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The devil's in the details Summary budget not enough After the Kawartha Lakes operating budget for 2002 had been passed, City Council passed a follow-up motion. The resolution was to have municipal staff prepare and send out to whichever councillors wanted it, the line by line items that made up the operating budget. This is a 500 page document which gives the details that went into the so-called "roll-up" budget which was presented to, and voted on by Council. At least one councillor, O'Reilly, has no intention of actually reading the 500 page tome. We are sure there will be others who aren't interested in the details either. In a bizarre way, this probably makes sense unless councillors are also fond of closing barn doors after the horses are out on the highway. The time to look at the details was before the budget was passed, not after. This raises the question of how councillors think they are doing their jobs responsibly without caring about the specifics that went into a $120 million budget. If a lawyer, for instance, tried a case having read only an executive summary of the cornerstone document upon which his client was relying, he would probably be sued by his client for negligence. By not caring about the details, Council has also shirked their responsibility to be policy makers. Council had sent the draft budget back to staff to pare down expenses to come up with a zero tax increase. Staff responded as they were instructed. However, they could have produced a budget that would have given tax reductions. How did staff decide which tax-saving measures would not be presented to Council? The answer to that question is, they made policy decisions. Something that Council, if it is doing its job, is supposed to do. Is it nickle and dimeing to suggest that councillors should care about the details? Of course it is. But those nickles and dimes belong to the ratepayers. Councillors are supposed to be the trustees of those nickles and dimes. If City bureaucrats can prepare a 500 page document, Council should find the time to read it.‡ Reprinted from The Red Rock Eye Opener |