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Hiring delays encouraged in White Rock

Staff make council-mandated trims to city's five-year financial plan
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Former White Rock councillors Ken Jones (L) and David Webb (R) were the only people to ask questions at a public hearing on the city's financial five-year plan.

There were more people at the White Rock council table than there were members of the public in the audience at last week’s airing of the city’s proposed five-year financial plan.

Officials are considering an increase that would boost this year’s average property general tax and solid-waste levy by 2.5 per cent – $65 for detached single-family homes and $28 for condominiums.

Six people sat in the audience March 12 while Mayor Wayne Baldwin and all six members of council heard director of financial services Sandra Kurylo (pictured below) describe how staff had adjusted the 2012 to 2016 draft financial plan to reduce the 2012 tax hike from 4.57 per cent to 2.5, as directed by council’s finance and audit committee in February.

Planners had to compensate for “quite significant cost increases” to accomplish that goal, Kurylo said, citing general inflation, waste management costs and higher policing expenses that include another full-time officer to the White Rock RCMP detachment.

This will also be “the big year” for road-construction projects, Kurylo noted, with $8.8 million of work scheduled in 2012, including a $3.6 million reconstruction, with storm and sanitary drain upgrades, along Marine Drive from High Street to Bishop Road.

Staff trimmed large and small budget items, ranging from a $5,000 reduction in the parking maintenance and operations budget to postponing by six months the hiring of a new director of leisure services and a new manager of engineering to save $124,000.

The city will also dip into its savings, using money from reserve funds to finance an increase in engineering salaries of $24,000.

Baldwin said staff did a “commendable job” of finding $360,000 in total to cut from the $26-million budget.

“These are not easy economic times and our budget does have to reflect that,” he said.

White Rock residents will face a smaller increase than their Surrey counterparts, who must absorb a 1.9 per cent bigger road levy on top of a 2.9 per cent tax increase.

(In addition to general tax and solid-waste levy increases, White Rock homeowners will also pay higher sanitary sewer and drainage fees, along with an increased hydrant levy, another $13, to bring the total increase to $78, while strata owners will pay another $8, bringing their total hike to $36.)

When it came time for questions from the public, only two people took the opportunity, both former White Rock councillors.

Ken Jones, who sat on council from 1974 to ’77, said he would like to see some road work near his home on Goggs Avenue.

“There hasn’t been one cent spent (there),” Jones said, also noting city staff should find deeper cuts to reduce the increase to zero.

Jones said the city could cut $800,000 a year by reconsidering its refusal to contract out firefighting services with the City of Surrey.

“I think it’s about time we got a break as taxpayers,” Jones said.

David Webb, a councillor from 1984 to 1999, spoke in his capacity as Tourism White Rock president. Webb lobbied for $15,000 in funding that he says would mean a $30,000 hit for the city’s official destination marketing organization if it doesn’t get the money, explaining it won’t qualify for a matching provincial government grant without it.

“Without that, we have to cut back on our marketing for the city,” Webb warned.

The city received one emailed message about the five-year plan; resident Mike Armstrong called for a zero tax hike, suggesting the city dip into its reserves and take steps to improve its investment returns.

Council is scheduled to vote on preliminary approval April 16, with final approval set for a special meeting April 23.

If the proposed financial plan is adopted, homeowners will see increases in each of the plan’s remaining years: 4.13 per cent in 2013, 3.41 in 2014, 3.04 in 2015 and 2.81 in 2016.



Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
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