Stratford’s finance and labor relations committee approved the addition Tuesday of several new staff positions under the city’s community services department to Stratford’s 2023 draft budget, raising concerns among several councilors around the increasing potential tax burden on residents this year.
Despite voting to add several new staff positions to this year’s draft budget, some Stratford councilors still voiced concerns about the resulting financial burden for city taxpayers.
Part of Tuesday’s finance and labor relations committee budget discussions, councilors reviewed and approved the addition of three new full-time positions and bumped four other jobs from part to full time.
The three new positions – all under the umbrella of the city’s community services department – include a new supervisor of recreation services at a cost of roughly $139,000; a supervisor of facilities and buildings operations at a cost of just shy of $140,000; and a facilities clerk at a cost of about $85,000. The impacted part-time positions – one accessible transit driver and three regular transit driver – carry a combined additional cost of roughly $175,000.
While councilors agreed there’s a need for these new positions, a few were worried about the impacts of the added salary, benefits and other costs on the city’s 2023 budget levy, which, as of the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, carried a proposed 6.63 per cent hike from last year.
“I keep thinking about all the people in our city who, even raising the taxes by $200 a year or whatever, is a real hardship because, not only that, but (Canada Pension Plan contributions) are going up, (employment insurance) is going up. You’ve got the carbon tax, groceries, gas. I’m worried we’re going to end up with more people on the street. It’s scary,” Coun. Bonnie Henderson said.
count. Mark Hunter, the chair of the finance and labor relations committee, said his hope is the additional positions will “lead to increased revenue” that will eventually offset any tax increases.
“Short term, that’s not going to happen but that’s my hope long term. … I think if, down the line, we’re not seeing increased revenue, then maybe we need to rethink some of these (positions),” he said.
Department managers, as part of the staffing requests, provided their rationale.
The recreation supervisor role, community services director Tim Wolfe said, is needed to recruit and train new recreation staff and enhance the day-to-day supervision of workers at all city recreation facilities. Additionally, this new supervisor would be responsible for creating a cloud-based registration system to track the city’s recreation programs and facility rentals while collecting related data.
A supervisor of facilities and buildings operations, Wolfe added, would provide more oversight and staff support for the community services department, which recently took responsibility for the operation and maintenance of 10 additional city buildings, including city hall and the library, that previously fell under the purview of Stratford’s infrastructure and development services department.
“The one thing that is missing in this discussion is occupational health and safety. ….. Right now we’re spread pretty thin in terms of supervision staff, including (those who oversee) your seasonal staff, who are younger workers. … It’s very, very important to ensure we have proper supervision of those people so they’re safe in our work environment,” human resources director Anne Kircos said about the two proposed supervisory positions.
Brad Hernden, the city’s manager of recreation and marketing, noted that Stratford’s recreation programming has expanded tremendously in the roughly 15 years since he was hired. The city, he said as an example, now serves almost 1,000 “active adults or seniors” through its recreation programming – almost triple the number from 2007 – despite adding “zero staff resources.”
“So there’s a lot of extra work that goes with that and we’ve been operating with only three clerk-secretaries,” he said.
As for the transition from part-to full-time hours for the four transit drivers, department manager Michael Mousley told councilors it was more or less a matter of retaining the city’s current complement. By offering these employees full-time hours, they’re less likely to seek higher paying driver jobs in other nearby municipalities, Mousley said. He also noted that, as is the case in many sectors now, it’s becoming more difficult to recruit new drivers, especially for part-time hours.
The committee will continue to discuss additions to the budget, including seven more proposed positions in the city’s corporate services and infrastructure and development services departments, at its Feb. 21 budget meetings. Barring any major developments, the committee will have an opportunity to entertain last-minute changes before final approval by council at the end of the month or early March.