County of Barrhead to move up budget public engagement

BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead residents will have an opportunity to voice their opinions on what they believe should be the municipality's budget priorities a little earlier than in years past.

Councillors approved the 2025 operating and capital budget timeline during their July 2 meeting.

County manager Debbie Oyarzun said that under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), municipalities must adopt an operating budget annually, adding that the process is complicated and involves multiple documents, such as multi-year strategic and capital plans.

"To have this all play out so we can have our budgets approved in a timely manner, is that we start the [public survey, available online and in hard copy] about two weeks earlier from Aug. 12 to Aug. 30, with in-person open houses for Aug. 27 and 28," she said. "That would give us time to bring back a 'What We Heard Report' to council on Sept. 17.

Before the public survey, the municipality held an annual open house in the spring.

However, due to dwindling attendance numbers, the council opted to move to a survey model in 2019 at the administration's suggestion. The questions are primarily multiple-choice and range from topics such as what services residents took advantage of, the importance residents placed on balancing the municipal budget and the importance the municipality should place on attracting new businesses and tourism. Respondents also have a chance to comment on topics not raised in the survey. 

Oyarzun said following the 'What We Heard' report, senior administration would take council's comments and develop a list of potential priority projects, bringing them back to an October council of the whole meeting for a budget priorities workshop.

"That is where we measure everything against our strategic plan, look at what we've heard, and see what has to be accomplished legislatively, warranty, et cetera., and council can add their thoughts on priorities," she said.

Oyarzun said the senior administration then refined the priority document, incorporating the council's input, before passing it on to the municipality's department heads for guidance as they prepare their budgets.

The document then gets returned to Oyarzun to ensure it aligns with the municipality's strategic plan and the priorities set by council.

She added that around this time, from early to mid-November, the municipality determines what cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) municipal staff will receive.

Oyarzun said it is about this time when council approves and staff adds to the joint municipal budgets, such as Barrhead and District Family Support Services, the Barrhead Public Library, Barrhead Regional Fire Services, the airport, and the regional landfill.

Following that, council takes another look at the document during another two-day budget workshop for further revision.

"Administration then rolls up those comments and revisions, creates a draft budget, and brings it back to the council for their Dec. 3 meeting, hoping that [councillors can approve] the interim budget by Dec. 17," Oyarzun said, adding the process is not complete. 

She added that in the New Year, staff would further massage the budget, plugging in up-to-date grant and assessment information and having final discussions with the council about taxation and mill rate before approving the final budget.

Coun. Walter Preugschas questioned whether the survey should be completed in the summer, saying his understanding is that surveys completed in the summer months yield better results.

Oyarzun replied that the county usually has few responses.

In the four years the county has asked residents to complete the survey, the number of responses has ranged from under 150 to just over 300, with not all respondents living, working or owning property in the municipality.

Oyarzun added that the survey was designed to gauge residents' opinions on budget priorities.

"It would be more artificial if we asked for the survey to be completed in January for the final budget in April," she said. "This is putting up front so you can get residents' feedback to set the foundation for your budget discussions."

Deputy Reeve Marvin Schatz suggested that if they wanted to, they could conduct a second survey in March to see if there was any difference.

Oyarzun agreed that was a possibility but said council needed to be mindful of the resources required to conduct a survey against the information received, adding that most surveys garner only about two per cent.

Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com