The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, November 15, 2000 - A5 City has overpaid RCMP bill for years Soaring police costs led city officials to uncover annual losses approaching $200,000. They’re out to stop the hemorrhaging from the decades-old error. By JEFF NAGEL FOR YEARS RCMP head- quarters in Vancouver has been quietly letting the City of Terrace pay far more than it should have for local policing ‘costs. The error has been costing the city on the order of $200,000 a year and adds up to millions in lost revenue over the’ years, city councillors were told last week, The city has been paying 100 per cent of the salaries of support staff at the RCMP detachment, said city administrator Ron Poole. According to the city’s reading of its police services contract, those costs should be split the ‘game way that the city and pro- vince share the costs of local po- lice officers, Based on that the city should be paying around 45 per cent. For years the city paid the en- tire bill and never invoiced the RCMP for ils share of the costs, The RCMP never complained or brought it to the cily’s attention, “They know when they're get- ting a good deal,” Terrace RCMP Inspector Doug Wheler told city councillors last week. He later said he was only jok- ing and doesn’t know if anyone in the RCMP deliberately allowed the city to over-pay. “T only knew about it when the city raised in the last couple months,” Wheler said, “It’s al- ways been this way — ever since the detachment’s been here.”. “For years I guess it’s been missed,” he told councillors. “You have a right to ask. You have a right to know how your TERRACE RGMP detachment is increasingly a source of rising city costs. The city's inability to con- trol those costs and the complexity of RCMP accounting have frustrated administration. slashing of city services beyond a series of cuts already planned. The biggest cost increase to surface has been a $310,000 in- crease in the city’s share of RCMP costs to nearly $2.7 mil- lion next year, Poole said, Most of that is because the cost of paying and equipping each -officer is rising nearly 11 per cent from = $92,595 $102,604. The cost is partly due to officer wage increases totalling seven per last year to ‘cent expected in 2001, said Nor- man, as well as the local share broadsided by this,” Wheler said. The detachment gave up one officer position when it juggled positions a year ago to get a sec- ond police dog and dogmaster here, Wheler said although they're asking for two more positions for 2001, he'd settle for just a single additional officer to make up for the one lost. “We'd like to recoup at least that one position, if not two,” he said, Poole is recommending council of a province-wide Computer- ized Integrated Infor- maney is being spent.” City officials fig- “It's ured it out when they took a closer look at WayS skyrockeling) RCMP expenses this year, They compared fig- ures with other muni- cipalities. and found out. no other towns were paying the full costs of support staff. this. way - conceded , the city’s ever since port staff costs, the detach- Wheler ment’s been here.” mation and Dispatch al- System. RCMP officials been haven't yet formally right about the sup- cautioned F that pushing for back | money could prompt RCMP accountants in turn to identify Council approved Poole’s plan to begin billing the RCMP for its share of the support staff costs and to pursue back payments for past years. If the police pay up the city stands to gain more than $190,000 to plug into next year’s cash- strapped budget. And it could be much more if _ the RCMP pay up for a number of years, The money is desperately nee- ded. Dramatically higher costs on a number of fronts have prompted city officials to recommend coun- cil hit home owners with a one to five per cent property tax hike next year. The alternative, they say, is a other costs that the city should be paying. - “T don’t know what you're going to open up here,” he warned, City treasurer Keith Norman said there are three support posi- tions the province pays for, but said that’s small compared to the nine the cily finances. He predicted even taking that into account, the city should end up ahead by close to $150,000 a year. “T. feel very confident they should be paying some portion of support costs,” he said. Meanwhile, Wheler is asking the city to pay for two extra offi- cers here. “I understand if the city feels Policing, natural gas costs up gested the city should have added six more officers immediately then bringing the detachment to 27 municipally paid officers. Terrace presently has 25 offi- cers city-paid officers, he said. “We're still short,” he said. “We've never potten to that level.” Councillors tried to focus on stats in places like Kitimat ~ where there are only 13 locally paid officers — or other towns raised by councillors with similar populations but fewer police offi- cers. 4 “You can’t just look at popu- lation,” Wheler cautioned, A better guide, he said, is the crime rate. | Those stats often reveals ci- | ties like Terrace to be a centre for more crime be- cause of their role as larger service and entertainment places where more people from the surrounding area ga- ther. The