speedog
02-10-2015, 11:11 AM
Global News article - link (http://globalnews.ca/news/1820796/calgary-city-council-overtime-bill-pegged-at-10000-per-meeting/).
Calgary city council overtime bill pegged at $10,000 per meeting
CALGARY – Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he wasn’t surprised, and Councillor Peter Demong admitted “it’s a lot of money” when it comes to the overtime bill for city council meetings, pegged at $10,000 per session that goes long—sometimes as late as 9:30 p.m.
The city’s chief financial officer came up with the figure based on overtime costs by 21 staffers; it doesn’t include time put in by managers.
“This is part of the process of democracy, you’ve got to be able to have everyone have their say and voice their opinions,” said Demong.
Councillor Ward Sutherland suggests spending more time at city committee meetings, so that by the time matters go to council there will be fewer questions.
“We need to limit our time, and we need to take the advice of the committees, because they do a lot of the work, and that would help save some money,” said Sutherland.
This has most likely been happening for decades and well before this current council came to be.
But now that it has come to light, I firmly believe this current council needs to act in a responsible fashion and address some of the issues that get these meetings into an overtime scenario. One thing they can fix is to move the whole secondary suite decision making process to a city department somewhere - having our council debate individual suite applications is absolutely ludicrous IMHO.. If Nenshi and Farrell can't fix this or don't have the stomach to fix this one issue, then my vote will go to credible non-slate candidates next election - yeah, I voted for them last election but like I've said before, they both have their warts and all.
Calgary city council overtime bill pegged at $10,000 per meeting
CALGARY – Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he wasn’t surprised, and Councillor Peter Demong admitted “it’s a lot of money” when it comes to the overtime bill for city council meetings, pegged at $10,000 per session that goes long—sometimes as late as 9:30 p.m.
The city’s chief financial officer came up with the figure based on overtime costs by 21 staffers; it doesn’t include time put in by managers.
“This is part of the process of democracy, you’ve got to be able to have everyone have their say and voice their opinions,” said Demong.
Councillor Ward Sutherland suggests spending more time at city committee meetings, so that by the time matters go to council there will be fewer questions.
“We need to limit our time, and we need to take the advice of the committees, because they do a lot of the work, and that would help save some money,” said Sutherland.
This has most likely been happening for decades and well before this current council came to be.
But now that it has come to light, I firmly believe this current council needs to act in a responsible fashion and address some of the issues that get these meetings into an overtime scenario. One thing they can fix is to move the whole secondary suite decision making process to a city department somewhere - having our council debate individual suite applications is absolutely ludicrous IMHO.. If Nenshi and Farrell can't fix this or don't have the stomach to fix this one issue, then my vote will go to credible non-slate candidates next election - yeah, I voted for them last election but like I've said before, they both have their warts and all.