City faces ‘significant’ budget pressures

Some city departments are being forced to exceed their budgets, city councillors will be told when they meet Tuesday.

A report going to council says Sudbury Transit is facing “significant budget pressures,” including going over its budget for winter shelter maintenance because of heavy snowfall last winter.

Other pressures include salaries for bus operators, smaller-than-expected revenues and higher-than-expected costs for running the city's Handi-Transit service.

“However, Transit Services is currently reviewing Handi-Transit policies and procedures in an effort to improve the service for customers and reduce costs where possible,” the report says.

Councillors will also be asked today to consider spending $275,000 from its capital reserve fund to pay for the installation of surveillance cameras on all city buses. The move comes following a series of assaults on Sudbury Transit operators in the last few months.

“Video surveillance systems can deter crimes against operators as well as passengers, and help police identify and prosecute assailants,” the report says.

“Audio surveillance systems have similar benefits and also assist police and agency management in determining what was said during verbal altercations.”

Surveillance cameras offer other benefits, the report says, including:

-Reduced litigation costs, since the camera acts an objective witness, allowing you to see what happened, stopping false claims and helping with accident reconstruction;
-Driver training improvements, giving the city the ability to reinforce proper procedures and techniques; and,
-Reducing vandalism, often a result when passengers know video of their behaviour exists.

The city's fleet services is also expected to exceed its budget, a result of several snowplow and other major vehicle repairs, again due to heavy snowfall last winter.

That's on top of the overexpenditure of $1.25 million in the snowplowing budget, “largely a result of the increased requirement for salting, sanding, plowing and snow removal.”

Also looming on the horizon is a potential $600,000-$800,000 overage in the water/wastewater budget, due to 54 watermain breaks so far this year, compared to 47 at the same point in 2012.

That deficit could be mitigated, however, by $200,000 in savings to road repair contracts, and another $200,000 in savings resulting from improved energy efficiency efforts.