It takes a few years to see what the Mayor of Ottawa can do to beneficially advance the City. It obviously needs the help of the Councillors and an intelligent senior management team.
I have been analyzing the financials of the City of Ottawa and have covered the years since amalgamation in the year 2000. My September 2009 report was my last major investigation and financial analysis of the City of Ottawa. However, I have watched developments closely since that time.
Jim Watson, the Mayor, has been on board for more than 4 years (2010-2014) and recently re-elected to a second four year term. There were also many new Councillors elected in 2010 and re-elected along with Jim Watson. The majority of senior staff remains without change over many, many years.
So this is to alert you that a detailed financial analysis is underway for the first four year term of Jim Watson and the Councillors. There will be surprises and I will reveal financial statistics for the Taxpayers of Ottawa that the executive of the City of Ottawa will have to respond to.
Bill O'Malley
Monday, March 23, 2015
Monday, October 28, 2013
Ottawa Employee FTE Costs: 2014 Draft Budget
Is all well at Ottawa City Hall?
Well NO!
But there are changes and not the Mayor, nor the Councillors, have mentioned the trend.
This is “big news”.
Since amalgamation, the number of employees has increased far beyond the percentage growth of the City. Further, employee costs have simply gone through the roof since 2001.
In the first 8 years of amalgamation in Ottawa, between 72 and 80 percent of new, additional revenue was spent on employee costs. The balance of funds basically took care of inflation costs and the city remained in the same state as in the year 2000. Other Ontario municipalities spent approximately 43 percent of the new money on employee costs during the same period. If Ottawa had followed this trend, it would have some $500,000,000 more dollars in the bank. Or, the city could have used the funds for infrastructure costs etc.
Amalgamation did nothing for the City and its taxpayers and everything for the unions.
Well, over the past few years the trend has changed.
The Good News
The number of full time equivalent employees (FTE) has declined.
The Bad News
Employee Costs continue to rise at an unsustainable rate.There has always been a discussion about the number of employees at the City of Ottawa and I can simply state that the numbers communicated by Councillors and Staff have been misleading. The employee number is important because the employee costs per FTE are the largest expense.
The “average employee salary” and number of employee discussion should be terminated.
In its place, we should now speak of “average employee costs” PER UTILIZED NUMBER OF FTE.
This will give us a full picture of salary, benefits and pension adjustment costs which we can compare year after year, not only for the City of Ottawa, but in comparison with other municipalities. Fudging the numbers will become more difficult for councillors and staff.
In regards the number of employees at the City, it is important for you to know that 1 FTE can be split into 2 or 3 employees on a part-time or seasonal basis. So the number of employees becomes
meaningless. It is the FTE number that is important. At the city of Ottawa approximately 96 percent of the employees are full time, meaning FTE. The remaining number of employees in the part-time and seasonal category make up about 4 percent of the FTE count.
Which leads me back to the 2014 projection of Employee Costs.
What appears to be happening is that the employee growth at the City of Ottawa has not only been halted, but in decline.
HOWEVER, Average Employee FTE Costs have increased
dramatically over the past 3 years or so under Jim Watson’s autocratic rule over weak councillors.
And part of that employee cost increase is attributed to a sharp jump in Benefit Costs from an average of 20.5 percent to 23.2 percent, or better said, a healthy 10 percent increase in just a few years. What’s the reason for this? The taxpayers need an answer.
The 2014 budget is not a budget as it does not include Drinking Water and Wastewater revenue and expenses. These related employee expenses are hidden, as is the revenue. It is estimated that there are an additional 640 or so FTE employees in this Rate Supported Group. The proposed, extremely high, rate hikes for water and sewer are not included in the general budgeted annual tax increase rate. This is dishonest.
We need to know the Employee Costs and FTE numbers at Ottawa Hydro.
The same goes for Ottawa Housing and the golf course and any other related business.
The budget is not a budget unless it is a complete budget.
More budget information of the revenue steam, employee expenses and other expenses is required for some departments. Transit, for example, is one of the largest expenses and there is little financial information for this department. We need more!
In the 2010 adopted budget, the FTE employees numbered14,758.89 and the dollar figure for salary and benefits totaled $1,227,612,000.That’s a Billions and more of your dollars.
