The City of Castlegar has released its annual report for 2016.
The report includes facts and figures for the year including audited financial reports as well as completed, ongoing and upcoming projects that each department is involved in. Here are a few of the highlights.
Finances
The city ended the year with $5,384,730 in net financial assets and an accumulated surplus of $77,957,072.
Reserves
The report outlines the status of the city’s reserves. As of Dec. 31, 2016 the city had $7,569,981 in reserves. The breakdown of those reserves is: general operating reserves — $709,430, water reserves — $1,687,463, sewer reserves — $444,400, airport reserves — $138,335, development cost charges — $1,183,687, equipment reserves — $1,152,920, development reserves — $693,498, land reserves — $1,112,198, other reserves — $448,051.
Municipal comparisons
The report includes a comparison of taxes and user fees for a representative (average) house in municipalities across the region. When ranked by the total costs of the nine sample municipalities, Castlegar is third, with Trail and Nakusp being the only municipalities with lower costs to residents. Ranked from lowest to highest, total taxes and user fees were:
Nakusp — $2,654, Trail — $2,855,
Castlegar — $3,083, Fruitvale — $3,328, Creston — $3,335, Cranbrook — $3,591, Warfield — $3,804, Rossland — $4,204
and Nelson — $4,227.
Permits
In 2016 the City of Castlegar issued 219 building permits valued at about $23.3 million, down in number from 242 in 2015, but significantly up in value from $12.2 million in 2015. Business license applications numbered 679, up slightly from last year. Also issued were seven board of variance, two development, four development variance, four rezoning and two subdivision permits.
Elected officials expenses
The mayor was paid $28,000 in salary.
Coun. Arry Dhillon received $1,750 in salary, because he was elected in a by-election late in 2016.
The remaining councillors all received $14,000, but their other expenses varied widely. Deb McIntosh had $195 in expenses, Sue Heaton $3,327, Florio Vassilikakis $5,079, Dan Rye $5,553, Bruno Tassone $10,448 and Mayor Chernoff had $11,260. Most of these expenses are incurred for travelling to things such as the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting, meetings with ministers in Victoria, or other similar events.
Top employee salaries
The report also includes the Statement of Financial Information (SOFI) report that cities are required to complete.
In it they have to include a list of all employees earning more than $75,000. Castlegar has 19 employees included in the list for 2016. Here is the list in descending order:
Chief administrative officer, John Malcolm, $165,453
Director of finance, Andre Buss, $134,518
Fire chief/ airport manager Gerald Rempel, $127,692
Director planning and development, Phil Markin, $115,163
Director transportation and civic works, Chris Barlow, $114,561
Director corporate services, Tracey Butler, $111,871
Operations manager, Garry Sauer, $106,210
Deputy fire chief, Sam Lattanzio, $105,399
Deputy fire chief, Duane Monsen, $104,093
Utilities manager, Jesse Reel, $103,575
IT manager, David Bristow, $100,846
Chief treatment plant operator, Bill McMillan, $88,499
Building inspector, Michael Defosse, $81,808
Treatment plant operator, Brad Spender, $78,799
Working foreman mechanic shop, Michael Dawson, $78,717
Planning technician, Shannon Marshall, $77,921
Engineering tech, Leyford Lafayette, $77,548
Journeyman carpenter, Darren Bankert, $76,230
Working foreman water/sewer, Brian McCreight, $75,441