Current level of City Hall spending “unsustainable,” says City Manager

At Monday’s meeting, Strain said the report covered eight Business Units, including the Enmax Centre, Facility Services, Recreation and Culture, Human Resources, Information Technology (IT), Integrated Risk Management, Lethbridge Transit, and Real Estate and Land Development.

The report came to several conclusions including that Lethbridge has:

High expenses per capita
A high level of assets
High staffing levels
High services levels
Large numbers of business units

There were also some positives according to the report, including that while Lethbridge has a high debt per capita compared with some cities, it has a low debt to revenue ratio, and is only using 35 per cent of its available debt capacity. The City is also delivering a high level of service to its citizens.

Some of the suggestions in the report showed that because the City owns or has a stake in so many businesses, perhaps it might be time to look at selling some of them or restructuring the way they are run.

“There is a question mark of, do we need to own all of that?” said Strain. “Or, are there other alternative service delivery models for that? I.e. we could sell some facilities. I’m not suggesting a road or a bridge…but there are some buildings that perhaps we don’t need or perhaps could be better served to be in private hands.”

One of those facilities includes the ENMAX Centre. According to the report, while the facility is moving towards being self-sustaining, it’s still financed 15 per cent by taxpayers. One suggestion to increase revenues was to charge parking fees during Hurricanes Games.

Another area that could see some major improvements included Transit, where there is a very high level of absenteeism, and issues recruiting and retaining employees.

According to the report, the city’s Access-A-Ride service is also being used more than any other comparable service in any other city measured in the study, even though they have comparable populations of seniors, for example. One suggestion to save money would be to change the eligibility requirements for the service.

Strain also says KPMG found that Lethbridge is the only jurisdiction in North America that provides school busing services on behalf of school divisions, and perhaps that’s something the districts should be doing instead.

“We do it at a cost recovery basis. When you’re cost recovering, you know- there’s always hidden costs, there’s different things that happen. That service grows every year, there’s a lot of legal and liability issues with that and the question is, do we want to remain in that business? Is it in everyone’s best interest? So that is a decision that council will have to make.”

Other areas of improvement include HR department restructuring, better IT management and outlined priorities, determining what exactly the goals of the Recreation and Culture department are, and holding each department to account for expected outcomes.

With this first set of recommendations, Strain says there could be anywhere from $8.5 to $10 million in savings, however, that will be up to Council to decide.

“No decisions have been made,” said Strain. “What we presented today was a recommendation from KPMG that were things we asked them to look at. What happens next is Council will look at those. They’ll do the process they do with stakeholders and consideration, and then decide what to do next.”

The entire 335 – page review is available on the city’s website here.

by Lara Fominoff

Current level of City Hall spending “unsustainable,” says City Manager

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