20% property tax increase coming!

[NOTYOU]

Outcome??? I got there at 4:30...only one woman in attendance...about 1/2 hr later two more showed up...left at dinner break...*bleep* off with meeting, *bleep* off with attendance...but, everyone will be bitching when they get their tax notices next year...boohoo...

[jbell]

Outcome??? I got there at 4:30...only one woman in attendance...about 1/2 hr later two more showed up...left at dinner break...*bleep* off with meeting, *bleep* off with attendance...but, everyone will be bitching when they get their tax notices next year...boohoo...

I was one of the those that showed up...yes I left at the dinner break as what I was hearing for the first 1/2 of the meeting it was all I could do to keep quite (I just wanted to burst out and say "FORGET REPLACING THE FRIGGING CARPET...PAINT THE CONCRETE FLOOR AT CITY HALL AND THE POLICE STATION & THE AMOUNT OF MONEY SPENT ON STUDIES & SURVEY"S...REALLY??"!!!!)so I took my info home to try to make sense of this mess we have with the endless amount of money being spent by our DLC. Believe me I feel the same as you do about the meeting, poor attendance & yes I agree everyone will be complaining at tax time next year. I will be going through the info I received last night and you bet I will have a number of question that I will be e-mailing for answers. Not that it will change much at the DLC but at least I can try somewhat to wrap my head around it and deal with it as best I can as they will do what they want regardless of what we want.
It just amazes me how they want to spend our tax dollars. Like someone mentioned earlier on here the DLC must think all people that own homes in Lake Country are rich as they spend like we are!!
And again why are these meetings not broadcast through the TV like they used to be so those that cannot make these early meetings can at least hear what went going on. Maybe it's because the DLC can't afford it!!

[Steve CTO]

Let's STOP talking about this tax increase and do something about it - How about a tax revolt? If we do nothing about this tax increase it will pass and then it will be to late... Lake Country should look at taking the funds from i.e. Pelmewash parkway - Art
Gallery and any other non essentials services maybe cut staff?

The Lake Country residents should have a meeting to see how we can STOP Lake Country from this increase, Kelowna is only increasing taxes by 2%.

[RVThereYet]

Let's STOP talking about this tax increase and do something about it - How about a tax revolt? If we do nothing about this tax increase it will pass and then it will be to late... Lake Country should look at taking the funds from i.e. Pelmewash parkway - Art
Gallery and any other non essentials services maybe cut staff?

The Lake Country residents should have a meeting to see how we can STOP Lake Country from this increase, Kelowna is only increasing taxes by 2%.

That meeting was last Tuesday and only 4 or so people showed up to question Council on it.

[omisimaw]

Although this job description for a Financial Service Director is from a current posting for the City of Kelowna it will give you an idea of where the decisions on $$$ are actually made and come from... Council may go to staff and say "Hey we would like this to happen" but it is up to the staff to actually put it together...

1. Provide City Council, City Manager, and Divisional Directors with recommendations and financial advice
- Make funding recommendations
- Review and develop revenue opportunities
2. Support Financial Services Managers & Staff in the completion of their tasks
- Create and support a teamwork environment
- Motivate staff to provide creative problem solving and opportunities for advancing ideas and process improvements
- Ensure efficient system availability and usage
- Seek out and implement best practices for all Financial Services areas
3. Provide vision and support in the development of both short and long term growth management plans
- Guide development of 20 Year Servicing Plan and Financing Strategy
- Support preparation and presentation of 10 Year Capital Plan, 5 Year Financial Plan and Utility Models
4. Ensure adequate controls in place for the protection and preservation of city assets
- Tax & cash collection, utilities, transit & parking revenue administration
- Treasury and investment management
- Annual budget process, annual audit process and annual report preparation and distribution
- Reserve and debt administration
5. Manage budget:
- Operating budget: $2.3 million Responsibility:Primary
- Department Operating budget: $250 million Responsibility: Contributory
- Corporate Capital budget: $258 million, Responsibility: Contributory
- Who has final spending authority: Director for primary operating budget and individual department managers for the contributory portion
6. Manage human resources:
- 6 Direct Reports, 41 departmental reports
- Develop, inspire, hire, assess, discipline and reward employees.
Job Summary/Basic Function:
The Financial Services Director provides leadership and direction for the Financial Services Department to allow Managers and Staff to effectively and efficiently complete their duties. To ensure that the City's financial interests are considered, protected and/or enhanced in all relationships with our customers.

If services and infrastructure have deteriorated to the point of hefty tax increases then it is not the elected ones who are to blame.

In the end they truly only are but puppets at the hands of the staff.

[LoneWolf_53]

If services and infrastructure have deteriorated to the point of hefty tax increases then it is not the elected ones who are to blame.

In the end they truly only are but puppets at the hands of the staff.

...................ummmmmmm........... hold on there, not quite that simple. For starters the statement does indeed have some merit, which is why I said "fumigate the whole place".

You have however missed the mark on one of the most important issues to do with DLC. That would be their ridiculous track record of prioritizing projects.

If you look over the description of financial services director, you might note that, nowhere does it mention it being that person's responsibility, to determine what projects get prioritized for funding.

