Committee of the Whole Meets to Finally Tackle the 2023 Budget
May 4, 2023 Edition
Event: Lions Bay Committee of the Whole Meeting on the topic of the 2023 Budget
Time: Public meeting: 4:00 pm
Agenda: HERE
Video link: HERE
Ultimately present at the council table were Mayor Ken Berry, Councillors Neville Abbott, Michael Broughton and Marcus Reuter. Also present were acting CAO/CFO Ron Miller, Controller Joe Chirkoff and Administrative Assistant Marina Blagodarov. Acting Public Works Manager Karl Buhr attended online.
Mayor Ken Berry got stuck on the highway enroute to the village, so Councillor Reuter took the gavel to get the meeting underway. The agenda was adopted with the understanding that the closed section of the meeting was to only be held if issues arose from the budget discussion that necessitated in camera discussion.
The Watershed attended the Council's Committee of the Whole meeting to get a sense of community participation and questions. A draft of the 2023 Budget was initially posted to the website, and as of May 5 a second draft has also been posted with notes appended. Residents unable to attend meetings can direct feedback to budget@lionsbay.ca
The single resident who presented a question at this event was Tamara Leger, who attended in person. She reminded Council of their election promises to reduce staffing costs, and asked that Council push back against hiring unqualified staff, and to bring staffing costs down as promised. She referenced the most recent Village Update that welcomed the new office team. "At first glance, we have three people who have accounting as part of their role and only one person as having a professional Chartered designation."
"We have streamlined and restructured the office," Acting CAO Ron Miller replied. "The competency level in the office in every regard is much higher than it was before." He pointed to Controller Joe Chirkoff, present at the table, as an example.
When Councillor Abbott suggested that he too is not seeing the savings on the staffing lines in the budget, Miller replied that the savings would be evident in Chirkoff's explanation.
After giving a brief overview of the budgeting process, Miller turned the meeting over to Chirkoff, who steered Council through the budget, page by page.
There was indeed much wrangling, and many questions remained unanswered. Council has agreed to meet again to address the outstanding questions that Council and members of the public may have, prior to the passage of the budget, but no date for that meeting has yet been announced.
Follow The Watershed as we cover budget developments as they happen. We value your opinion! Leave your comments below, or email your thoughts to editor@lionsbaywatershed.ca
And let's not forget that to get the budget "nearly" ready, one of two consultants, at a cost of $20,00o each, had to be hired to help the interim CFO to understand how to do a budget, even though he is being paid far more than our former experienced and highly competent CFO, Pam Rooke. What I don't understand is how everyone in the Village is not up in arms over how the sum of $5.8 million dollars that was amassed by the former Council and staff is now being squandered. Apart from salaries being paid to cronies who are proving to be incapable of doing their assigned jobs without assistance, we are already on the hook for $50,0…
I take offence on the disrespectful remarks by CAO Miller, when he publicly stated and l quote,
” The competency level in the office in every regards is much higher than it was before” he then pointed to controller Joe Chirkoff present at the table as an example. Not only was this comment disrespectful to long time knowledgeable staff with over seventy five years of municipal experience, that have over the last seven years seen this Village thrive, we now have lost all that knowledge. We have lost more staff in five months than any time in the history of the Village to be replaced by a bunch of his cronies, with no municipal experience .If he was “a m…
Dear Editor
Why do you use the word “finally”? My understanding is the Budget is in ahead prior to the May 15 deadline.