Only the City of West sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ could build a City Hall that shows its rear-end to citizens.Ìý
The entrance to the municipal palace - costs unknown, but definitely still rising - that is visible from the street is actually the back door.Ìý
Itsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ a perverse form of architectural revenge by the city on its citizens, who twice said they didn’t want the municipality to build itself a fancy new city hall.Ìý
But the will of the people as shown in a counter-petition and then a referendum was airily dismissed by politicians and bureaucrats. On the third attempt, they figured out an accounting trick to push a city hall forward without having to consult the citizens.Ìý
This is the state of local governance in West sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½. Itsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ also a place where the city earlier this year awarded its employees an unbelievably generous contract providing for a 17 per cent salary increase over four years and a 30 percent improvement in the cost of worker benefits.Ìý
At the time, the city crowed the contract was reached after only two days of bargaining. I bet it was. I bet the union couldn’t wait to run out the door with that gold-plated deal in their hands.Ìý
Anyway, I bring up that bit of ‘bargaining’ because itsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ relevant to the main year-end business engaged in by municipalities - the setting of the following yearsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ tax rate.Ìý
In West sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, property owners are looking at a tax hike of 8.35 per cent, almost four times the current rate of inflation. A good chunk of that goes just for the higher employee salaries and benefits and the new staff the city apparently can’t do without.Ìý
Total tax haul, $50 million. Total tax haul five years ago, $33 million. I doubt most West sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ residents think their municipal services and programs are 50 per cent better than they were in 2019.Ìý
Perhaps the budget padding is necessary to account for the various cost overruns that are a reliable feature of West sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ infrastructure projects.Ìý
When the city built an indoor soccer dome a few years ago, it inexplicably failed to realize it would need washrooms. The belated discovery added more costs to a project that came in at more than $4 million, three times initial estimates.Ìý
When the city built a new water treatment plant in the Rose Valley area, it had an initially-estimated cost of $50 million. The tab when the taps were turned on earlier this year was $75 million.Ìý
Ask city officials why these projects so spectacularly blew their budgets, and you’ll get a long and inventive list of reasons. These have included (take a big breath) hot weather, cold weather, wildfires, inflation, unexpectedly high labour costs, supply-chain issues, highway closures, lawsuits, a shortage of skilled labour, a lack of bidders, etc etc.Ìý
When the city started building the city hall voters didn’t want, the budget was set at $18 million. Though itsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ been open for months, theresa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ still no final cost. Thatsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ because money is still being spent on it.Ìý
At 2025 budget meetings this week, staff will tell council that the new building needs improved parking (which will somehow cost $80,000 just to design) and acoustic upgrades, the cost of which is estimated to be $115,000.
The last estimate provided to council for the cost for the new city hall was $23 million. But that figure was given almost a year ago, with no update since then.
Somewhere down the line, I predict theresa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ going to be another budget request for improvements to the appearance of city hall. The building has a bizarre but perhaps not surprising orientation, with floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side which afford workers a fabulous view of Okanagan Lake.
From Old Okanagan Highway, city hallsa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ access road, visitors approach a relatively blank facade, a forbidding expanse of concrete and mean little windows. You could hardly purposely design a more unappealing building, at least the part of it that faces the public.Ìý
Theresa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ no actual ‘Keep Out’ sign. But it feels like there is.Ìý
Ron Seymour is a reporter with The sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Courier.Ìý