I'm sure the planning department bears most of the blame in that regard, but ultimately would it not be the elected ones who give a yeah or nay as to what gets done, and in what order?

Even if it isn't, would it not be incumbent upon them, as the elected officials, to kibosh any plans that seem frivolous or stupid in the current time frame?

The buck has to stop somewhere, and to my thinking, that's with those given their positions during an election. After all the financial services director, planners etc. work for the mayor, council, and tax payer, not the other way around no?

[omisimaw]

If services and infrastructure have deteriorated to the point of hefty tax increases then it is not the elected ones who are to blame.

In the end they truly only are but puppets at the hands of the staff.

...................ummmmmmm........... hold on there, not quite that simple. For starters the statement does indeed have some merit, which is why I said "fumigate the whole place".

You have however missed the mark on one of the most important issues to do with DLC. That would be their ridiculous track record of prioritizing projects.

If you look over the description of financial services director, you might note that, nowhere does it mention it being that person's responsibility, to determine what projects get prioritized for funding.

I'm sure the planning department bears most of the blame in that regard, but ultimately would it not be the elected ones who give a yeah or nay as to what gets done, and in what order?

Even if it isn't, would it not be incumbent upon them, as the elected officials, to kibosh any plans that seem frivolous or stupid in the current time frame?

The buck has to stop somewhere, and to my thinking, that's with those given their positions during an election. After all the financial services director, planners etc. work for the mayor, council, and tax payer, not the other way around no?

In the end it is the mayor and council that cast the votes but their information, all of their information, is provided by staff so their decisions are based solely on what the staff put before them.
The staff work for the tax payers as do the elected officials. The elected officials have no HR responsibility over staff and can not and do not get involved in staffing matters, so no staff, union members or exclusions, do not work for the elected ones.
The elected ones could be in office for as short as one term and near 1/2 of that is spent getting up to speed on what has been going on and who is who in the zoo.
As you are well aware, I am sure, elected officials seldom is ever all agree on issues. At best they come to a consensus and agree to disagree more often than not. When the latter takes place they simply put things back to staff to come up with a revised edition or better yet order up some worthless tax dollar waste of money survey or study to end up with basically the same information only in a slightly different format. They are then back at the table agreeing to disagree until such time as they schmooz one another enough to get that 1 vote to pass or fail the issue/project.
Take another look at the job description and note this is for a Financial Director, this person normally reports to the CFO but has a ton of control on $ of projects and would be the one that has to answer to Council on the $ implications of any projects that go forward for consideration. If you look back on the minutes of Committee of the Whole or Council meetings you will see the list of those in attendance. If say a major roads project was being presented to Council the staff involved Director of Planning, Manager or Director of Engineering and Roads, CFO or a Director of Finance... the report has been distributed to Council prior to the meeting (usually less than a week), Council review the report and then when it comes up on the meeting Agenda they call up the people responsible and lay on the questions. So if the staff want something to be passed they are not likely to put forward a report they know the council will flat out reject. The CAO often has the final say on what reports even go to Council. So there is a ton of "politics" that take place behind the scenes. There is also a ton of inter action between staff and the various outside interests and the staff are the ones who tender the jobs.
Love your fumigation theory as top heavy local governments are ridiculous and as local governments are judged by their population size base you start to wonder why their are so many Chiefs and never enough full time workers. It is always interesting in government type jobs how there are scads of on call, part time, temporary and casual type jobs as opposed to the reg full time Of course the need is for more full time regular types to get the work done but when do you ever and I mean ever see a part time manager. Or seasonal even or project based temp. When you consider the manager also consider the assistant to the manager/director and the assistant manager to the manager/director. Looking at the organization chart for DLC gives you a pretty good idea of the management structures and reporting lines.https://lakecountry.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentDisplay.aspx?ID=25448 Looking at this you can see how many persons see a report say written by a roads superintendent ... it would go through 3 people before it goes to council, possibly 4 if it involved $'s it would be seen by 1 if not 2 top levels in the finance department and might even be reviewed or researched by next down the list the financial analyst in this case. and you wonder why things take so long to go through the process! jeesh!
Prioritizing projects also fall to the staff and to the managers and directors. When you get movement in the staffing this can bury a project as well when the manager and the director can not see eye to eye on how and when well that just bottlenecks things even more and takes a forever amount of time for the CAO to step in.
Council and mayors do not get involved, they do not ever go on the floor to tell staff how to do their jobs.
There are not many opportunities within the valley for promotion at these levels so you normally see lifers especially in the smaller local government operations. Kelowna is larger so both Kelowna and Vernon would be promotional ops for someone that has experience from DLC. West Kelowna has just lost one of their senior guys to Victoria so now this would be something that someone from a smaller community would consider as a promotion. Not too many make it from the floor to management as local government around here do not do much promotion from within bridging the union to exclusion jobs. Not saying it does not happen but if you look at the movement you see it being bee bopping around gradually increasing the size of the operation and the responsibilities / budget sizes ...

