Budget battle brewing
Public sector budgets are tricky affairs to manage at the best of times.
These are not the best of times for Medicine Hat city council.
If a municipality has the trifecta of trust between a plurality of constituents, elected officials and administrators, budget deliberations are straight forward.
But public trust is so strained the province has been called in to try to reestablish it with a wide-ranging investigation into how this city operates.
The line-item budget will inevitably be a document which provincial investigators will look to access as it has been announced city finances will be open to scrutiny. And, in such circumstances, it might be a good idea to allow for municipally elected officials to see it as well.
But judging by the response to Mayor Linnsie Clark’s request to see the line-item budget during Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting, it’s unlikely to be forthcoming.
“I’d like to see the line items of the budget. The entire budget is what I’d like to see,” said Clark in response to an offer to provide more information on the budget process.
The response from city administrators did not inspire confidence it’s a document which elected officials will see anytime soon. That will not fly when provincial investigators come looking for details as part of its investigation. A situation which this council sought and has now received.
A request for line-item budgets for a municipality of Medicine Hat’s size and complexity is something administrators dread and is a can of worms elected officials would rather not open. If there was trust in city hall, it might be seen as inappropriate to seek such a document that could cause such consternation.
But that trust simply doesn’t exist. Not between the public and city hall nor between the mayor and council.
The consequences of this lack of trust are the city could now be looking at another showdown with the mayor’s request for the detailed budget document.
And while the mayor’s previous requests for information on city spending and budget reallocations have been denied, not allowing city elected officials access to a line-item budget will be tough to justify.
During Wednesday’s meeting, several councillors showed appreciation of staff for the “narrative” of getting the budget to where it’s at but wanted further details.
The simple solution is to give council the full line-item budget document.
Hatters should expect city administration to oppose allowing local elected officials to see the granular detail of the budget.
Even more bizarrely, expect at least some city councillors to support preventing access to a line-item budget which they are explicitly tasked through provincial legislation with overseeing.
However, If the province’s investigation into city operations finds an issue with the budgeting processes, there will be consequences the city’s elected officials won’t be able to blame on anyone else.
The idea that city administration can override a budgeting decision made through a council vote will likely be one of those issues provincial investigators will be looking at.
If that is the case, Hatters should be extremely concerned as we enter the beginning of the end of this council’s term.
If Coun. Robert Dumanowski wants to make the case elected officials don’t have the right for detailed budget information as it interferes with city operations, he’ll have his chance to make that point to provincial investigators.
Likewise, with Coun. Cassi Hider’s assertions that Hatters following provincial rules governing freedom of information requests are somehow abusing the system.
If either decide to run for city council again or if other councillors agree with their respective stances, they’ll be able to run on such a platform in front of Hatters in mere months.
It’s bound to be a bumpy ride heading into the end of the year and into the next.