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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBusiness & Financial Planning Q&A 2016-11-30.pdfBusiness & Financial Planning Q&A I November 30, 2016 On November 30th, 2016 at 6:00 pm staff from the City of Maple Ridge hosted a live question and answer period as part of a public consultation process regarding the 2017-2021 Business and Financial Plan. The session concluded three days of Council reviewing proposed department business plans and a five-year Financial Plan. Listed below are responses to all the questions we received through social media, email and telephone during and in the lead -up to the Q&A session. The written responses reflect the message intended, rather than a word-for-word record of the session, which is available on video. If you missed the presentation or would like to watch the Q&A it can be found on our website, www.mapleridge.ca, or by clicking here. Question #1 Email- November 30, 2016 The Financial Plan proposes ongoing increases above inflation with no appreciable improvement in service. However the disposable incomes of the citizens are more likely to fall in line with inflation, since salaries typically follow inflation. What are you doing to bring the City budget into line with what customers are able to pay? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Let's understand what inflation is, people refer to the Consumer Price Index, which is the change in price of a particular basket of goods. The basket of goods that we provide on behalf of the citizens is very different from the average household. At the end of the day it is matter of affordability for citizens. That point is not lost on staff and Council. That's why we include information in the Financial Overview Report detailing the efforts we make to try to contain budgets and at the end of the day there is residual that needs to be dealt with. Question #2 Telephone- November 29, 2016 What is the City doing to attract major commercial and industrial businesses and jobs to Maple Ridge? Answer Answered by Mr. Swa bey during the live Q&A There has never been more exciting time to invest in Maple Ridge. This is evident through the amount of business activity we are experiencing and the record number of building permits received this year, which is higher than past years. We have a workforce that is young and average income that is very high and were a good place to locate. We're finding we're the diamond in the rough for Metro Vancouver's urban development. Mr. Swabey advised that Council has struck an Economic Development Committee to assist them to be investment ready and that committee is working on strategies for home-based business and the high-tech industry. 11 Page Business & Financial Planning Q&A I November 30, 2016 Question #3 Email- November 30, 2016 Why does the City continue on with Defined Benefit pension schemes for employees when the rest of the world has moved on to defined contribution schemes? Why should I pay for the pension deficit of City employees? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A The fact is that the world as a whole is having to look at all employee costs. This is not something that is happeningjust in the public sector, it's happening in the private sector too. This is a collective bargaining issue and that's the place this conversation needs to be had. We need to keep in mind that our work force is aging. Attraction and retention is an issue. While we are trying to keep costs down, trying to find skilled and qualified people to do the work is going to be challenging. The City of Maple Ridge is a member of the Municipal Pension Plan. The Plan is a jointly trusteed pension plan, governed by the rules and regulations set out in the provincial Public Sector Pension Plans Act. Question #4 Facebook - November 24, 2016 I would like to see more of an open forum regarding the homeless! More sharing of ideas from the public! This would have less conflicts and come up with a new solutions. This would be more cost effective! Answer Answered by Ms. McCormick during the live Q&A We can assure you that Council is interested in hearing from our citizens, any suggestions from the public in regards to homelessness in our community are welcomed. This fall we launched Forward 2020 Better Solutions, Together Communication Strategy. If you visit the City's website you will find the Forward 2020 banner embedded in Hot Topics. If you click on the banner it will take you to the Forward 2020 landingpage, on this page you will find links to local and provincial information relating to homelessness as well as links to the Community Dialogues that were held in the Fall and any upcoming opportunities that continue the conversation. On the landing page you will also find our staff contact information including direct links to their email. You can also register to receive updates and weekly newsletters or view the newsletter by simply clicking on it. 21 Page Business & Financial Planning Q&A I November 30, 2016 Question #5 Facebook - November 29, 2016 How much does the City spend on consultants each year? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A It is important to understand how the city works. When it comes to certain issues such as roadworks, we have a level of staffing and we also reach out to get professional advice as needed for specific works. It's the same with the Planning department. The point I'm making is that we don't have a line item that records all of our consulting costs. We use consulting as a way of doing business and, in part, to keep staff costs down. One of the things we are transparent about, is each month, we issue a disbursements report that outlines the expenditures we make. These reports are available on our website. Through Council's directive we will be implementing IT changes to make that information better searchable. That way if you wanted to know how much was paid to ABC Consulting, and extract that information it will be easier to do so. That functionality will be coming in 2017. If there is a particular area of consulting that the individual is interested I urge them to contact me directly either by telephone, 604-467-7398, or email, ogill@mapleridge.ca. Question #6 Facebook- November 26, 2016 Part 1 There has been a lot of house and condo development over the last period of time. Builders are getting rich and people are getting stuck with traffic jams, overfilled schools and growth related infrastructure issues. Answer Answered by Mr. Quinn during the live Q&A If I could rephrase the question to address how the development community contributes to our infrastructure. The development community contributes in a number of ways. The first way is that they build it. Through the development process roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure are installed. In total about 95% of the City has been built through development. The second way is through Development Cost Charges which are collected during permitting and put in reserves. Once enough funds are accumulated we build new infrastructure. A great example is the widening of 128th and Abernethy. Developers also contribute through Community Amenity Charges, which were introduced by Council this year. Through this mechanism funding is allocated to the construction of community halls, parks or trails. 31 Page Business & Financial Planning Q&A I November 30, 2016 Part 2 How does it relate to the Transportation Plan, when road capacity is not keeping up with population growth and with the lack of connectivity between infrastructure? For example, bike lanes that don't go anywhere. Answer Answered by Mr. Quinn during the live Q&A The City's Master Transportation Plan identifies a Master Cycling Plan which is put together in consultation by the local biking community. This is a comprehensive plan that spans the whole city. Although some stretches may seem random, they are added when there is an opportunity for them to be built in conjunction with other projects and when grant funding is available. Question #7 Facebook- November 29, 2016 How much has the security budget increased over the past five years? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A I can say that when it comes to security it is easy to quantify what the BIA is spending on the security services they are providing. It is easy to quantify money being spent by the City on security for the leisure centre. However, there are other security related costs such as for police, fire, and social services. On the surface it is a simple question. Mr. Patel provided report to council on security spending in September of 2015. At the time expenses were $200,000 and since then Council has supplemented that amount. However security issues are bigger than what the dollars alone reflect. At the end of day it comes down to what are you trying to achieve? And, how do you put a value on what you prevent? Question #8 Could we use the money in reserves to reduce the tax rate? Answer Answered by Mr. Gill during the live Q&A Absolutely. As a matter of fact there are several pages in the Financial Overview Report directed to that. The question is what are those reserves there for? And the bigger question is what are you going to do when those reserves run out? This is like using your savings account to deal with an on- going issue. 41 Page