Brandonites outraged over budget process

COLIN CORNEAU/BRANDON SUN Enlarge Image

Brandon Mayor Shari Decter Hirst speaks during a public forum on the city's proposed budget.

BRANDON -- "I no longer have confidence in our mayor and city council as a team leading our city... I expect to see a clean sweep at the next election."

"We were duped. Bringing in the original budget as the infrastructure budget when that was a complete lie ... The mayor should step down right now. I'd like to see most of the council table cleared also. They should be ashamed of trying to dupe the residents of Brandon."

"It's really unfortunate we couldn't impeach the mayor as she is in way over her head, she definitely is not a leader I would want to follow."

"The taxpayers in Brandon will have to accept a lack of leadership until the next election in 2014... I can't imagine how this boondoggle of a budget can be forgotten during the next election. It would be incomprehensible to consider SDH being more than a one-term mayor."

Those are a representative sample of comments left by Brandonites on ebrandon.ca following this week's latest round of budget deliberations by Brandon city council. They reflect the growing sense of outrage felt by many Brandonites over the manner in which the city is being managed.

For those not familiar with Brandon's ongoing budget saga, a short recap is required.

In early December, city council unveiled a draft budget that called for an average property tax increase of 21.5 per cent. Though the budget plan was aggressively sold by Mayor Shari Decter Hirst as an infrastructure budget, it was quickly discovered that only $500,000 of the more than $8 million in new spending would go toward infrastructure.

The mayor then characterized it as a "growth" budget and, when that was debunked, as an "affordable housing" budget. Only days ago, she finally admitted the vast bulk of the proposed new spending would actually be directed toward consultants and salaries, including several new administrative positions and wage increases for other non-unionized staff.

Though the property tax increase has been whittled down significantly due to overwhelming public pressure, taxpayers have been outraged by the mayor's shifting stances relating to the budget.

As if the budget travails were not enough, it was recently revealed the city has fired Wade Ritchie, the president of the Brandon Professional Firefighters/Paramedics Association, despite the fact the union and city administration are engaged in negotiations for a new collective agreement.

The city refuses to disclose the reasons for Ritchie's firing, and he has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the Manitoba Labour Board.

The public's frustration came to a boil on Monday night, when about 200 Brandonites gathered inside Brandon's city hall to convey their concerns about the budget, while another 100 protested Ritchie's firing outside the building.

It was the angriest gathering I have witnessed at city hall in the 30 years I have followed politics in Brandon.

The editorial in Wednesday's Brandon Sun described the crowd as follows: "They didn't come armed with pitchforks, but there was palpable anger in the crowd, evidenced by catcalls and audible groans that followed several answers provided by our city leaders."

In response to the feedback they received on Monday, city council cut more than $3 million in budgeted spending at budget deliberations Tuesday. But even that is less than it seem -- half of the amount is deferred to next year. While that will reduce any tax increase, Brandonites will be disturbed by the manner in which city council arrived at the reductions.

Instead of cutting spending on items the public was concerned about, council cut spending on items such as police services and snow-clearing. User fees will be raised at the city-owned Sportsplex.

The spending on consultants, new hirings and salary increases was left untouched, however, and the mayor and council even managed to vote themselves a two per cent salary increase.

It's a compromise that is the real-life equivalent to spending less on food for the baby in order to ensure there is enough money for cigarettes and VLTs.

Angry Brandonites believe they were misled by the mayor for weeks about this budget. Now they are facing cuts in the services they rely on in order to finance spending they don't want.

It is no wonder many Brandonites are saying the 2014 municipal elections cannot come soon enough.

Deveryn Ross is a Brandon political commentator.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 9, 2012 A10