South Frontenac budget passes - $1 million more to come from ratepayers

Council approved a 2015 capital and operating draft budget of $15.5 million to be raised by taxation, an increase of $993,000 or 6.85% over 2014. This only amounts to a 2% increase in the tax rate thanks to increases in property assessment values. In order to hold the increase to the level directed by Council, the fire hall value in the capital budget was cut from $2,200,000 to $1,000,000; a $30,000 fire master plan was added to capital, to be funded from reserves; the replacement of one backhoe was postponed by a year; and $1,000 was removed from professional consulting fees. The school board has not yet announced the education levy.

Mayor Vandewal thanked staff and council for their cooperation and hard work during the budget process.

End-of-Year building report

Both building permits issued (471) and construction values ($29 million) for 2014 are up from last year, but are still 72 fewer permits and almost $4 million less in value than the 2011 record high.

County Sustainability Advisory Committee report

Deputy Mayor McDougall drew Council’s attention to the recommendations proposed by the County’s SAC December report, which makes interesting reading (See township website) but cautioned that it is at the information stage only, and is meant to provide the townships with opportunities to work with the County when developing their own strategic plans.

South Frontenac rides

Councilor Ross Sutherland (the “cycling campaigner’) reported briefly on the inaugural meeting of 18 residents interested in encouraging bicycling in South Frontenac. Their first project is to hold a bicycle promotion day on June 7, during National Bike Week. As a long-range goal, they see cycling as one way to help attract tourism and jobs to South Frontenac.

Family Day a success

Deputy Mayor McDougall commented on the huge success of Family Day at the Piccadilly Arena last Monday. There was a great turnout and everyone seemed to have a good time. Mayor Vandewal said that he talked to one participant who recently moved here from Toronto and was ‘absolutely amazed’ at the number of attendees, the enthusiasm, and the fact that everything, including food, was free.

Emergency Plan

Council approved making Harris Park Hall in Perth Road Village available to Brooks Landing Retirement Home for emergency short-term evacuation.

Three days were set aside last week for Frontenac County Council to hammer away at the 2015 budget.

In the end it took only two days for the council to accept not only the base budget proposed by County staff, but the extra projects that were proposed as well.

Staff had targeted a 2.8% increase in the amount that ratepayers will be charged for county services this year, based on the annualized consumer price index (CPI) that came out last October. The CPI is a standard that is commonly used in municipal budgeting, as that is when budgets start being put together.

They added a 0.65% capital levy in order to put money aside for asset management to cover for long-term replacement costs.

This resulted in the 3.45% target, and in his summation of budget, Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Pender said that the budget numbers reflected what is needed to maintain service levels.

“Our job is to bring you a budget that reflects the service delivery that exists,” he said.

He also described a long-term budgeting process that has been instituted, whereby increases will be predictably tied to the CPI with a 0.65% capital replacement cost added on, yielding a predictable 10-year projection of tax rates.

“Surprises aren't good in the budgeting world,” he said, in describing his approach.

Treasurer Marian Vanbruinessen presented the budget detail, contradicting Pender's assertion with irony; “I thought this was the most exciting part of everyone’s life,” she said.

Most of the debate at the two budget meetings last week centered on the nine project proposals that were included in the overall budget numbers that were presented, but which are outside the required functions of the county. They could have been set aside if council did not want to proceed with them.

The projects ranged in scope from $8,500 for a consultant to review the pay rates for members of council, to $270,000 to extend the K&P Trail to the north, with a view towards having it completed, from Orser Road at the border with Kingston, to meet the Trans-Canada Trail in Sharbot Lake by the end of 2016.

Other projects include: a $60,000 study of the cost impact of development on private lanes; $77,000 for Community Improvement Plans; $40,000 to purchase a 4x4 vehicle for use by the planning, economic development and GIS departments and for special County events; and $735,000 for the purchase of Power Lift stretchers for the Frontenac Paramedic Services.

Few of the costs associated with these projects will be taken from the 2015 levy to ratepayers. For example, all of the trail development costs come from federal gas tax rebates the county received in the past (all current and future gas tax rebates are transferred to the local townships for use on road and bridge projects).

The Power Lift stretcher project will be 80% funded by the City of Kingston, which is served by Frontenac Paramedic Services, reducing its impact on the county levy.

