It would appear that Squamish District Council is oblivious to what is going on with the operation of Municipal Hall. A good example is the position of the administrator, CAO, CEO or whatever you want to call it. A few years ago this one-person position received an annual salary of approximately $115,000. In The Squamish Chief a couple of weeks ago, an article listed some of the top salaries in municipal hall, revealing the person in this position now receives an annual salary of $167,000. On top of that, the position had always been held by one person, but now the position has an assistant with an annual salary of $148,000. Combine the two and we the taxpayers are now paying well over $300,000 per year for the former single position.
This is absolutely ridiculous and if one person can’t handle the job, then fire and replace that person with someone more competent. I am not sure if the taxpayers notice that in the District section of the Squamish Chief, job postings for new positions appear almost every other week. During the budget process, council requests budget cuts but does nothing relative to hiring more staff.
Regarding Bill Berg’s letter last week about the bowling green, if a person was to look at the small area that the lawn bowling green covers and that it is a seasonal activity for the seniors, the lack of maintenance shows how heartless the recreation staff and council are. The budget to maintain the lawn bowling court is so small compared to other items the council leaves in. An example of this was in the paper a couple of weeks ago in a story that noted council’s share of $40,000 toward a rock to go in Pavilion Park.
Another item that has been placed in the budget each year is $120,000 for the re-alignment at the intersection of Depot Road and Government Road for a four-way stop. If it wasn’t spent last year, it goes into their slush fund and is re-budgeted for the next year. All it would take is the placement of two more stop signs that would cost less than $2,000 – like what was done at the intersection of Government Road and Eagle Run Drive.
Just wait and see what is proposed at Municipal Hall. They have so many new employees in that office that they are proposing to install some modular buildings in the existing parking lot between the library and Municipal Hall. What do you think this is going to cost us?
Oh and Councillor Ted Prior suggested to Bill Berg that the seniors may wish to take over the maintenance of the bowling green – yeah right, we have paid our dues over the years. This is not what 70 and 80-year-olds want to do. It’s municipal property and municipal responsibility for maintenance to maintain. Give us the money and we’ll hire a landscaper – or maybe Ted Prior will come and look after it.
Joy Boulier
Squamish
