City has wasted $2 Billion dollars in the last decade

[403Gemini]

http://www.newstalk770.com/2014/05/28/31072/

$7100 per household, ~281,000 homes = $1,995,100,000. This is only single detached homes too, not other various types of taxes we've been paying or people with other properties.

Lovely...

[ianmcc]

Sounds like someone is pushing for reduced expenses and the number one target is employee wages.
There are a couple of unions in contract negotiations right now.
Are you ready for a summer garbage strike?

[schocker]

Sounds about right for CoC :eek:

[ercchry]

i would have believed you if it was $2b in the last 2 years... $2b over 10 is stretching it... ;)

[Cos]

.

[max_boost]

it's always easier to spend other people's money. it's almost normal to take longer, go over budget etc. and then just find ppl to blame along the way.

[Xtrema]

Well, you have to ask, why do they stop at 2001 and not further back?

Remember the 12 years of Duerr (City) and Klein (Province) where nothing is spent?

That increase is basically deferred responsibilities rear up its ugly head.

Now, while some spending by Bronco was legit, most are wastes too, especially west LRT which just cash Bronco out as he got properties along the way.

[speedog]

Originally posted by Xtrema
Well, you have to ask, why do they stop at 2001 and not further back?

Remember the 12 years of Duerr (City) and Klein (Province) where nothing is spent?

That increase is basically deferred responsibilities rear up its ugly head.

Now, while some spending by Bronco was legit, most are wastes too, especially west LRT which just cash Bronco out as he got properties along the way.

Ooh Xtrema - I'll applaud you for mentioning that sacred cow (Klein) in a negative light.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by Xtrema
Well, you have to ask, why do they stop at 2001 and not further back?

Remember the 12 years of Duerr (City) and Klein (Province) where nothing is spent?

That increase is basically deferred responsibilities rear up its ugly head.

Now, while some spending by Bronco was legit, most are wastes too, especially west LRT which just cash Bronco out as he got properties along the way.

That was my thought. A lot of money was spent just to play catch up from years of no advancement in infrastructure, unfortunately they got used to spending money and didn't stop.


Originally posted by speedog


Ooh Xtrema - I'll applaud you for mentioning that sacred cow (Klein) in a negative light.

The guy was decent, but also an idiot. Who the fuck starves themselves just to pay off a near zero percent interest debt?

[revelations]

Complete junk article - while I agree that the CoC could use some trimming, to state that 100% of the 2 billion dollars was "wasted" simply because the CoC spending was out of line with growth - is complete horseshit.

Reasons, as mentioned above, no doubt contribute to short term (5-10 year) spending anomalies.

[J-D]

Based on any discussion I've ever had with a city employee, I'm not overly surprised.

The City of Calgary pays pretty well with excellent benefits and is chock full of middle managers... With compensation based almost solely on seniority.

[jwslam]

At least some of it was reasonable wasn't it?
I mean we're living in a city where 50 years ago they estimated a population of 600k and it's built that way (I can't find that thread, probably using the wrong keywords). There's so much infrastructure that needs to go in and it's definitely not proportional to the growth when you look at us growing laterally instead of up

[sneek]

Originally posted by J-D
Based on any discussion I've ever had with a city employee, I'm not overly surprised.

The City of Calgary pays pretty well with excellent benefits and is chock full of middle managers... With compensation based almost solely on seniority.

Let's be honest here, doesn't that describe most companies downtown? I might believe that the city promotes more on seniority, but do we really expect the public sector to run a leaner org chart than the private sector? I don't work for the city, but I did work for a private sector company of 50,000 and ~10,000 of them were VP's :rofl:

[403Gemini]

Originally posted by jwslam
At least some of it was reasonable wasn't it?
I mean we're living in a city where 50 years ago they estimated a population of 600k and it's built that way (I can't find that thread, probably using the wrong keywords). There's so much infrastructure that needs to go in and it's definitely not proportional to the growth when you look at us growing laterally instead of up

The frustratrating part is instead of increasing our vehicle infrastructure, they're stripping it away with bike lanes and talks of making some downtown roads two way instead of one way (because one way is tough to figure out or some shit?)

Also I hate to bring up the Art argument, but we're buying so much random shit art it's like we're hillbillies who ran into loads of money and going on our first shopping trip to IKEA and just buying shit off the shelf. A lot of the "art" around calgary has so little to actually do with our city. It's bad when the stuff I like the most is the ironically placed shes under the macleod overpass when you're on glenmore and also the mountain darker tiles/concrete when you're cruising around stoney and see them on the overpasses.

What the flying fuck does the peace bridge, big blue cock ring have to do with our city? I'm sure there is some bullshit reason it's "tied to calgary" ("The traveling light" to reflect on Stoney Trail - GUESS WHAT! STONEY ISN'T DONE YET SO HOW CAN WE HAVE A CIRCLE!) but it's just bullshit.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally posted by 403Gemini


The frustratrating part is instead of increasing our vehicle infrastructure, they're stripping it away with bike lanes and talks of making some downtown roads two way instead of one way (because one way is tough to figure out or some shit?)



Don't worry, they're alleviating traffic by building condos and increasing single family lot densities in the outskirt suburbs. That should fix the problem.

[Darkane]

$7100 isn't even a whole weekend of premium hookers and blow.

Big deal. Aren't we all millionaires here?

[suntan]

Originally posted by sneek


Let's be honest here, doesn't that describe most companies downtown? I might believe that the city promotes more on seniority, but do we really expect the public sector to run a leaner org chart than the private sector? I don't work for the city, but I did work for a private sector company of 50,000 and ~10,000 of them were VP's :rofl: I worked for a company that had around 10K employees, there were 53 VPs when I left. That number got trimmed to around 13 after they got taken over.