[NOTYOU]

The turnout for last Tuesday's meeting showed exactly how many concerned citizens there are in Lake Country...FOUR...for all the hoopla and opinions voiced on this forum, the turnout was pathetic...no wonder Council takes matters into their own hands...I am thoroughly disgusted with the outcome and there are only three people in the community worthy of my respect and all three are women...none of the men seem to have the balls to voice an opinion at Council meetings, let alone show up...

[omisimaw]

Used to be one guy that attended every meeting. Guess he has finally had his fill of the bickering back and forth and the nonsense .... also used to be a reporter from the local paper but wonder if they even show up

[NOTYOU]

Just out of curiosity...when I filled out the Monkey Survey for Tomorrowland,

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Transportation4Tomorrow

I requested emailed info for questions I had...and in typical DLC fashion, I have not received a response...anyone else have the same non-response...still waiting on the pamphlet for the info on the $250 tax increase to arrive in my mailbox...hmmm, maybe they lost my address...

[RVThereYet]

Just out of curiosity...when I filled out the Monkey Survey for Tomorrowland,

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Transportation4Tomorrow

I requested emailed info for questions I had...and in typical DLC fashion, I have not received a response...anyone else have the same non-response...still waiting on the pamphlet for the info on the $250 tax increase to arrive in my mailbox...hmmm, maybe they lost my address...

It will be included with your Property Tax Bill you will receive shortly before said taxes are due, which will include the $250 increase already as well - The pamphlet will explain in detail why it was necessary to increase your taxes by that amount.

[Rwede]

November can't come fast enough for the taxpayers of Lake Country.

Please Lake Country voters, don't squander that opportunity to turf these tax-and-spend idiots from office.

Municipal governments MUST learn that they are accountable to the citizens who pay their way.

[NOTYOU]

still waiting on the pamphlet for the info on the $250 tax increase to arrive in my mailbox...hmmm, maybe they lost my address...

It was supposedly mailed to all residents in November...damn Canada Post!!! But, the DLC did manage to send my Property Tax Notice of Assessment to the correct address...

[RVThereYet]

I suppose I don't even have a (mayor) problem with $250 / year towards roads, transportation etc. because after all, many of our roads need maintenance/repairs or even replacing in some cases. The problem I have is the quality of the work we receive for our money. Take a look at, or better yet, take a drive over, the interlocking brick crosswalks we have on Main Street. They are all "dipping" and are acting as "speed-dips", poor compacting likely is the probable cause. Compare ours on Main Street to Kelowna's, for example on High Road just off Glenmore going towards Clifton. They have the identical interlocking brick crosswalks on High Road, they also have been there for a number of years (just like ours), plus I would bet that High Road sees at least 2-3 times the traffic that Main Street sees, yet theirs (Kelowna) are smooth to drive over without that reverse speed-bump effect we have on Main Street. If DLC work crews do that same kind of "quality" work with the rest of our infrastructure improvements, we are all in trouble and will be looking at even more increases in the future to correct the work that is planned now. Another fine example of "quality" DLC work crews work would be OK Centre Road East between Camp and Robinson Road (going North), when they dug up OK Centre E. to put in the water main connections (or was it sewer?) onto the adjacent properties, the repair patch work is awful, you get a jolt up the spine every 100' when driving the section of the road.

I think that along with our water quality issues and the resulting Master Water Plan (Millions!), plus this Transportation for tomorrow (more millions), Lake County will become a very expensive place (in terms or Property Taxes) to live over the next say 10-15 years.

[LoneWolf_53]

I suppose I don't even have a (mayor) problem with $250 / year towards roads, transportation etc. because after all, many of our roads need maintenance/repairs or even replacing in some cases. The problem I have is the quality of the work we receive for our money. Take a look at, or better yet, take a drive over, the interlocking brick crosswalks we have on Main Street. They are all "dipping" and are acting as "speed-dips", poor compacting likely is the probable cause. Compare ours on Main Street to Kelowna's, for example on High Road just off Glenmore going towards Clifton. They have the identical interlocking brick crosswalks on High Road, they also have been there for a number of years (just like ours), plus I would bet that High Road sees at least 2-3 times the traffic that Main Street sees, yet theirs (Kelowna) are smooth to drive over without that reverse speed-bump effect we have on Main Street.

As much as DLC annoys me, in this rant I have to defend them.

Before going off about the brick work on Main Street, you should have done your homework.

Funny you should mention "speed dips," because by design, that's exactly what the ones on Main Street were intended to be.

There was an article about that, quite some time back, though I don't recall where anymore, or I'd give you a link.

If you'd take note of the concrete edge that borders the bricks on each side, you would see that it is at the exact same grade as the bricks. Also not only was the area tamped properly, but the road was first paved over, and traffic ran on it for some time, before crews cut out the asphalt sections where the bricks reside.

You can't really compare it to Clifton Road, because different areas approach traffic control in different ways. On Clifton Road they opted for those solar powered radar signs, rather than bumps or dips.

The choice for us on Main Street, apparently was either this, or speed bumps, and I'm afraid being familiar with DLC's version of what a speed bump should be (totally out in left field), I'm quite happy that they went with the dips instead.