Beaconsfield 2008 budget discussion

[Greg]

The 2008 budget document was recently released and can be found here:

http://www.beaconsfield.ca/_site/DOCUMENTS/PDF/2007/BUDGET_2008/budget_consultation_2008_final1.pdf

[Greg]

First Glance:
1) They predict in increase in fines of $40,000, TWENTY percent
increase. Do they plan a bylaw crackdown, and why do they think there
is so much scope for increase in giving fines (mostly to residents
obviously).

2) A $78,370 expenditure increase for the DG office, is this for a new
employee?

3) Employers contributions set to drop about 1%, does this indicate
the net decrease in number of employees?

4) What is the urgency to spend $400,000 on Christmas park
renovations? Have the residents identified specific problems? Is there
an unneccessary landscaping and planning exercise attached to this?

5) I noticed that the private contractors maintaining the water system
spend a lot of time on it, for example two trucks outside our house
from 11PM till after 3AM, apparently to supervise spraying water out
of a hydrant. It seems like a lot of expensive overtime to me.

6) Has the city made efforts to get funding from the federal
government infrastructure programs, or the post-olympic "cigarette
tax" programs, I don't see any revenues identified as such.