More complicated projects requiring more expertise have led to more spending on consultants, Sarnia’s top bureaucrat says.
Chris Carter recently gave that explanation to council, responding to concerns from Coun. Bill Dennis about $3.7 million budgeted for various city capital initiatives.
That’s up from $1.3 million a year ago, Dennis noted.
“I don’t want to speculate, but where is it going to be next year?” he asked.
A breakdown from city staff, requested by Dennis, showing where money is budgeted for consultants this year includes about $2.5 million for design and architectural work on projects like shoreline protection, wasterwater pollution control center improvements, sewer system upgrades, and master plans for city parks and its harbour.
There are also projects on the docket requiring planning expertise for the location of a proposed multi-use recreation facility, for a city asset management project, a flood mitigation study, and to develop a stormwater rate for the city.
Legal fees for the city’s integrity commissioner, and environmental fees for road rehabilitation and other projects also contribute to the consulting-budget sum that’s about 8.5 per cent of the city’s $43.5-million overall capital budget.
It’s normal for the percentage to be in the range of 15-20 per cent, Carter said.
“That’s telling me we’re doing a lot that we can in house, as much as we can.”
The city doesn’t have the expertise in house when it comes to executing some complicated projects like bridge building, Carter said.
“We don’t have architects here, we don’t have design engineers on board.”
Hiring those people on as employees would cost more long-term than contracting out projects as needed, he said.
“It’s actually a good thing you’re actually (contracting this) expertise,” he said.
Sarnia has the full-time equivalent of 668 people on payroll in 2023, the city’s draft operating budget says. That includes police, part-time and student workers, and is up slightly from 664 in 2022.
In engineering, there are 22.85 full-time equivalent staff, up from 22 in 2022.
An extra position in design engineering was approved by council last July, and an administrative position was reformatted to split its time 85-15 with engineering and transit, according to the city’s operating budget.
“Our engineering department … does need to be built up because we do need to have better expertise in house so that we can call on them when we need to,” Coun. Anne Marie Gillis said.
Dennis proposed during budget deliberations earlier this month reducing the $3.7 million consultant budget by half. The vote was lost, 7-2. Gillis sided with Dennis in the losing effort.
The conversation was similar to one Dennis initiated a year ago, arguing consultant dollars would be better used hiring people locally because, he said, local people know better how to tackle local issues
“This is very real cash which is depleting our resources and leaving us less money to spend on other projects,” he said earlier this month.
Cutting spending on contracted, project-specific expertise would mean cutting back on the actual capital work done, Carter said, noting contracting expertise for big projects is normal practice.
“I don’t want to say it’s cut and dry, but it is pretty cut and dry,” he said. “Either we go ahead with the extra projects or we don’t. We just don’t have the expertise or the resources in house.”
Consulting costs vary depending on the year, he said, pointing out the $13.5-million Centennial Park remediation project that finished around 2017 as something that likely cost a lot of money in consulting costs.
Some years, like 2019, have been less demanding, when the city spent about $160,000 on consultants, and 29.8 million on capital projects overall.
Regardless, the amount spent on consultants comes from reserves and has no bearing on setting the tax levy, Carter said.
That sealed the deal for Coun. Dave Boushy, who voted with the rest of council against Dennis’ motion.
“Anything we take from the capital is not going to affect the budget, so why are we doing the motion now?” he asked. “You’ve got a lot to places to cut from the budget, but it’s not the capital.”