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Chatham-Kent conducting service review
Chatham-Kent Council is about to embark on a municipal service review.
C-K’s elected officials voted 11-5 in favour of systematically analyzing where possible cuts or reductions could take place.
A staff report indicates that through this Service Sustainability Review Process, C-K intends to:
- Determine what services should be delivered by CK and at what level those services should be delivered
- Identify potential improvements to effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of those identified services
- Develop a plan to achieve financial sustainability for those identified services
The report says 130 different reviews will be needed, and it would take three years to complete at a price tag of 1.1 million for staff time.
The cost is expected to be $100,000 a year to make up the time staff will need to spend on the project.
A public meeting will be held in the Council Chambers on Wednesday, July 25, at 7 p.m. to discuss the process as well.
Chris Lozon
June 29, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Having had time to gather my thoughts, this review is an even worse idea than I originally thought.
To begin with, Council and Administration have an annual opportunity to review departmental costs in order to identify efficiencies and redundancies. Unfortunately they have not shown the capacity or willingnesss to follow through, resulting in consistent tax increases in recent years. The time horizon of the review is irrelevant really, and in this case excessive. Which brings me to my next point.
For the next three years, this review will hang over staff like a dark cloud, distracting them further from their day to day operations and further compromising worker productivity. For three years, i.e. beyond the next Municipal election.
For current Council to approve a time horizon which exceeds their current term is somewhat self-serving and is sadly reminiscent of the Governance Task Force process which straddled our last Municipal election. Council needs to show more assertiveness and credibility in steering any departmental review process such that it isn’t relegated to campaign material come next election. It also needs to show better judgement than to assume Municipal departments will voluntarily cut from within their own ranks, whether it is warranted or not.
Lastly, for all the public statements issued regarding our need to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation, Council and Administration continue to do a poor job of leading by example, as this extended, self-defeating process is neither entrepreneurial nor innovative. There is absolutely no need for this process to take 3 years. In these difficult times, both CK residents and municipal staff deserve stronger, more decisive leadership. As seen from our latest Census results, a lot of bad things can happen in a relatively short period of time. If we can lose 5000 residents in 5 years, who knows what the next 3 years might hold.
Michael Cowtan
June 29, 2012 at 4:38 pm
This, and the other thread are just so negative.
This is not the reality I see around me every day. I see people taking the situation in hand and creating business, cultural and travel opportunities.
It is true that we are having trouble attracting unskilled work, but skilled workers in trades are at a premium. Try calling a good carpenter, or builder, you are lucky if they call you back. The arts community is growing in leaps and bounds. The value added food business is growing. A new Winery opened last week. Every person with half an ounce of common sense and education is starting, or has started a business.
Sure everyone in the culture community has their hand out, but if we don’t rely on government, we won’t have to worry about them cutting it in the future.
So lets do an examination of our core services, and let the new generation do what they do best, innovate. We need some of the angry people in this region to get out of the way.
realitycheck
June 29, 2012 at 8:50 pm
Chris’s points are well made.
You may not enjoy his scope on on such matters, which leaves the truth a bitter pill indeed.
A large Council will simply take this process and invent all kinds of reasons not to move forward. As already noted, it will then spill over another term. At best they will cherry pick at the fringes and declare a job well done. (again, you have recent example from budget time)
For those who believe this is an entrepreneurial process: please note that no business would ever allow 17 people in a room to debate such matters, all in the presence of reporters and cameras. This is a democratic government process, not at all entrepreneurial.
If you are going to enact change you must first understand what the process actually is. Start by not labeling it something it is not.
Chris Lozon
June 30, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Reality,
Being entrepreneurial is a mindset. It involves identifying opportunities to create value which diverge from the status quo while requiring a voluntary sense of accountability and personal responsibility. It is quite the opposite of being bureaucratic. So I suppose the point I was trying to make on that front is that to the extent Council and Admininstration promoted a greater sense of entrepreneurship on an on-going basis, the less we would need periodic, extended reviews which are dated and irrelevant by the time they are completed.
Michael Cowtan
June 30, 2012 at 1:47 pm
My objection mostly is to the idea that municipal government will solve all our problems. We will solve all our problems, the best they can do is facilitate a few things.
C-K will swim (or sink) regardless of what they do. I prefer to think it will swim. Others seem to have a vested interest in it sinking.