Terrace municipal crime Ron Poole hire no new officers next year. He’s also pushing for an inde- pendent probe of policing costs, with a focus on the number of RCMP officers required here and how they should be split between provincially and city-paid posi- tions. He said the rising police costs are frustrating because - unlike other parts of the city budget - they seem beyond council's con- trol. “As these costs go up we have to have some control,” Poole said. Wheler backed up his request for more officers with stats. A review: done in 1993 sug- Doug Wheler — numbers, he said, show with 153 offences per thousand po- pulation were committed here in 1999 — well above the provin- cial average of 116. “Terrace is the highest in the whole north district,” he said. The Terrace rural area — Thorn- hill and other areas outside cily limits — recorded 80 offences per thousand. Although Wheler argues higher crime rates mean more officers are required, some city council- lors fear more officers won’t ne- cessarily reduce the rates, “That’s the (Mayor Jack) Tal- stra theory,” said councillor David Hull. “The more cops. you have the more crime they find.” Tax hikes appear likely as city expenses sky rocket By JEFF NAGEL A TAX HIKE for local homeowners and busi- nesses is inevitable this year without signif- icant service cuts, city councillors were told last week. City treasurer Keith Norman says the city has almost a million dollars fewer to play with when it comes to setting its budget for 2001. To blame is a combination of rising ex- penses and fewer dollars corning in: M@ A $310,000 increase in policing costs. Wi The city plans to draw only $150,000 from its surplus this year. That's effectively leaves it with $400,000 less than last year, when it drew $550,000 from surplus: @ Rising natural gas prices have increased heating costs by nearly £80,000, mostly at the pool! and the arena. @ An automatic 1,5 per cent pay increase to unionized city workers, “We're getting close to a million dollars ‘there that we've got to make up for,” Norman said. City administration got tentative approval last week from council to pursue a series of . cost-culting options, ° - One involves the cutting back of First re- sponder service by the Tetrace Fire Depart-- ment. Poole said that rather than go cut to almost all emergency calls - duplicating the local ambulance service — they'll be more selective. If approved — and he stressed it's dependent on discussions with the union — the city would save about $12,000 by not-paying for an addi- tianal position on evenings and weekends. Also planned is the closure of fire hall #2 on Greig Ave. It’s used’ by Terrace Search and Rescue, which would instead be given a grant and dir- ected to find its own rental space. That would save another $8,000. Also planned is a much harder look at cily subsidies to a range of local groups including the Terrace-Kitimat. Airport Society, Terrace Tourism Council, Chamber of Commerce, Ter- race and District Arts Council, Riverboat Days Society and the Terrace and District Facilities Society: At the airport, city staff noted it’s been costing the city more money than it’s received from the society for enforcement and collec- tion of parking tickets issued there. Airport officials are proposing to pay the cily more for that service, but some city coun- cillors. say the city should simply let the air- port handle it, “We should gel out of the parking tickets at the airport business,” said councillor David Hull. City departments are also being directed to increase user fees in an attempt to raise about $20,000. Poole also wants to limit the wage increase for library workers this year to around 3 per cent. That would in effect slow down a plan- ned catch-up of wages of library workers to the levels of other city. workers. Also chopped are a number of capital pro- jects, including road patching and the number of streets to be repaved under the local impro- vement program. ‘ “We're going lo have some outcry as we start implementing all this,” Poole warned. Despite the cuts, city staff are still calling ‘for a tax increase of between one and five per cent next year. “We're getting hit hard this year,” Poole said. “This is the year. that we have good rea- sons to absorb somewhat of an increase.” "This year we can substantiate a tax increase,” added Norman. “Next year we prob- ably can’t.” Norman said a two-per cent increase would cost a home assessed at $100,000 a year an extra: $14 in cily taxes but would raise $150, 00D. CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Specious election call Dear Sir: The ever expedient Prime Minister and his myopic acolytes, basking in the alpenglow memory of the Trudeau legacy, have sprung a snap election on .US, an unprecedented third one in seven years. Why?! To thwart Chretien's other would-be Liberal rivals, the need to sate the power mongering ego of one old man's third-time round fixation, perhaps to preempt the outcome of some RCMP investigations into mishandling of. public..money. and out. of a sheer paranaia for the growing evolutionary wave that's sweeping our nation's collective conscience. Chretien and his cronies say they do electoral. battle at this juncture over “values”. Well, let’s look at how those lauded ethical. tenets of a fair, open,; egalitarian society have played out across our lands. The federal Liberals take full credit for a robust‘ economy but that’s mostly due to piggy-backing on the rearing engines of our U.S. partner that fuels a, staggering 87 per cent trade dependency with our" devalued “two-thirds” Canadian dollar that cheapens> the true net-worth of our exports and masks our, mediocre real productivity. But with a Canadian economy alleged to be so good, for so very long with low interest rates racking- , up huge surpluses in the treasury and E.]