City council is set to vote next week on adopting Vancouver’s 2012 operating budget, following a public meeting Wednesday night (February 29) on the issue.

About a dozen people attended the meeting at city hall, including former Coalition of Progressive Electors city councillor and 2011 election candidate Tim Louis, who criticized the increased police funding in the proposed budget.

“The Vision Vancouver budget...proposes an increase in the police budget of $8 million - that’s in spite of the fact that the crime rate goes down, year in and year out, for many years,” he told council. “It’s in spite of the fact that in Vancouver, we have one of the highest police ratio to citizens in the country.”

Louis suggested that the city cap the police budget and “invest” the $8 million into social housing.

“Let’s give the park board what it needs, and let’s put action to the promise of addressing the issue of homelessness by capping the police budget and using that money, investing it in social housing,” he said.

City staff asked council to approve a 2.5 percent property tax increase as part of the 2012 budget. The tax increase, in addition to a 7.9 percent increase in utility rates that was approved by council in December 2011, fee increases, and new construction revenues, will generate a 3.1 percent growth in revenues from 2011, according to budget documents.

Expenditures outlined in the budget include an $8 million increase to the Vancouver Police Department for costs including negotiated wage increases, 35 new officers, and the implementation of recommendations stemming from the Stanley Cup riot. The Vancouver park board is receiving a seven percent increase in its operating budget from 2011, and the library board budget is up by 1.4 percent.

Vancouver Public Library Board chair Catherine Evans said the board faces some reductions this year in its budget, including reference desk services at its central library branch.

“This year, we face reductions in a number of important services, in particular technical and reference services,” she told council. “However, we sincerely appreciate that the current budget proposal allows us to preserve operating hours at both our central library and at all 21 neighbourhood branches.”

Ed des Roches, a small business owner and past co-chair of the Vancouver Fair Tax Coalition, said the group is calling for a zero percent increase in property taxes.

“What we’re suggesting is that to get at the inefficiencies in the bureaucracy, the way to do it is to cut the revenue,” he told council.

Donna Liberson told council that a copy of the Vancouver Services Review she obtained from October 2009 indicates staff submitted “844 opportunities” to save the city money.

“That review reveals that council could have saved an additional $77 million from 2009 to 2012 inclusive by following the recommendations in the review,” she claimed.

City manager Penny Ballem said about 20 initiatives recommended in the services review are ongoing.

“Over the last two years, we’ve made $20 million in savings,” she told council.

She added the consultant’s report obtained by Liberson was prepared “at the beginning of this whole initiative”.

“At that point in time...there were many millions of dollars of savings identified, and it’s clear that we don’t have the capacity to achieve all that and the change associated with it in two years,” she said.

Wednesday’s meeting followed a staff presentation to council on Tuesday (February 28), and input from union representatives on the proposed budget.

Representatives included Paul Faoro, the president of CUPE Local 15, who criticized what he called “a lack of detail” on the expected elimination of some full-time equivalent positions in the city. About 89 positions across city departments are expected to be reduced, mainly through vacant positions and upcoming retirements, according to city finance director Patrice Impey.

“It’s very difficult for a trade union to represent its members, when you really don’t know the true effect of what’s being proposed,” Faoro told council.

City council voted to approve "in principle" the operating budget, and is scheduled to vote on adopting the final 2012 budget at a meeting on March 5.