudent thing by appointing the committee calling it the right thing and stating that every community should follow their lead. He also observed the should be honouring the work of the committee and how it is a dis-service to the committee and city staff not to do so.
Councillor Adey returned to his original suggestion of the change in wording suggesting that it was a motion of division, with the whole package to remain intact. He also observed as to the concept of the raise and amount of the raise, noting that while accepting the idea. particularly as to why would you change the Blue Ribbon Committee recommendations, but reminding council members that the power and responsibility does rest with Council and not the committee.
The motion from Councillor Adey was defeated.
Councillor Randhawa then introduced his motion to sever the two elements, noting the Mayor's job is full time and the salary should reflect that. The calling for a separate discussion on the council salaries.
Mayor Brain suggested Mr. Randhawa propose his salary recommendation as an amendment, towards that the Councillor suggested that only the lost one third from the Tax break eliminated by the federal government should be replaced, with the council salary not tied to 25 percent of the Mayor's salary.
The debate on that motion, retraced many of the same arguments, with the ongoing theme of holding to the findings of the Salary committee.
To clarify the numbers somewhat, the City's Financial Officer noted that the ballpark difference would be that the increase for each councillor would be $2,220 increase to make up the lost federal break, while following up on the 25% proposal in the bylaw from the Salary committee would deliver $3,099 dollars more. She also noted that the entire proposed increase is only .001 increase to the entire operating budget, which was absorbed through some of the new money that has come in.
Councillor Randhawa expressed one final concern, noting that he was worried that while this years salary increase was covered by additional money coming in to the city, he wondered if in future years Council won't have to increase taxes to account for the new salary structure.
Councillor Niesh reminded council members that they chose not to take the salary increased that had been allocated in the previous four years and reiterated that they should follow the lead of the committee.
Councillor Skelton-Morven observed that this was the work of the committee to remove council from the conflict of interest that is involved and returned to his theme of last week that it will encourage residents to run for office.
Councillor Mirau concurred with Councillor Adey's notes on the final decision resting with Council, and stated that Council should set wage rates that will attract candidates regardless of their economic circumstances.
There were a few more comments from around the room, including the observation from Councillor Cunnigham that with no comment from the public on the salary issue during the public comment period, to him it seems that most people are happy with the job that Council is doing,
To bring the conversation to an end, the Mayor called for the vote.
With Council members defeating Mr. Randhawa's call to separate the two salaries, then voting to hold to the bylaw as it was and setting in motion the process towards final approval.
Correspondence for Action
( 1:03:00:30 -- 1:04:47 ) Reports Questions and Comments from Council members
There were no questions or comments from the Council members
You can access the City Council Review for the Special session here, where a number of items regarding the council session, including links to local media coverage, can also be found.
As always, our Council Timeline is only a reflection of our observations from the Council session of the night. Be sure to consult with the official minutes from the City, when posted to their website for further review.
Official Minutes of the Regular Council Session from April 15th, 2019 (not available yet)
In addition to the city's official minutes, the City's Video archive provides a helpful record of the events from each public council session.
Council will host another Special Session tomorrow at 5PM, that will provide for final approval of both the Budget and Salary provisions from this years deliberations.
To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.
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