Mayor O'Neill's Public Address - December 2020

Transcript:

MAYOR'S MESSAGE REGARDING BUDGET 2021

Preparation of the 2021 Municipal budget for the Municipality of Marmara and Lake is in progress. As your Mayor, I want to provide you with some background information and share with you how the information was gathered from both Council and the public.

On December 7th, in a special meeting of Council, Council was presented with an overview of the 2021 budget. Each department prepared a presentation of their accomplishments for 2020 and recommendations for consideration for 2021.

The process consisted of staff meeting individually with Council members to determine their priorities. Staff conducted a detailed review of previous year's revenue and expenditures to identify efficiencies and evaluate productivity in accordance with our service standards and based on our strategic plan, road needs study policies and procedures. Consideration of public input from a survey, day to day requests for service and delegations to Council were included in the document. It is also important to recognize that there are various expenditures that are non-negotiable such as school board, county levies, conservation authorities, etc.

Setting the annual budget is one of the biggest decisions Council must make and the professional recommendations made by staff are essential. Providing Council and the public with this extensive information is extremely helpful and important.

You can view the document on the web site and you can view the special meeting of council.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the public for their meaningful input. There is still time for public input. You can reach out by e-mail, write a letter to be included in the Council Agenda or request to be a delegation. Staff are available during working hours to answer any enquiries and you can contact Council members. My door is always open.

This document is only the beginning. In the weeks/months ahead, a draft budget will be prepared and available for the public's review and hopefully we will approve the budget in February. The Budget schedule is available on the web site.

As we plan for 2021, COVID-19 is still very prevalent and may ultimately have negative impact on our budget again. We will have to monitor the situations as they become issues especially if we are moved to a different level of risk.

In conclusion, I want to sincerely congratulate and thank staff for coordinating and presenting an excellent document and for their excellent presentations. It was also very apparent that preparation of this document through the leadership of the CAO was assembled co-operatively by management. The presentations demonstrated a true commitment to Team Work. We have a dedicated Team who are committed to doing the everyday tasks and services that are required to keep the public and particularly our Marmara and Lake residents safe.

~ Jan O’Neill, Mayor of Marmora and Lake