In the end, none of the nine proposals were rejected. The budget will come forward for formal approval at the regular February meeting of Council, which takes place next Wednesday, February 18.

Barring any last minute amendments, the increase will be 3.45%.

The county levy is included as part of the tax bill that is sent out by each of the townships. Local taxes, which are set by each township, as well as education taxes, are all combined to make up the municipal tax bill.

In spite of a plan to “park” $3.5 million in reserves in a number of different funds as they had agreed among themselves to do two weeks earlier at a Committee of the Whole meeting, Frontenac County Council got cold feet at a formal council meeting last Wednesday May 21.

They decided to defer a motion allocating the money until they have a chance to talk about it at least one more time. It will remain in a temporary parking spot as an unallocated reserve fund for at least another month.

The proposal from the Committee of the Whole was to place $2.1 million in a strategic planning fund as follows: $100,000 to Waste Management Planning; $1.5 million to seniors' projects; and $500,000 for economic development. Another $200,000 was to go for Asset Management requirements; $340,000 for capital commitments under cost sharing agreements; $380,000 towards the Frontenac Renovates Program; $30,000 for land acquisition as part of the trails development initiative, $154,000 for community improvement plans; and $100,000 for energy efficiency programs.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle was the first to suggest that the proposal should be deferred.

“We said all along we would not complete the reserve discussion before we finalize our strategic plan, which won't happen until June 18,” he said.

Councilor John McDougall, referring to a long range planning presentation earlier in the meeting by new County Chief Administrator Kelly Pender, said, “I think it is premature to do this now."

Although he supported the deferral, Councilor David Jones said, “If we don't make these decisions soon we are going to be managed out of our chair here. We have to commit ourselves to finishing this and finishing it fast before our time runs out.”

Councilor John Purdon said, “We are not moving too fast or too slow; we are just not moving at all. We are only parking money, one way or another.”

Councilor John Inglis agreed. “I see value in adopting this plan, we are not actually spending any money.”

Nonetheless, the motion to defer was approved.   

One of the concrete accomplishments of the four years of controversy that has been Frontenac County Council, has been finding $3.5 million that had been sitting dormant in various reserve funds that the county set up over its 15- year history.

Last week, Council met as a Committee of the Whole to discuss where those monies should go.

The discussion was organised around a report prepared by Director of Corporate Services, Marian Vanbruinessen, which included a sort of shopping list of long-term initiatives for Council’s consideration. The list, VanBruinessen said, came from proposals and ideas that have come from members of council and council committees over the last three years. It totalled over $6 million.

The list was not well received by South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison. “Here we go again. Now we have over $6 million in spending when all we have is three and a half million in the kitty. We are being dragged down another path here,” he said.

“Those are not proposed spending envelopes,” said Vanbruinessen, “they are only opportunities identified by Council.”

When the committee went through the list they cut the $6.4 million to $3.3 million.

Those proposals include: $1.5 million for seniors’ initiatives (housing and transportation); $500,000 for Economic Development; $380,000 for infrastructure replacement; $340,000 for potential cost sharing for capital projects in the City of Kingston; $380,000 for the Frontenac Renovates project (assistance to low income homeowners); $30,000 for land acquisition for the K&P trail; and $100,000 for Community Improvement Plans.

“This is only a first discussion about reserves, as far as I am concerned,” said Councilor John Inglis from North Frontenac. “I think this should come back to the Committee of the Whole for further debate in the context of a discussion about all of our reserve funds”.

For her part, Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski did not want to spend more time debating the reserve funds.

“I think we can bring this to Council for debate and approval when we meet later in May. This is only a plan for future spending, not a commitment to future spending,” she said.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle, who had previously proposed that the $3.5 million be distributed among the four member townships, thought there should be more debate.

“I also point out that Councilor Jones (also from Frontenac Islands) is not here today and he will have something to say about where to allocate this money,” he said.

Jones had earlier said that the county reserve funds were made up of “squirrelled away” funds that should be returned to ratepayers.

One of the major sources of the surplus money that created the $3.5 million pool of money was budget surpluses that occur most years. The county did not have a mechanism for dealing with those funds in its first 15 years. As of this year, however, budget surplus are being applied directly to subsequent county budgets, to offset taxation.