The chair of the city?s finance committee appears surprised the public consultation meetings on the 2004 budget have attracted so much attention.
After last year?s debacle over the closing of recreation facilities, he shouldn?t be.
Each meeting?there were six?was attended about 50 people, which is a good turnout for a public meeting in this city, Ted Callaghan said.
?Five or six people at a meeting like that is not uncommon.?
?Vice-chair Eldon Gainer, CAO Mark Mieto, the mayor and I started about a week before Christmas and put staff?s shoulder to the wheel to determine what we wanted to see in the process.?
He said they wanted to put their best forward.
The quality of the questions and presentations from that number of people also impressed Callaghan.
The meetings, he said, developed recurring themes surrounding water rates, taxes, recreational facilities, roads, seniors, and the size of the city?s fleet.
The tone was appropriate: there were very few if any cheap shots, and more genuine concern than blame games, he said.
The issues raised are like a replay of the October election campaign.
Council has seven new members and a new, young mayor who campaigned on largely the same things.
Callaghan said that means the comments received at the meetings, all recorded and circulated to each councillor, will have an effect on their thinking
once the numbers are in front of them.
At an all-day meeting Jan. 24, councillors voiced their disdain at the prospect of borrowing and raising taxes to fix the roads.
Ward 1 Councillor Eldon Gainer said the plan to go into debt by $93 million and raise taxes by 30 per cent at the end of 10 years is a big turnaround from the city?s existing pay-as-you-go policy.
His ward partner, Terry Kett, is frightened by the spiral of spending council is being pushed into.
Ward 2 Councillor Claude Berthiaume, meanwhile, is worried about the expectations a plan to fix all the roads would create. Citizens will think their roads will be fixed right away, when in fact many projects won?t be started for 10 years.
Once the budget draft is completed Feb. 12, there will be another round of consultation meetings.
This round, there will be only one meeting per night, with senior staff, all of council and the mayor present at each one.
?When they come to these meetings,? Callaghan said, ?they?ll really be able to zero in on that stuff.?
Citizens will also be able to zero in on any part of the city they choose starting as early as next week.