My wife works for Shell and they punted quite a few VPs and managers a while back.

[403Gemini]

A lot of companies have trimmed the fat. One of the companies I worked at a few years back recently trimmed off about 40% of the management. Seems like other companies are understanding the need for people to do essential tasks instead of having tedious positions that can be handled by just 1 person

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by Cos
So lets over spend on useless shit we dont need, yet lets cut the front desk girl, or the permit departments wages or staffing levels to compensate for it.

This is how any government job is, but we've had this discussion before in other threads.

In short, because government/city employees typically have a union backing them (unless they are professional staff), they don't have to take it up the ass as often. The unfortunate side effect of this is that unions gave up significant rights/privileges they used to possess years ago, and now it is coming back to haunt "us". And since we gave those things up, the employer can now run willy-nilly over us, scapegoating people like the front desk girl or the permit department wages as reason for the excess spending.

Our charge-out rate for doing private industry work is absurd. And then we recently found out the company was charging DOUBLE our charge out rate when we were working overtime :rofl: Typical government management. :banghead:

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by 403Gemini
[B]
What the flying fuck does the peace bridge, big blue cock ring have to do with our city? /B]

I agree with most of what you said but I think the peace bridge was a good investment, it sees lots of traffic and I think it looks pretty awesome.

If you want to have a world class city you need that sort of stuff.

[g-m]

+1

Edit: first reply. I think the peace bridge is a good investment and a positive reflection on our city

[403Gemini]

Originally posted by Hakkola


I agree with most of what you said but I think the peace bridge was a good investment, it sees lots of traffic and I think it looks pretty awesome.

If you want to have a world class city you need that sort of stuff.

I'll partially concede to the peace bridge, it's grown on me a tiny bit. I still would have preferred a more art deco style bridge - however that is my own personal preference.

To me the peace bridge will age very poorly. There's nothing classic looking about it and in about 20 years if it's not maintained will look like a worn down giant chinese fingertrap

Yeah sure it looks pretty nice and trendy now, but in 1993 we also thought the cars in demolition man looked nice and trendy (and that takes place in 2032 ;) )

http://gomotors.net/photos/00/4d/general-motors-ultralite-concept-car-view-download-wallpaper-518x356_ca2e1.jpg

I know that's a very weird comparison - a bridge vs something in a movie , but what I'm trying to get at is what we conceptualize as "really neat looking" now, will look very out dated and frankly, fugly in the future. When you design something like this, you want it to reflect your city well in generations to come.

This ages well

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6012/5969266176_532886d322_z.jpg

This will not

http://www.cbc.ca/eyeopener/images/li-peace-bridge-winter.jpg

And I don't even know what the fuck to say about this :rofl:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1398362/thumbs/o-TRAVELLING-LIGHT-facebook.jpg

[suntan]

If the Peace Bridge was more east, no one would've cared. But since it's so ridiculously close to the 9St bridge, you just know some sort of graft was involved.

There is still some question as to the durability of the north end.

I have driven past it a few times, the clear plastic panels are starting to become dull already.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by suntan
If the Peace Bridge was more east, no one would've cared. But since it's so ridiculously close to the 9St bridge, you just know some sort of graft was involved.

There is still some question as to the durability of the north end.

I have driven past it a few times, the clear plastic panels are starting to become dull already.
I classify it as rumor/hearsay but every time I am in a conversation about welding integrity, the peace bridge comes up, about how shitty the welding was on it, and how its still not that good.

[suntan]

Only some of the welds were fixed. They ran out of money to fix the rest. Every single fucking weld that the Spaniards did was wrong. The prime engineer would not sign off on the project.

Anyhow the thing will have to be rebuilt in about 8 years.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by 403Gemini
And I don't even know what the fuck to say about this :rofl:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1398362/thumbs/o-TRAVELLING-LIGHT-facebook.jpg

Cock ring will never be out of style.

[Tik-Tok]

What they should do, is replace the lamps with soap dispensers... then it'll be the worlds largest bubble maker!

[Inzane]

Originally posted by 403Gemini
we also thought the cars in demolition man looked nice and trendy (and that takes place in 2032 ;) )

http://gomotors.net/photos/00/4d/general-motors-ultralite-concept-car-view-download-wallpaper-518x356_ca2e1.jpg


So GM's not going to go bankrupt in the future...! huh. :bullshit:

[SilverGS]

The city salaries themselves are definitely not as much as the private sector in Calgary. Especially when you are talking about a town where oil and gas salaries force everyone to pay more then a similar counterpart in other parts of the country.

However the study adjusted the salaries based on hours worked and deferred benefits like pension. This is where the city is great. I can only speak on the IT side but their work week is 35 hours vs a normal 40 for most other places and the pension there is probably the best in the City.

If you only compare actual salary though no way the city pays more than the private sector here.

[sexualbanana]

Originally posted by 403Gemini

To me the peace bridge will age very poorly. There's nothing classic looking about it and in about 20 years if it's not maintained will look like a worn down giant chinese fingertrap


To be fair, it's also not trying to look classic.

There's a lot of paradoxical thinking in this city, that is both amusing and frustrating at the same time.

We want culture, but we don't want to pay for it.
We don't want to be seen as hillbillies, but we want classic material.
We hate being perceived as cowboys, but we love the Stampede and dressing up as one for 10 days a year.
The City doesn't spend enough money, but they spend too much.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by sexualbanana

We want culture, but we don't want to pay for it.
We don't want to be seen as hillbillies, but we want classic material.
We hate being perceived as cowboys, but we love the Stampede and dressing up as one for 10 days a year.
The City doesn't spend enough money, but they spend too much.

I think that giant house just west of Calgary sums the city up nicely.

Superficial. We want to look like something we aren't.