2022 Budget Questions & Answers
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
The 2022 Operating & Capital Base Budget (PDF) was approved by Council at the January 18, 2022 Special Council Meeting.
This article outlines the queries and requests for information from Council that resulted from the budget presentation.
1. What are the 5 year Actual vs Budget Engineering Expenses within the CAO Office?
2. What is the Cost of Grass Cutting in Langdon?
The cost for cutting the grass in Langdon is approx. $60,000.
On a broader scale, the total costs for complete Langdon summer maintenance, which includes mowing and whipping, sweeping, garbage clean up, tree watering, bed maintenance, pumping excess water, and gopher and weed control is $85,440.
3. What were the Increased Cleaning Costs due to COVID 19?
The additional cleaning costs due to COVID-19 totalled approx. $60,000 in 2020/2021, partially funded by grant funding provided by the MOST (Municipal Operating Support Transfer) Program.
4. Does the County Currently Contract Out Services vs. Remaining In House?
Currently, Rocky View County contracts out a number of services in each division. As an example, the percentage of budget for Contracted Services for Transportation Services is 38% or $8.3 million.
The rationale behind using Contracted Services is varied and conditional. Some examples include cost savings, lower capital purchases, reduced risk, and provision of unique expertise when there is no in house staff, tools, equipment, knowledge, technology, or resources to provide certain services.
Contracted Services are continually monitored and reviewed by department and division leadership to ensure this rationale remains valid and appropriate.
5. What is the Code of Practice for Utility Services?
These documents can be found here:
6. What are the Revenue and Expenses for County-owned Water and Wastewater Systems?
- Water and wastewater rates includes the cost of contracted services and technologist.
- Utility Services is approx. $3.3 million tax supported:
- $1.85 million solid waste and recycling (tag a bag, chucks, transfer sites, etc.)
- $1.45 million water and wastewater material goods and services/inter departmental fees
7. What are the Call Volumes and Type of Calls by Fire Station?
Total Number of Calls by Station in 2021
*Calls from two contracted stations are not available.
Type of Calls Received in 2021
8. What is the Total Advertising Budget for County Departments?
- CAO Office - Operations Division advertising and Economic Development.
- Agricultural & Environmental Services - Workshop advertising, the Ag Review newsletter, and event sponsorship.
- Cemetery Services - Promotion of the Garden of Peace Cemetery and the Commemorative Memorial Program.
- Transportation - Sign advertising within the County.
- Marketing & Communications - Promotion, newspaper advertising (public notices) and event planning.
9. What is the Breakdown of Residential vs Commercial Building Permits and Inspections?
10. What is the Criteria for Capital Projects Selection?
The Capital Plan is developed by reviewing and prioritizing all of the individual priorities from various County departments.
At a high level, projects are selected based on the following:
- Project Category
- Community Impact
- Budget Impact
- Financing
- Service Level Impact
- Project Readiness
- Corresponding Funding Sources
It should be noted that prior to ranking any projects we first categorize these into desired timeframes; 0 5 years, 5 10 years, and 10+ years. This is necessary as the project list is so large, and as some projects may currently lack extensive details.
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