{"id":23268,"date":"2019-03-15T18:51:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T22:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23268"},"modified":"2019-03-15T18:51:22","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T22:51:22","slug":"council-tightens-budget-reins-on-community-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/council-tightens-budget-reins-on-community-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"Council tightens budget reins on community partners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora is holding the budget reins tight when it comes to\nthousands of dollars worth of asks from cultural groups around the community \u2013\nand the Aurora Cultural Centre, Aurora Historical Society and Sport Aurora are\namong those feeling the pinch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussions over Aurora\u2019s Operating Budget for 2019 are\nset to resume on Monday, March 18, but when Council met last week to take the\nlast kick at the can before March Break, over $70,000-worth of asks were\nrejected, including $40,000 for a new Communications Assistant at Town Hall, a\n$30,400 increase to the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s 2019 Core Operating Grant, and\na further boost of $1,600 to the Aurora Historical Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council\u2019s decision follows along the lines of a tone set by\nMayor Tom Mrakas at the start of deliberations over the 2019 Operating Budget\non February 25. Then, he said through discussions he had had with various\ncommunity groups, as well as Council members, that it was largely agreed that\n\u201cCouncil should take a pause\u201d when faced with requests for additional funding\nrequests through this year\u2019s Budget cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my discussions with staff and with each of you, there\nhas been some support for the idea of allowing this Council time to re-evaluate\nhow funding requests are put forward, reviewed and ultimately approved,\u201d said\nMayor Mrakas, addressing Council members at that meeting. \u201cMost important,\nthere is support for the need to develop a policy that provides a clear, consistent\nand equitable funding request model. I think we can all agree, and as I have\nsaid before, it is our responsibility to ensure there is value and benefit to\nevery taxpayer dollar that is spent and while I will respect the\u2026majority of\nCouncil, it is my sincere hope that we will collectively utilize this\nopportunity to create a better funding request policy and ensure a level\nplaying field going forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have and will continue to hold staff to a very high\nstandard when it comes to how tax dollars are spent. I hope we will also hold\nanyone and any organization to that same high level of standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is just the principle they stuck to last Monday when\nfaced with those requests for increased funding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council tackled the funding requests from the Aurora\nHistorical Society and the Aurora Cultural Centre, the latter request of which\nwas for increased operating costs, including salaries, in one go, with Mayor\nMrakas reiterating his position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo, however, said he had a different\nperspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy philosophy is, and I think I have said it before,\nthat I look at all services that we provide, that is paid for by the taxpayer,\non an equal basis,\u201d said Councillor Gallo. \u201cWhether we do it within these four\nwalls, or whether it is done outside of these four walls, a service is being\nprovided to the taxpayers and I treat everyone equally. We do lessons at the\nswimming pool, that\u2019s a service we provide. Or, the Historical Society provides\na service, that is a service paid for by tax dollars. For me, we\u2019re treating\nthese differently than other service providers and I just don\u2019t agree with\nthat. I think we should look at them no differently from when we look at our\nstaff that is internal, and there are areas where there have been increases in\nvarying degrees, and I don\u2019t see why we single these out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner was on a similar wavelength,\nfocusing her attention particularly on the request from the Aurora Cultural\nCentre, which she said would allow them to keep current staff in place. They are\nunderpaid, she said, arguing that it was becoming an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe staff has been very loyal, but I think they need a\nshow of actual money, so I would ask you please to keep that in place,\u201d she\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas responded that the Cultural Centre would be\nwilling to fund this $30,400 through their reserves for this year while Council\nhammers out a path forward for requests such as these, but, to Councillor\nGaertner, this was not a practical solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe reserves they\u2019re talking about are the reserves that\nthey\u2019re mandated to have in case, for some reason, they had to wrap up the\nfunction of the Aurora Cultural Centre,\u201d said Councillor Gaertner. \u201cTheir\nreserve is not at the limit it should be anyway. Yes, they desperately need\nthis money, but it is coming out of a very important reserve that I believe we\nmandate them to have. We\u2019re just taking that reserve down more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding firm on the line, however, was supported by\nCouncil on a vote of 5 \u2013 2, with Councillors Gaertner and Gallo in the\nopposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stating her case in support of holding firm, Councillor\nSandra Humfryes said Council set out with a \u201cclear mandate that we take a\npause\u201d and, of these community partners, only the Aurora Public Library came in\nwith a budget that fit within these parameters, which, in the Library\u2019s case,\ncan largely be attributed to changes in staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson was also in the majority,\narguing that within the Town\u2019s Cultural Services Agreement with the Aurora\nCultural Centre, a certain amount of money is provided for services and they\nare to operate at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey do a great job with those dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\nprovide a lot of programs and a lot of different things for the community but,\nat the end of the day, it was set up so they would operate at arm\u2019s length. If\nyou look at the agreement, we give them autonomy to run that place. It clearly\nstates we\u2019re not involved in the hiring and firing of positions and we haven\u2019t\nbeen\u2026and they make those decisions. They make those decision to hire whomever\nthey\u2019ve chosen to hire, they\u2019ve made salary decisions. So, while I am\nsympathetic to the fact that now they have made the realization that there are\nmany people underpaid, that is their obligation to right the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is understandable that they look to the Town to\nright-size it as we have done to our own, it is their responsibility so I am\nnot in support of [the budget increase].\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora is holding the budget reins tight when it comes to thousands of dollars worth of asks from cultural groups around the community \u2013 and the Aurora Cultural Centre, Aurora Historical Society and Sport Aurora are among those feeling the pinch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-63i","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 11:35:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}