City of Windsor moves 29 budget items out of ‘in-camera’

A Windsor-area advocacy group is calling on Mayor Drew Dilkens to provide more clarity on this year’s budget proposal.

Engage Windsor is a civic advocacy group that feels 54 budget items hidden from public view is too many.

“What we’ve done now is put the city on notice, or kind of give them a warning shot, if you will,” said Josh Sankarlal, the co-chair of Engage Windsor.

The group said they have asked the Ontario Ombudsman to review 54 budget items, all labelled as in-camera, totalling over $9 million. In-camera means those items are not visible to the public and are discussed behind closed doors.

“One of those items, of those $9 million, is a $2 million cut to housing and children’s services. People rely on these services. They deserve to know what is being talked about,” Sankarlal said.

According to him, if the city chooses to keep all of the items behind closed doors, they will reach out to the closed meetings investigator.

“I keep on recalling the tunnel bus last year, which was first in-camera and then after some advocacy, moved to be a public item. And so, a lot of these are under that same category, labor relations, just like the Tunnel Bus was last year,” Sarkarlal said.

Mayor Drew Dilkens and councillors CTV News spoke with said they appreciate Engage Windsor’s motives.

“They want accountability and transparency, which we should be providing to the residents that we serve,” said councillor Angelo Marignani.

Dilkens said discussions were taking place to make as many of the items public before Engage Windsor’s request to the Ombudsman.

“We have no concern about openness and transparency,” Dilkens told CTV News.

As of late this afternoon, 29 of those items were moved out of in-camera.

“I’m very happy to see that administration has heard the response and the concerns of residents and council and we’ll be releasing those additional line items for public review and scrutiny,” Maragnani said.

Dilkens explained the municipal act is very specific about the types of things that can be discussed in-camera.

“Legal matters, security of the property of the corporation. Of course, employment matters or labor relations matters. Those all qualify,” he said.

25 budget items remain in-camera and will be discussed behind closed doors Jan. 26. A public meeting is set for Jan. 12.

“What people are going to see of these 29 items that have been moved to the public session, there are some position additions. There are some positions, subtraction of vacant positions but at the end of the day, I have said from the very beginning, there are no sacred cows when looking at a 0 per cent budget,” Dilkens said.

The updated budget documents will be available on the city website by noon Wednesday. The meantime the 29 items are listed below:

• Transit Windsor: Addition of two additional positions to staff compliment
• Public Works: Changes to staff compliment
• Pollution Control: Addition of one position to staff compliment
• Housing & Children’s Services: Changes to staff compliment
• Council Services: Addition of one position to staff compliment
• Planning and Development Services: Reduction of one vacant position
• Employment & Social Services: Reduction of three vacant positions
• Housing & Children’s Services: Reduction of one vacant position
• Public Works: Waste Collection Agreement with Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation
• Public Works: Non-Eligible Source Recycling Cost Reductions
• Public Works: Reduction of two vacant positions
• Corporate Accounts: Change in hours of work per new Local 453 Collective Agreement
• Transit Windsor: Contractual decreases
• Building Services: Reduction of funding for vacant position.
• Public Works: Reduction of seasonal staffing for technical support.
• Culture: Reduction in Windsor Sculpture Park seasonal staff compliment
• Parks, Recreation & Facilities: Reduction in seasonal staff compliment
• Public Works: Transportation division optimization
• Legal: Reduction of one vacant position
• Council Services: Reduction of funding for one vacant position
• Communications: Elimination of one vacant position
• Parks, Recreation & Facilities: Reduction of funding for two vacant positions
• Public Works: Changes to staff compliment
• Planning & Development Services: Reduction in funding for four vacant positions
• Engineering: Addition of one temporary project coordinator staff position
• Engineering: Addition of two senior clerk staff positions
• Engineering: Addition of one corporate projects staff position
• Employment & Social Services: Addition of one information analyst position
• Employment & Social Services: Addition of two staff trainer positions