Of that 2010 employee cost, $33,502,000 was spent on “overtime” pay which has accelerated to $38,050,000 in the 2014 projected budget. Why!
The 2014 budget indicates a total FTE of 13,934.11 so you can now see the trend.
Now about FTE: This is the information that is needed to analyze employee costs. Just because the City of Ottawa authorizes a certain number of FTE per department, it dose not mean the department is utilizing that number. For example, the Auditor General is authorized for 8 FTE, but has only 7 FTE. These numbers should be published on a quarterly basis. That is: THE NUMBER OF AUTHORIZED FTE AND THE NUMBER UTILIZED PER DEPARTMENT. That would be pretty clear to the taxpayer. And to go further, the City should produce an FTE number that includes Ottawa Hydro, Ottawa Housing etc.
Employee Data
Now I will show you the summary employee cost numbers for the 2014 budgeted departments and following that are the individual department numbers. There is also a comparison to 2010 numbers
where available.
You can use the following figures to calculate the employee costs increase per FTE for 2014, mindful that all of the FTE numbers may not be utilized by the individual departments. In this case, the
increases would even be higher. Some of the calculations will shock you.
Employee 2014 Draft Summary
City of Ottawa Budget
|
DRAFT
| ||||
Summary 2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
Department
|
Empl Costs
|
Overtime
|
FTE
|
Empl Cost
|
FTE
|
Increase
|
Increase
| ||||
Finance-Economic Dev
|
$156,543,000
|
$1,770,000
|
1,399.37
|
$1,663,000
|
-24.75
|
Agriculture and Rural
|
$1,999,000
|
$22,000
|
19.00
|
-$35,000
|
0.00
|
Committee of Adjustment
|
$1,051,000
|
$20,000
|
12.00
|
$179,000
|
2.00
|
Emergency and Protective
|
$210,104,000
|
$3,931,000
|
1,814.80
|
$3,520,000
|
-18.48
|
Community and Social Service
|
$116,519,000
|
$135,000
|
1,359.11
|
$120,000
|
-25.00
|
Parks and Recreation
|
$64,656,000
|
$236,000
|
1,148.21
|
$2,843,000
|
27.85
|
Parks, Buildings and Grounds
|
$62,514,000
|
$1,542,000
|
892.91
|
$2,710,000
|
30.69
|
Crime Prevention
|
$315,000
|
$0
|
3.00
|
$5,000
|
0.00
|
Environment Committee
|
$47,586,000
|
$1,165,000
|
442.57
|
$1,438,000
|
-5.48
|
Planning Committee
|
$38,590,000
|
$555,000
|
407.27
|
$800,000
|
-1.50
|
Ottawa Police
|
$234,027,000
|
$6,094,000
|
1,930.30
|
$7,102,000
|
-5.00
|
Ottawa Transit
|
$245,813,000
|
$16,093,000
|
2,981.30
|
$5,747,000
|
-13.70
|
Transportation Committee
|
$90,314,000
|
$6,395,000
|
1,069.75
|
$1,985,000
|
-11.07
|
Ottawa Public Library
|
$32,052,000
|
$92,000
|
454.52
|
$733,000
|
0.00
|
Total
|
$1,302,083,000
|
$38,050,000
|
13,934.11
|
$28,810,000
|
-44.44
|
Does Not Include the following Employee Costs:
| |||||
Drinking Water
Wastewater
|
Ottawa Hydro
|
Other
| |||
Pension Adjustments
| |||||
Ottawa Housing
|
Individual Department information follows with a 2010 comparison where available.
