Sarnia paying more for consultant work on capital projects in 2023

Breadcrumb Trail Links News Local News Coun. Bill Dennis reads the oath of office at the inaugural meeting of Sarnia City Council 2022-2026 on 15 November 2022. (Tyler Kula/The Observer) jpg, SO Article content

More complicated projects that require more expertise have led to higher spending on consultants, says Sarnia’s chief bureaucrat.

advertising 2

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

content of the article

Chris Carter recently made that statement to the council, responding to concerns from Coun. Bill Dennis has budgeted approximately $3.7 million for various City Capital initiatives.

That’s up from $1.3 million a year ago, Dennis noted.

“I don’t want to speculate, but where will it be next year?” he asked.

A breakdown of the city’s employees requested by Dennis, which shows where consultant money is budgeted this year, includes about $2.5 million for design and architectural work on projects including coastal defenses, wastewater treatment center improvements, wastewater system upgrades, and Master plans for city parks and its harbor.

There are also projects on the list that require planning expertise for the site of a proposed multipurpose recreation facility, for a city asset management project, a flood mitigation study and the development of a storm water rate for the city.

advertising 3

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

content of the article

Legal fees for the city’s integrity officer and environmental fees for road rehabilitation and other projects also contribute to the consulting budget, which accounts for approximately 8.5 percent of the city’s total capital budget of $43.5 million.

It’s normal for the percentage to be in the 15 to 20 percent range, Carter said.

“That tells me that we do as much as we can internally that we can.”

The city doesn’t have the expertise when it comes to executing some complicated projects like bridge construction, Carter said.

“We have no architects here, we have no designers on board.”

Hiring these people as employees would cost more in the long run than contracting out projects on an as-needed basis, he said.

advertising 4

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

content of the article

“It’s actually a good thing that you’re actually tapping into (that) expertise,” he said.

Sarnia has the full-time equivalent of 668 people on the payroll in 2023, according to the city’s draft operating budget. This includes police, part-time and student workers and is up slightly from 664 in 2022.

There are 22.85 full-time employees in engineering, up from 22 in 2022.

An additional construction engineering position was approved by council last July, and an administrative position was reformatted to split its time 85-15 with engineering and transit, in accordance with the city’s operating budget.

“Our engineering department…needs to be built up because we need better expertise in-house so that we can call on it when we need it,” says Coun. said Anne Marie Gillis.

advertising 5

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

content of the article

Dennis proposed during budget deliberations earlier this month that the $3.7 million consulting budget be cut in half. The vote was lost 7:2. Gillis sided with Dennis in the defeat.

The conversation was similar to one Dennis started a year ago when he argued that consultants’ dollars would be better spent hiring local people because local people knew better how to tackle local problems.

“This is very real money that is draining our resources and leaving us less money for other projects,” he said earlier this month.

Cutting the spend on contracted, project-specific expertise would mean cutting the capital work actually done, Carter said, noting that outsourcing of expertise is common for large projects.

advertising 6

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

content of the article

“I don’t want to say it’s cut and dry, but it’s quite cut and dry,” he said. “Either we continue with the additional projects or not. We just don’t have the expertise or resources in-house.”

Consulting fees vary by year, he said, pointing to the $13.5 million Centennial Park redevelopment project, which was completed around 2017, as something that’s likely to cost big bucks in consulting fees.

Some years, like 2019, were less challenging when the city spent about $160,000 on consultants and a total of $29.8 million on capital projects.

Regardless, the amount spent on consultants comes from reserves and doesn’t affect the determination of the tax levy, Carter said.

That sealed the deal for Coun. Dave Boushy, who voted with the rest of the council against Dennis’ motion.

“Anything we take out of the capital isn’t going to impact the budget, so why are we proposing now?” he asked. “You have to cut the budget in many places, but it’s not the capital.”

[email protected]

Share this article on your social network Ad 1

This ad has not yet loaded, but your article continues below.

Remarks

Postmedia strives to maintain a vibrant but civilized forum for discussion and encourages all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour to be moderated before they appear on the site. We ask that you keep your comments relevant and respectful. We’ve turned on email notifications – you’ll now receive an email when you get a reply to your comment, there’s an update on a comment thread you follow, or when a user you follow comments follows. For more information and details on how to customize your email settings, see our Community Guidelines.