Transportation Committee
Public Works
There are 6 sub-departments in this group.
Roads and Traffic Maintenance
Traffic Management and Operational Support
Public Works General Manager’s Office
Transportation Planning
Fleet Services
Parking
We will commence this section with a short overview of the total department.
Overview:
Public Works wants to spend $234 million in 2011. Of this amount, revenue from fees and services and other recoveries will reduce the amount to a net expense of $136 million of your property tax dollars. It will take 1100 employees to run the operation, each employee costing an average of $81,026. Employment costs are projected to increase 10 percent for the years 2010 and 2011. There is no significant increase in employees since 2009. Please take note!
Roads and Traffic Maintenance
This sub-department is projecting Gross Expenses of $131 million, less recoveries and revenues, netting an expense of $116 million. They want to spend $55 million on employee costs, $43 million on material and services and $27 million on fleet services. There are 691 employees each costing the department $80,228 in 2011.
The requested average employee costs are 12 percent higher than 2 years ago (2009).
We should stop here and think about the unreasonable escalation of these expenses. In general, City of Ottawa employee costs have been increasing at an average of 6 percent every year since amalgamation. The employee expense is some 53 percent of the total City of Ottawa budget. That’s translates into an annual increase of some $70 million year. A 2.5 percent property tax increase this year will not cover this expense. There are ways to make up the shortfall, but it won't be from other expense reduction in other categories. It will be from User Fees, fines and penalties, gas tax or other government grants from the provincial and federal governments. It is obvious to all but senior management and councillors that something has to be done to reverse this dangerous trend.
Material costs in this department are “flat”since 2009, but Fleet costs are projected to increase 9 percent for the years 2010 and 2011. How does a sub- department spend $27 million in one year on fleet costs?
Well the answer is that $23 million is attributed to “fleet maintenance costs”. The 2011 costs are 12 percent higher than the close of business of year 2009. Is the rolling stock falling apart or what? Management needs to examine fleet costs soon.
General operations expenses are 11 percent higher than 2009.
These three expenses make up the lion share of the total expenses.
You should not have any difficulty recognizing the problem. You might want to ask your councillor more about the operations in this department.
Bill O’Malley
