Brampton mayor does a 180 on staff costs, for herself
After she slammed the city’s labour costs, Linda Jeffrey’s staff costs could go up 10 per cent in a budget that will increase the city portion of the tax bill by 4.9%.

TheStar.com
Dec. 8, 2015
San Grewal

Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey doesn’t seem to be following her own directives about trying to bring the city’s ballooning labour costs under control.

A hike of nearly 10 per cent in staff costs in the mayor’s office is part of a proposed budget that will impose a 4.9 per cent tax hike on the city’s share of homeowners’ 2016 property tax bills.

After slamming City Hall staff costs early in the year, following her 2014 election win, Jeffrey oversaw the termination of former chief administrative officer John Corbett in March, on the same day he had ignored her request to freeze the salaries of non-union staff during 2015 budget deliberations.

The proposed budget for 2016, provisionally approved Monday, includes a 9.6 per cent increase for “labour expenditures” in Jeffrey’s own office. Her staff said Tuesday that they didn’t have details about the increased staff costs, but were working to provide them.

Earlier in the year, Jeffrey called in former Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter to conduct a full financial review of the city’s books, after Jeffrey very publicly questioned the city’s financial management under former mayor Susan Fennell.

McCarter’s report raised alarms about payroll costs, stating that, “Over the 10 years from 2004 to 2013, the amount of property taxes that Brampton collected has increased by 120%. Coincidentally, payroll costs have increased by an almost identical 121% over the same 10-year period … even though the City has been successful in collecting significantly more property taxes over the years, over 90% of total property tax revenues each year have consistently gone to fund the City’s payroll costs.”

The impact of the proposed 4.9 per cent city increase for 2016, which will go before council for final approval Wednesday, would be softened by a small increase for Peel Region’s portion of the tax bill of just 0.7 per cent, and a zero per cent increase for the provincial education portion. Overall, Brampton residents would see a 2.9 per cent increase in their taxes.

“I believe that staff has worked very hard to bring forward a budget that respects our taxpayers while continuing to meet the needs of our rapidly growing city,” Jeffrey said in an email addressing the proposed tax hike.

Another issue in the budget was the lack of detail about deferred projects that were listed in the budget in the past. Brampton councillors have complained for years that approved projects meant to benefit the quality of life for constituents had to be postponed because there was no money for them.

It’s not clear what sacrifices have been made to keep costs manageable.

“Historically, there has been a deferred project list included in budget discussions that documented projects the City would like to complete but for which there is no budget,” a city spokesperson responded, to questions about the missing details. “For the 2015 and 2016 Budgets, this list was put on hold pending the outcome of the long-term financial master plan.”

A broader plan detailing what the city needs and can afford to do over the next 20 years won’t be ready until the end of next year, the spokesperson said.