Let’s Start the 5% Cuts at City Hall with Councillor’s Salaries, Office Budgets and Political Staff

by John Laforet
posted on October 26th, 2009 at 22:52:33 pm

I have said repeatedly that spending at City Hall has been both out of control and irresponsible. I am not ideologically opposed to taxes or spending, but think each need to have a clear purpose that they are meeting.

The last two councils have increased taxes and spending at an totally unsustainable way and have relied on the Province for annual bailouts. I don’t dispute the Ctiy’s claim that the Province has failed to upload areas of provincial responsibility, but if one looks at how this council has responded to financial pressure – it can hardly be seen as an example of difficult leadership or tough decision making.

I don’t believe each department can or should be cut an arbitrary 5% this year and next. Doing so will hurt good and meaningful programs while leaving wasteful, misguided or otherwise unnecessary programs in 90 to 95% in place.

The annual budget has increased 1.5 billion under David Miller’s leadership. There is undoubtedly an opportunity to dig through all of this new spending and find ineffectively deployed resources. There is an opportunity to look at non core areas of spending and find significant cuts to ineffective spending while preserving program funding for well functioning and necessary resource deployment.

But before this Council attempts another ‘do as we say not as we do’ like they did with the unions during the negoiation that led to the longest strike in our City’s history – they ought to look at their own offices first.

They should cut 5% of their 53 100 office budgets, this year and next. They should cut 5% of their 200 000 staff budgets this year and next. And above all they should cut their own salaries 5% this year and next. They could also cut out the catered council meetings, the free coffee, the free zoo, golf, parking and metro passes they give themselves. While they are at it, they could cancel the city boxes at the Rogers Centre and the Air Canada Centre.

None of this spending does anything but stroke the egos of a bunch of ward bosses who find importance through these perks. Gutting these perks, and cutting back Councillor salaries, political staff salaries and councillor’s office budgets would also help them and their staff understand how difficult the current economic crisis is for many Toronto families. Cuts to their own office resources would also allow them to understand how their cuts to real programming impact the civil service as they deploy services to residents.

It seems to me only fair that these guys start with any cuts closest to themsevles and work out toward residents – who pay more than ever and are receiving less than before for it.

Who is with me?

City of Toronto Ombudsman To Hold Meeting In Scarborough

by John Laforet
posted on October 19th, 2009 at 00:25:13 am

I want to start by saying having an City of Toronto Ombudsman is an incredibly important thing and something I think can be said to be a success of the current City Council.

An Ombudsman helps address systemic barriers to action within an organization. At the City of Toronto, this is an extremely important addition to an organization that is sometimes as clear as mud. One of the problems with an 8.6 billion dollar organization with thousands of employees, dozens of programs and departments and work locations is that it is easy for someone from outside that structure to get lost within it, and see their issue unresolved.

The fact that the Ombudsman is holding ‘regional’ meetings within the City to get out there so people know about the service, how to access her office and seek resolutions this way is extremely important.

I’m quite happy she will be at the Scarborough Civic Centre on Tuesday from 7 to 9PM to meet with Scarborough residents and get a sense of the situation on the ground.

All too often the experience I hear when I speak to folks who have contacted a municipal politician or sought help with a challenging aspect of service delivery from the City is one of a run around. I know from personal experience what a frustrating waste of time it can be trying to navigate contentious issues at City Hall because the mentality appears to be that it is safer for the individual on the other side of the phone, desk or computer to ‘shut down’ instead of help you to resolve whatever has brought you there.

In the absence of an army of effective Councillors to use their muscle to seek resolution on behalf of constituents an office like the office of Ombudsman is extremely important and while a very new experiment in Toronto – one I hope will be extremely successful in helping people access their government efficiently and effectively. Let’s hope she and her seven staff can make it happen.