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The municipal public service will soon feel the aftershock from a summertime executive shakeup.
The city is planning to cut more positions by the end of October before council settles the 2017 budget.
City manager Steve Kanellakos said the staffing implications are still being finalized and he couldn’t say how many positions would be trimmed.
“I can’t answer that right now because we’re in the middle of looking at it, so I can’t confirm that until I actually table the budget,” Kanellakos told the Citizen Wednesday.
Kanellakos said there will be “some impact” on unionized positions, since most of the municipal public service is represented by a bargaining unit.
Senior managers are telling council they are focusing primarily on positions that have little or no impact to frontline services, such as business support positions and management jobs, with minimal impact to unionized jobs.
Until Nov. 9, when the draft 2017 budget is tabled at council, there will be uncertainty about what positions are being eliminated and what the future departmental structure looks like.
City hall has been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a few months, ever since Kanellakos restructured the top tiers of management. He approved $1.29 million for severance payments in a management shuffle in July, which led to annual budget savings of $1.55 million.
In recent years the city has been on a hunt for positions it no longer needs. The 2016 budget removed the equivalent of 51 full-time positions, saving $2 million.
The city needs more staffing reductions to help council deliver a budget with a maximum two-per-cent property tax increase.
Kanallakos, who started the job last May, has found ways to accelerate budget savings so they happen earlier than previously planned.
Instead of the originally forecasted $34.9 million in cost pressures in 2017, the city is now putting the number at $49.9 million. Management has a plan for covering it off.
The projected cost pressure for 2018 has gone down from $30.8 million to $14.5 million. Again, management has a program to offset the costs.
“I gave the challenge to the new senior leadership team to see if they can solve all the budget pressures we have over a two-year period and get them resolved when we table budget 2017,” Kanellakos explained.
“That’s the work that has been happening over the summer and there’s going to be a range of solutions that contribute to solving that gap and get us back within two per cent because right now there are all these pressures that any city has to deal with on an annual basis. The good news is they weren’t as big for 2018, so we were able to find solutions for both years.”
The city has been using $11.5 million from the fleet reserve account as a crutch to get through 2016. It planned to use another $6.7 million from the reserve fund in 2017, but the finance department now says it won’t be necessary.
Whatever tricks Kanellakos and Mayor Jim Watson have up their sleeves are expected to bring an immediate cost, unknown at this point, but designed to save the city money in the longer term. The finance department proposes to use money in a tax stabilization account to cover the one-time expense.
Kanellakos said extra revenue – the city is projecting an additional $20.5 million next year, instead of the previously forecasted $12.5 million – is tied to the growth of tax assessments and a larger dividend from Hydro Ottawa.
“Those things are big revenue pieces that contribute to the solution,” he said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
The city is planning to cut more positions by the end of October before council settles the 2017 budget.
City manager Steve Kanellakos said the staffing implications are still being finalized and he couldn’t say how many positions would be trimmed.
“I can’t answer that right now because we’re in the middle of looking at it, so I can’t confirm that until I actually table the budget,” Kanellakos told the Citizen Wednesday.
Kanellakos said there will be “some impact” on unionized positions, since most of the municipal public service is represented by a bargaining unit.
Senior managers are telling council they are focusing primarily on positions that have little or no impact to frontline services, such as business support positions and management jobs, with minimal impact to unionized jobs.
Until Nov. 9, when the draft 2017 budget is tabled at council, there will be uncertainty about what positions are being eliminated and what the future departmental structure looks like.
City hall has been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a few months, ever since Kanellakos restructured the top tiers of management. He approved $1.29 million for severance payments in a management shuffle in July, which led to annual budget savings of $1.55 million.
In recent years the city has been on a hunt for positions it no longer needs. The 2016 budget removed the equivalent of 51 full-time positions, saving $2 million.
The city needs more staffing reductions to help council deliver a budget with a maximum two-per-cent property tax increase.
Kanallakos, who started the job last May, has found ways to accelerate budget savings so they happen earlier than previously planned.
Instead of the originally forecasted $34.9 million in cost pressures in 2017, the city is now putting the number at $49.9 million. Management has a plan for covering it off.
The projected cost pressure for 2018 has gone down from $30.8 million to $14.5 million. Again, management has a program to offset the costs.
“I gave the challenge to the new senior leadership team to see if they can solve all the budget pressures we have over a two-year period and get them resolved when we table budget 2017,” Kanellakos explained.
“That’s the work that has been happening over the summer and there’s going to be a range of solutions that contribute to solving that gap and get us back within two per cent because right now there are all these pressures that any city has to deal with on an annual basis. The good news is they weren’t as big for 2018, so we were able to find solutions for both years.”
The city has been using $11.5 million from the fleet reserve account as a crutch to get through 2016. It planned to use another $6.7 million from the reserve fund in 2017, but the finance department now says it won’t be necessary.
Whatever tricks Kanellakos and Mayor Jim Watson have up their sleeves are expected to bring an immediate cost, unknown at this point, but designed to save the city money in the longer term. The finance department proposes to use money in a tax stabilization account to cover the one-time expense.
Kanellakos said extra revenue – the city is projecting an additional $20.5 million next year, instead of the previously forecasted $12.5 million – is tied to the growth of tax assessments and a larger dividend from Hydro Ottawa.
“Those things are big revenue pieces that contribute to the solution,” he said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