More department information is required on Transit, Police, Library, Ottawa Housing, Ottawa Hydro
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2014
|
2010
|
2010
| |
Department
|
Employee
|
Overtime
|
FTE
|
Employee
|
FTE
|
Employee
|
FTE
|
Costs
|
$ Increase
|
Increase
|
Costs
| ||||
Finance-Economic Dev
| |||||||
Elected Officials
|
$9,355,000
|
$0
|
0.00
|
$219,000
|
0.00
|
$10,354,000
|
0.00
|
Auditor General
|
$923,000
|
$0
|
7.00
|
$13,000
|
0.00
|
$929,000
|
8.00
|
City Mgr Office
|
$513,000
|
$0
|
2.00
|
$15,000
|
0.00
|
$1,997,000
|
20.00
|
Corporate Services
|
$3,660,000
|
$13,000
|
35.50
|
$90,000
|
-0.50
| ||
Real Estate and Dev
|
$4,749,000
|
$50,000
|
42.50
|
$123,000
|
0.00
|
$3,995,000
|
42.50
|
Finance
|
$37,796,000
|
$107,000
|
442.31
|
$488,000
|
-5.00
|
$36,665,000
|
490.66
|
City Clerk
|
$22,108,000
|
$1,044,000
|
236.34
|
$1,503,000
|
-1.50
|
$16,689,000
|
197.84
|
Deputy City Mgr Office
|
$1,375,000
|
$1,000
|
10.00
|
$35,000
|
0.00
|
$858,000
|
7.00
|
Service Ottawa
|
$9,104,000
|
$48,000
|
100.73
|
-$115,000
|
-8.00
| ||
Human Resources
|
$12,808,000
|
$4,000
|
132.00
|
$260,000
|
0.00
|
$11,779,000
|
127.00
|
Information Technology
|
$31,039,000
|
$414,000
|
304.00
|
-$122,000
|
-10.25
|
$29,690,000
|
341.00
|
Corporate Communications
|
$4,295,000
|
$23,000
|
41.50
|
$105,000
|
-0.50
|
$10,581,000
|
132.23
|
Planning and Infrastructure
|
$1,476,000
|
$11,000
|
10.49
|
-$49,000
|
0.00
| ||
Econ. Dev and Innovation
|
$1,198,000
|
$5,000
|
11.00
|
$315,000
|
3.00
| ||
Rail Implementation
|
$4,668,000
|
$50,000
|
24.00
|
-$1,217,000
|
-2.00
| ||
Non Departmental
|
$11,476,000
|
$0
|
0.00
|
$0
|
0.00
|
$12,811
|
0.00
|
Total
|
$156,543,000
|
$1,770,000
|
1,399.37
|
$1,663,000
|
-24.75
| ||
Agriculture and Rural
| |||||||
Agriculture and Rural Total
|
$1,999,000
|
$22,000
|
19.00
|
-$35,000
|
0.00
|
$4,208,000
|
20.00
|
Committee of Adjustment
| |||||||
Committee of Adjustment Total
|
$1,051,000
|
$20,000
|
12.00
|
$179,000
|
2.00
| ||
Community and Protective
| |||||||
Emergency and Protective
| |||||||
General Manager's Office
|
$671,000
|
$1,000
|
5.00
|
$15,000
|
0.00
|
$261,000
|
2.00
|
Security and Emergency
|
$2,311,000
|
$7,000
|
22.00
|
$30,000
|
-0.33
|
$2,720,000
|
34.33
|
Fire Service
|
$129,860,000
|
$1,817,000
|
1,019.00
|
$2,413,000
|
-14.00
|
$109,741,000
|
1,004.00
|
Paramedics
|
$62,571,000
|
$1,842,000
|
593.45
|
$937,000
|
-1.00
|
$57,726,000
|
615.45
|
By-Law Enforcement
|
$14,691,000
|
$264,000
|
175.35
|
$125,000
|
-3.15
|
$12,949,000
|
171.57
|
Sub Total
|
$210,104,000
|
$3,931,000
|
1,814.80
|
$3,520,000
|
-18.48
|
$183,397,000
|
1,827.35
|
Community and Social Service
| |||||||
General Manager
|
$368,000
|
$0
|
3.00
|
-$85,000
|
-1.00
|
$269,000
|
2.00
|
Social Services
|
$46,456,000
|
$0
|
508.00
|
-$340,000
|
-15.00
|
$48,029,000
|
556.00
|
Child Care
|
$12,335,000
|
$0
|
169.90
|
-$590,000
|
-9.00
|
$12,936,000
|
