Richmond Hill library service may suffer as council considers 2019 budget
'We could see the likes of Detroit and go bankrupt,' Regional Councillor Carmine Perrelli said.

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 25, 2019
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill councillors agree on trying to to save taxpayers money, but they differ on where spending cuts should happen.

Council will revisit the 2.4 per cent increase in the 2019 operating budget of the Richmond Hill Public Library Board, Budget chair Joe DiPaola said at the budget meeting Feb. 19.

DiPaola made the comment after a presentation made by Louise Procter Maio, chief executive officer of the library board, who demonstrated the impacts on the library operations from the 2.4 cent budget increase.

Council adopted a $217,100 operating budget increase -- 2.4 per cent -- for the library board at the last meeting on Feb. 12, which was drastically lower than what the library board originally proposed.

The library board recommended a $533,800 increase, representing a 5.9 per cent hike, in order to cover the costs of maintaining the existing level of service and enhancing services for the growing needs, according to the draft report.

“A 2.4 per cent budget increase will not cover the committed salaries and benefit increases and as such service levels will be required to reduce,” Maio said.

It may result in the elimination of several current positions at the central and Oak Ridges libraries, and make it impossible for the library board to hire the three new positions that were planned for the computer lab and maker space in the new Oak Ridges Library.

In order to adjust to the budget cuts, Maio said, Central Library may have to halt its Sunday services.

While council voted unanimously to receive Maio’s report, they were split over whether council should reconsider the 5.9 per cent operating budget increase.

Mayor Dave Barrow expressed his concerns about the impact on current level of services and asked staff to come back with an adjusted operating budget increase that factors in keeping the existing staff complement.

Calling the 2.4 per cent increase “short-sighted,” Ward 5 Coun. Karen Cilevitz said she did not support the cuts to the library board budget. “This is a slippery slope and I don’t believe we should be on it at all.”

Ward 4 Coun. David West and Ward 3 Coun. Castro Liu spoke about the importance of the library services to the community, supporting a higher budget increase.

Ward 6 Coun. Godwin Chan and Regional Councillor Carmine Perrelli spoke in favour of the 2.4 per cent budget increase.

“I’ll work with you, with any departments, to try to find efficiencies and savings,” Perrelli said. “If we don’t work within those inflationary pressures, we could see the likes of Detroit and go bankrupt. It happened, ladies and gentlemen. It could happen again. I don’t want it to happen here.”

Additional assistants to regional councillors

As council looked at the recommended operating budget from department to department, Mayor Barrow put forward a motion to remove the new staffing request for council support from the draft budget for the corporate and financial services department.

The department recommended to provide additional administrative staff to the two regional councillors, DiPaola and Perrelli, according to the draft budget. The cost of the two administrative assistant positions are estimated at $142,000 ($71,000) annually.

The draft also proposes to increase the budget for local councillors’ administrative support by $10,000 for each councillor, totalling $60,000 annually.

The mayor moved to delete the two staff support requests -- costing $202,000 combined -- from the draft operating budget in order to increase efficiencies.

The motion failed to carry as Ward 2 Coun. Tom Muench, Coun. DiPaola, Coun. Perrelli, and Coun. Liu voted against it. Coun. Greg Beros was absent.

Perrelli spoke strongly in opposition of Barrow’s motion, noting the regional councillors only have one assistant each while mayor has two full-time assistants and one part-time.

“All we’re asking for is the same service level as the mayor currently receives,” Perrelli said. “When the mayor is not here … we have the same responsibilities at those times, and we need the same services.”

DiPaola backed up his fellow regional councillor’s comment, pointing out the necessity to increase the staff support so that Richmond Hill will be more competitive with Markham and Vaughan, especially through communications and media strategies.

“In Richmond Hill, if we’re going to get the subway to Yonge and Highway 7, we have to be able to compete, we have to be able to get in that same arena, and do just as good a job in stating our case,” he said.

West, who voiced full support for the mayor’s motion, found the new staffing request was at odds with the efficiency improvement that council is working to achieve.

He added that the $60,000 additional staff support for councillors, $10,000 each, would not make a positive difference.

“I think frankly, as council members, if we’re going to be taking the leadership to find efficiencies and find places to cut, find trims here and there throughout the budget process, adding something like this is not taking the leadership we need to be taking,” West said.

Council is expected to make a final decision on the 2019 operating budget at the special council meeting on Feb. 26.

You can share your thoughts and suggestions about the operating budget at budget@richmondhill.ca; or 905-771-8800, ext. 3656.