. funds as it’ has, you'd surely wonder why we've had such! prohibitive tax and debt loads and why these haven't; been substantively reduced greatly sooner. In acynical last ditch move to co-opt a strongly * popular Canadian Alliance platform, we finally get, some relief from Otlawaby way of a crassly opportune mini-budget on the eve of an election. : _ Erstwhile, being so flushly swollen with copious ; cash holdings made up of our earnings one would, have speculated there'd be a more generous and evenly distributed portfolio of sound, measuredi investments in healthcare, education, the environment, vital infrastructure, help for those impoverished, a boost for mainstay industries, the! new economy and research. What we got instead was a disingenuous hastily” cobbled together patchwork of specious, manipulated : hand-outs to their chosen favoured few friends, their winners at the expense of all those other outcast , losers. The lofty heights of Mount Chretien and the! shadowy lesser peaks flanking their eery eroded, Grits Range are a pandemic contagion, permeated ; insipidly to the core with rot and decay. Gerry J. Bloomer, Lakelse Lake, B.C.j Start listening An Open Letter to: Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht » Dear Sir: ‘ Your letter in The Terrace Standard dated Nov.i, ¢ 2000 states that you received only one “specific case” regarding medical care wilhin eight months. I find myself to be a doubting Thomas in thigi statement because after my, son was, injured. On ‘December !8, 1999, I sent a specific letter to your constituency office detailing some of :‘my concerns. «# I received a pass the buck/register an official , complaint type of letter from your executive assistant dated January, 11, 2000 so I guess, theoretically, it is possible that other peoples’ concerns have not 4 directly been brought to your attention previous to the aforementioned eight month period, or since. ‘ The intent of my letter to you was a search for ; protocol in dealing with emergency transport of | patients to a facility with the required specialist. I drove my child through dark and snow to Prince } George with a humerus bone break of over 30 degrees. , Pain maintenance was not an option without a~ qualified attendant like one would get in an‘ ambulance transfer, or a medevac flight. But you would not like to hear all this unless you | can hang someone else oul to dry. Start listening and } quit trying to blame everyone else for everything else. ; Chris Spangl, Terrace, B.C, Hooray for the USA Dear Sir: In reply to a letter written by Doug Bullied, , “Warning”, I would like to preface this letter by saying I am a visitor in your beautiful province. I am a proud American, where all people are free 5 and equal and all, I repeat, all pay taxes according to , their income. That is what makes the U.S.A. a great and democratic country. i 1 take high offence at Mr. Bulleid’s statement that the U.S.A, is a drug saturated society. Please show me your evidence to support that grossly unjust statement. - I have someone very close to me in the U.S.A. Army and his oath is to serve his country so this world * and all the people in it remain free. Unfortunately, ° that means taking control of countries that are creating problems for the world, such as Colombia and their production and export of drugs. The U.S.A. is a true democratic society where the * people are the government unlike Canada where it is just the opposite ~ the government. controls you. If you took time to review the history of the world you would have seen that Great Britain, once 4 great power, collapsed under socialism until the 1980s, when they recognized their mistakes and turned the nation around and now are vibrant again. New Zealand, once the richest country in the world, also collapsed under socialism. Fortunately, they recognized their mistakes and also turned their country around, I could go on with Sweden and many other countries bul the greatest was in the 90s with the collapse of Russia. Long live the greatest democracy in the world, The United States of America. One flag, one people, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all, Erin O'Malley, Natrona Helghts, Pennsylvania, U.S.A, About the Mail Bagage"’""" The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our address is 3210 Clinton St, Terrace, B.C. VBG 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail - us at standard@kermode.net. No attachments, . please. We need your name, address and - phone number for verification. Our deadline is noon Friday or noon Thursday if it's a a long . weekend.