Canmore council has approved adding a new full-time staff member to its administrative team just two months outside of its regular budget process.
While elected officials voted to approve adding a risk assessment coordinator to its staff, it wasn’t without some apprehension that the request was coming in front of them in September instead of during budget committee meetings when new staff requests are normally made.
Councillor Sean Krausert said while he was convinced by the rationale, he wondered why administration was not waiting until budget time to request a new position.
“What this essentially does is circumvent the regular budget process,” he said.
Krausert also pointed out those funds for the new position this year – $30,000 – also result in an additional $100,000 in 2016 to keep that position as full time into the future.
“When it comes time to look at the 2016 budget, council may want to consider that as within the context of other full-time equivalent positions that may be requested for 2016,” added Mayor John Borrowman.
Michael Fark, general manager of municipal infrastructure, said the goal is to begin recruiting for the position immediately and administration wants to have usable data as a result of the dedicated function for the 2017 budget process.
Fark said there are a variety of reasons for the request to council, including the fact the municipality is now required to recognize its tangible capital assets and report on them.
Fark said a change to the Federal Gas Tax fund for this year also requires local governments to have an asset management plan or program and the Province is looking at requiring asset management by the end of this year.
“The regulatory environment around asset management is changing and that is because high levels of government are recognizing municipalities and want to ensure they do the job of asset management,” Fark said.
Canmore has not been without ongoing efforts to track assets with asset management software called WorkTech purchased in 2011, and a further capital project in 2015 for implementation.
“Unfortunately, four years into the process we are not near the full implementation of that program,” Fark said.
The reasons for the software not being fully implemented through all departments ranged from staff turnover to the flood inside the civic centre in January 2014 that significantly affected the Town’s information technology department. As a result, the software is also not being used to track changes or assist in asset management planning.
Fark said despite investing in the software it has not been implemented, it is not being used to its full potential and the municipality is not deriving any benefits from it.
Thus, he recommended creation of a full-time equivalent position in the finance department for the purpose of implementing a town-wide asset and risk management program with $30,000 in 2015 to come out of the capital project that has not been completed related to the WorkTech software.
