In his years as one of the City of North Bay's most steadfast critics, Don Rennick has authored dozens of letters to the editor, run as a 2018 city council candidate, and has been silenced, muzzled, excluded, and told to "go FOI himself," by the upper management at City Hall.
Rennick made himself a frequent foil for the Al McDonald administrations with regard to budgets, the sale of North Bay Hydro, and the Invest North Bay controversy over the past dozen years. A request from the former mayor for Rennick to apologize for comments made about the senior staff in order to present before council was refused and a stalemate ensued. Rennick focused on his letters while business as usual continued at City Hall.
This new council gained favour with the populace at election time by promising easier access and a more open and transparent way of doing business. Mayor Peter Chirico spoke in debates last autumn about the importance of public presentations in our democracy. This council invited us to speak to them, whether publicly in council chambers or privately via social media or any other manner of communication.
Tuesday, Rennick took the members of the council up on their offer. For the first time in years, Rennick completed a presentation without an interruption from the chair warning him against procedural or code of conduct transgressions. Rennick was permitted to speak his mind. He is still abrasive, opinionated, and likely, not everyone's cup of tea. But, he spoke. Respectfully. And, the council, in turn, listened respectfully before engaging Rennick in a short back-and-forth following his presentation.
Rennick has often said that municipal budgets must be prepared with the most up-to-date information.
"An important piece of information is the actual expenses from the previous year," he said. "Making decisions regarding the line items or for the budget as a whole, one needs to have last year's actual expenses for comparison. What we are doing now is comparing an estimate of expenses for next year to budgeted revenue collected last year...It is imperative that budget deliberations don't start until the previous year's figures are available.
"Staff can work on preparing the budgets using their own timetable but any budget discussions at the committee or council level are largely a waste of time unless we have the prior year's figures available."
See related Rennick opinion piece: Cutting spending 'a foreign concept among staff and council members'
Rennick reminded the council members that he had attended the two public budget meetings in the week prior. "The process is a repeat of what's been going on for years. In the past, failure to provide direction to staff when setting the budget has invariably led to a budget increase that is unacceptable to taxpayers.
"This leaves council members scrambling to find ways to reduce those budgets to an acceptable amount. This is not the job of council. Council's job is to set the policy and the staff's job is to follow it. The CAO must be instructed to convey to department heads the wishes of council regarding acceptable budget increases and it's up to staff to facilitate those instructions."
A recent letter to the editor featured Rennick's response to the council's recent approval of an operational review.
"No one has discussed staffing levels and why employee numbers have increased by 10 per cent over the last four years," Rennick continued, "and the fact that compensation costs have risen by over $1 million. We don't have any more customers. Services haven't changed. Are customers really getting value for their money?"
Rennick next took issue with the proposed use of nearly $825,000 in capital reserves to reduce water rates that later Tuesday passed the committee phase and will move to the council level for approval on Jan. 17.
See: Water bills rising but use of reserves will lessen impact
"Reserves and their manipulation have been an ongoing obsession for years, largely to the detriment of taxpayers," he observed. "This is money the water users have contributed previously. So, let's not pretend that this is somehow free money. The purpose of reserves is to provide a cushion for unexpected or one-time events. Part of the process in determining reserve levels should be to ascertain exactly what disasters we are guarding against — and what would be their estimated cost."
Rennick concluded by calling for the budget process to start over again for this year and to have staff come back with a zero per cent increase budget.
"As a new council with many new faces, I suggest that this is the perfect time to change the financial course of this city and focus on protecting the interests of the taxpayers. Setting budgets is by far the most important thing this council will do in this year and in any year. The current practice of applying deadlines — which are unreasonable — or do not allow sufficient time for the perusal of reports or discussions with staff is not in the best interest of taxpayers."
Coun. Justine Mallah thanked Rennick for his presentation, saying, "I really appreciate your presentation and your passion for fiscal responsibility," before engaging the presenter with a question further clarifying the appropriate use of reserves.
See Don Rennick's full presentation below:
