Letter To Mayor and Council

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City Staff Wages & New Office

Equals 85% of ALL Taxes Collected

The following is a letter I have sent to the Mayor and Council pointing out a few facts that our city manager or finance director are unlikely to make a big deal of. I doubt there will be anything more than the usual complete wall of silence from our elected officials, as that is their policy so that they will not reveal their knowledge, or lack there of, on matters of city business.

Greetings Mayor and Council:

I realize that having to attend public functions, and ride in parades, and kiss babies and shake peoples hands, would leave little time to scrutinize the business of the city. I also, realize that the business of running the city is entrusted to the fine team of professionals assembled over the years.

So, I submit a couple of facts, you may not have had brought to your attention by Mr. Clemens or Mr. Kenning:

The total taxes collected ‘for’ the city as per the 2010 financials = $80,406,980.00

The total Wages and Benefits paid city staff (does not included car allowances etc.) $52,373,548.00

Total earnings for the ‘top ten’ at city hall = $1,593,655.00. Of note is the fact that our very own city manager is in spot #39 out of 8181 public employees in the entire province. He must be extremely GOOD (except for that little VICC business) and we are certainly glad we snagged him when the position of city manager was open to competition. Imagine, we had #39 already hidden away at city hall. I forgot, that #39 is ranked for how much public funds they slurp up, not a level of competence.

Now for the Comparisons

City staff wages and benefits consume 65.13% of EVERY TAX DOLLAR COLLECTED in the year. No, pipes in the ground, no water pumps bought, and certainly not enough left over to properly fund water, sewer and roads according to staffs own report. So, what in hell is the actual means of measuring proper stewardship over the public purse anyway??

Our top ten earners at city hall account for almost 2% of the entire taxes collected for the entire year, that is based on their total earnings of $1,593,655.00.

The new staff office totals $16,000,000.00. we don’t know if that is a good price and God only knows why a $4 million upgrade wasn’t good enough. This represents 19.89% of the total taxes collected in one year.

SUMMARY:

Total used for wages and benefits = 65.13 % of all taxes collected, new office accounts for 19.89% of all taxes collected, for a grand combined total of 85.02% of all taxes collected in one year.

It certainly would make the average ‘thinking’ taxpayer wonder, just what in hell city councillors have been doing these past years??

Drinking CoolAid I suspect.