Editor, The Record:
Budgeting should start with council representing the goals and objectives of the community and not just their own objectives.
Many items in this budget show a lack of transparency. It leaves the citizens uninformed and creates distrust towards the creators involved.
As the information is not available in the detailed budget document, I am curious where the revenues collected are put. What, in detail, are the expenses paid for and from what account are they being paid from? In almost every case, project expenses do not equal the amount of revenue created by the project in question.
Bylaws that pertain to high financial involvement should be created with more public input and not just council’s.
The action taken by the Public Safety Inspection Team (PSIT) and the information on the district’s website clearly demonstrates the team was created to find controlled substance properties and not for public safety. We have an RCMP Crime Prevention Office in place. For any other building inspection issues we have a department for that. This troublesome and costly empire building needs to be stopped. The controlled substance property bylaw should never have been created and must be abolished immediately.
I am also asking that no extra police officer or firefighters are hired as these trades are involved in this team.
There are many other questionable and high increases in this budget which need to be addressed, such as utilities, planning department and administration. In order to bring our district’s finances under control we must foremost become more responsible and effective with the resources we presently have in place.
We all need to do a better job.
Othmar Kagi
Mission