Lately we saw a motion for a “Town Hall” turned into recommendation for an “Open House”, a Task Force that was cancelled before its first meeting and a budget that added Full-Time and Part-Time positions to an already bloated city workforce. Ironically, a couple of councillors thanked residents for all of their email opposing the budget, before unanimously voting for it. Not to mention the mayor’s propensity to shut down residents during the public question period or the non-answers that these questions elicit.

Now, in Tuesday’s edition of the Owen Sound Suntimes, we were informed of the 2023 sunshine list, that shows that we now have 85 managers earning more than $100,000. That’s up from the 51 on that list in 2018. That’s a 66.6% increase in just five years.

I raised the issue of the city workforce being top-heavy with managers in a Research Paper I delivered to Council last November, in which I compared Owen Sound to eight (8) similar municipalities. Based on the city’s Financial Information Returns and Audited Financial Statements I was able to show that when Protective Services managers are not considered, Owen Sound has nine (9) more managers in the administration, than Cobourg, which is nearly identical to Owen Sound in population, populations-density and the number of occupied dwellings. You can download a copy of my report at this link. An indication of how much our elected officials are open to objective analysis from residents, is that most didn’t even take the time to acknowledge receipt of my report.

Overstaffing, at the management level, is a serious burden on taxpayers yet it appears from their actions that our current members of council just don’t care. This year’s Sunshine List shows that Owen Sound has 15 more employees on the list than the nearly identical Town of Cobourg. To really understand the impact this has on the taxpayer we need to total the Sunshine List Salaries of both municipalities and then add the cost of Benefits which are not included in the Sunshine List figure.

In 2023 the total cost of salaries of all employees on the List, including Benefits was $10,855,484 and $12,589,312 for Cobourg and Owen Sound respectively. That’s a difference of $1,733,827. Based on this the city’s bloated managerial staff are costing Owen Sound taxpayers $1.7 million more than actually needed.

"Owen Sound city hall is grossly overstaffed, which contributes to a large part of this problem. When we compared senior management salaries, using the Sunshine List, we concluded that Owen Sound is overstaffed by as many as 9 managers (not including Protective Services). In regard to Salaries & Benefits expense Owen Sound spends $3.9 million more than the average of the three primary comparators and $1.5 million more than Cobourg"  Municipal Services Report

HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS?
To solve this problem; we first have to break it down into those managers working administration and those managers working protective service. That’s because the problems in protective services are much more complex. The first step is to significantly reduce the size of the administrative management team. As I pointed out in my report, there are many examples of redundancy, which do not exist in similar municipalities. For example, two HR managers, three clerks and both a Director and a Manager of Corporate Services are obvious targets to eliminate three managers. However, to match Cobourg’s management team, a minimum of six management position-reductions are required. This will save taxpayers up to $1 million per year.

The next two steps that will be required are aimed at persuading senior managers to focus on the needs of the community as opposed to their own goals and agenda. To start we need to put all managers on a short term five year contracts which will be renewed in four years if approved by 60% of members of council. Removing the “Job for Life” entitlement, as viewed by many managers, will certainly increase their motivation. Next, we need to introduce a bonus structure for managers, based on achieving performance goals, where managers can earn up to a 20% bonus if they achieve all annual performance objectives. Both the annual Performance Objectives and the level of achievement would be approved by 60% of Council which would keep the focus on the community.

BIG Roadblock
There is only one roadblock to introducing such change . . .

That is, our current council has repeatedly shown an
unwillingness to make any significant changes to the status quo.

Hence, we will not be able to change anything at city hall until we vote in new councillors who are willing to embrace change and prioritize community goals ahead of staff goals. In other words we need a council that is willing to listen to the people - all of the people and not just those who agree with them or not just the 50% of our population who have after-tax, household incomes greater than $57,600.

Take the time to leave your comments on this site.
Let us know if you are interested in helping to identify
 candidates who are not afraid to embrace change.