Priorities…a Council’s Legacy

I can’t believe it’s been a whole week since I posted on my blog.  The week just seemed to zoom by but when I review my notes from the week, I realize that council still continues to give fodder for the columnists.

• Campaign donations (a subject that’s close and dear to my wallet)
• Fish habitats and schools
• Dragon Boats races (in which my team, Fleet of Foote, won two awards – Yeah team!)

There is also the ridiculous debate over the extra funding needed for the Ottawa Police Service for the great job they did during the Sens playoff run.  I heard one councilor asked for it to be paid out of the reserve fund.  Funny, I thought they used all of the reserve funds to cover the budget deficit.  I think it should come out of the 30% increase in councillor office budgets they approved themselves this year.

But what I really wanted to touch on was the priorities that came out of the two month planning sessions held by council.  I will be presenting on July 9, 2007 public consultation session but I wanted to give a preview of my direction in case anyone wants to add their input.

What I see is that funding for arts, libraries, water and the environment are glaringly missing.  What this means is that the bulk of the next budget will go to the listed priorities and these other issues will have to funded differently than they are now.  Nothing wrong with that if that’s what this council believes is good for the city. 

What I suspect will happen however, is that when it come to budget time, these priorities will be tossed out the window in favour of the clamour from the various organizations to get their previous funding levels plus a little extra.

I hope that the other organizations presenting at the public consultation hearings will use the time to offer suggestions on where extra funds can come from to help their causes.  I also hope that other organizations use this opportunity to present to council other suggestions on where additional funding can be found and how to do more with less.

In the end, however, participants will present to mostly empty council member seats at council. But I will persist for no other reason but to find out what this priority means:

“Increase the appropriate delegation of authority to Steering Committees, ward Councillors and staff to improve Council’s ability to provide strategic direction and reduce transactional approvals”

Wasn’t strategic direction what this exercise was all about?