Mark McGorman didn’t fall for council almost begging for praise, but he did give the city a solid financial audit report.
He was giving the annual report to council on behalf of McGorman MacLean Chartered Accountants and pointed out it wasn’t a value for money audit. Mayor Chris Burger joked about not asking for a letter grade after McGorman told them last time he doesn’t give anything higher than a C.
“But in general your municipality is solid,” he did say, pointing out the amount of spending is tied to a community’s need and since this is a fairly new community the infrastructure doesn’t need as much repair.
He said they do compare somewhat and Parksville’s “finances are right in line with other municipalities of the same size.”
The city’s total accumulated surplus at the end of 2011 was $161.8 million, including $149.6 million in tangible capital assets like funds for infrastructure and waterworks.
That left the city with net financial assets of $12.2 million at the end of the year, up just over half a million from the previous year.
The city’s largest source of revenue was $10.6 million from taxation, followed by water and sewer fees ($3.6 m) and the sale of other services ($1.3 m).
The main expenses were transportation ($3.8m), police ($2.9m), parks and cultural services ($2.3m), general
government services ($2m), water services ($1.9m) and sewer services ($1.1m). As usual, employee wages and benefits are the largest expenditure — commonplace in all levels of government.
All that balanced out to an annual surplus of $3.6 million which is budgeted toward ongoing and future capital works projects.
The audit was released along with the city’s annual report which included the city’s goals and accomplishments, reports from the mayor and chief administrative officer and the financial statements.
Among the financial records were the city’s goods and services payments above $25,000 and employee remuneration.
As required by the Community Charter, city council is asking for public inspection before they formally receive the annual report at their July 4 meeting.
A copy of the report is under “Financial Reports” on the right of the city website at www.parksville.ca as well as at the administration department at city hall.
Elected: Stipend Expenses
Chris Burger $28,452 5,604
Al Greir $13,378 3,108
Carrie Powell-Davidson $13,030 5,962
Susan Powell $12,018 4,972
Marc Lefebvre $11,755 3,790
Teresa Patterson $10,775 830
Peter Morrison $980 31
William Neufeld $980 31
Employees: Wage +/-% Expenses
Fred Manson $154,145 12.5 6,637
Gordon Butterworth $116,577 15 4,298
Gayle Jackson $114,474 8.6
Doug Banks $107,930 17 2,162
Robert Harary $105,256 10,184
Mike Squire $100,295 11.1 2,389
Vaughn Figueira $92,263 268
Blaine Russell $83,415 10 771
Shannon Kleibl $78,907 269
Marc Norris $78,792 - 2.1 1,584
Lynn Kitchen $76,712 3,213
Peter Crawshaw $75,909 3,236