193.10
|
Housing Service
|
$6,298,000
|
$60,000
|
58.40
|
$155,000
|
0.00
|
$5,664,000
|
63.40
|
Long Term Care
|
$47,129,000
|
$75,000
|
581.81
|
$890,000
|
0.00
|
$39,767,000
|
552.33
|
Strategic Comm. Initiative
|
$1,102,000
|
$0
|
10.00
|
$35,000
|
0.00
| ||
Community Funding
|
$897,000
|
$0
|
9.00
|
$30,000
|
0.00
| ||
Business Support
|
$1,934,000
|
$0
|
19.00
|
$25,000
|
0.00
| ||
Sub Total
|
$116,519,000
|
$135,000
|
1,359.11
|
$120,000
|
-25.00
| ||
Parks and Recreation Total
|
$64,656,000
|
$236,000
|
1,148.21
|
$2,843,000
|
27.85
|
$54,609,000
|
1,012.72
|
Parks, Bdlg and Grounds
|
$62,514,000
|
$1,542,000
|
892.91
|
$2,710,000
|
30.69
|
$52,841,000
|
818.80
|
Total Comm and Protective
|
$453,793,000
|
$5,844,000
|
5,215.30
|
$9,193,000
|
15.06
| ||
Crime Prevention
| |||||||
Crime Prevention Total
|
$315,000
|
$0
|
3.00
|
$5,000
|
0.00
| ||
Environment Committee
| |||||||
Infrastructure
|
$29,173,000
|
$428,000
|
295.67
|
$1,150,000
|
2.00
|
$24,365,000
|
294.17
|
Environment Policy
|
$553,000
|
$5,000
|
4.00
|
-$90,000
|
-1.00
| ||
Solid Waste
|
$10,785,000
|
$575,000
|
60.58
|
$373,000
|
-1.62
|
$7,006,000
|
102.25
|
Forestry Services
|
$7,075,000
|
$157,000
|
82.32
|
$5,000
|
-4.86
|
$6,162,000
|
73.90
|
Total
|
$47,586,000
|
$1,165,000
|
442.57
|
$1,438,000
|
-5.48
| ||
Planning Committee
| |||||||
Planning and Growth
|
$22,307,000
|
$205,000
|
218.15
|
$465,000
|
-1.00
|
$16,641,000
|
209.40
|
Planning and Growth
|
$22,307,000
|
$205,000
|
218.15
|
$465,000
|
-1.00
|
$16,641,000
|
209.40
|
Building Code-Ontario
|
$15,937,000
|
$350,000
|
186.12
|
$325,000
|
-0.50
|
$13,899,000
|
174.65
|
Housing Service
|
$346,000
|
$0
|
3.00
|
$10,000
|
0.00
| ||
Total
|
$38,590,000
|
$555,000
|
407.27
|
$800,000
|
-1.50
| ||
Ottawa Police
| |||||||
Police Total
|
$234,027,000
|
$6,094,000
|
1,930.30
|
$7,102,000
|
-5.00
|
$200,101,000
|
1,949.30
|
Ottawa Transit
| |||||||
Transit Total
|
$245,813,000
|
$16,093,000
|
2,981.30
|
$5,747,000
|
-13.70
|
$228,344,000
|
3,052.04
|
Transportation Committee
| |||||||
Public Works Gen Mgr Office
|
$220,000
|
$0
|
1.00
|
-$100,000
|
-1.00
| ||
Business Services
|
$2,495,000
|
$23,000
|
25.33
|
$20,000
|
0.00
| ||
Traffic Management
|
$11,883,000
|
$242,000
|
135.70
|
$415,000
|
-0.33
| ||
Road and Traffic Maintenance
|
$55,227,000
|
$5,492,000
|
684.72
|
$1,094,000
|
-8.42
|
$47,632,000
|
671.72
|
Parking Operation
|
$1,661,000
|
$21,000
|
17.00
|
-$25,000
|
-1.00
|
$2,246,000
|
31.01
|
Fleet Service
|
$15,793,000
|
$610,000
|
177.00
|
$411,000
|
-1.32
|
$11,114,000
|
145.00
|
Transportation and Planning
|
$3,035,000
|
$7,000
|
29.00
|
$170,000
|
1.00
| ||
Total
|
$90,314,000
|
$6,395,000
|
1,069.75
|
$1,985,000
|
-11.07
| ||
Ottawa Public Library
| |||||||
Library Total
|
$32,052,000
|
$92,000
|
454.52
|
$733,000
|
0.00
|
$28,767,000
|
450.02
|
Have a good day
Bill O'Malley
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