The True Cost of a Witch Hunt

Blair commented on our last post. He opined that if you use a staff rate of $50 per hour (including salaries and benefits) and multiply that by 1,300 hours, you would end up with $65K and not our $100K for the cost of the Mayor's Standing Committee on Finance. The same standing committee that Mayor Green and Councillor Richter wishes to make a permanent fixture and add more bodies to it. The mayor believes that as most of the staff time is already covered by the budget, then it is no additional cost of the Township. We aren't sure how that computes.

We do know that if "Blair" is the same person that posts elsewhere is the same man, he is a very smart man and gives much thought into what he writes. Therefore, our Editorial Board has investigated this matter to give Blair and our readers an accurate read on the cost of this Mayor's Committee witch hunt that produced a very slim and lame report.

Here is what we learned:

1. Our calculations are very conservative. Almost all of the 1,300+ hours has been consumed with the use of senior ToL staff, as required by the committee queries and complexity of the tasks.

2. This calculation of hours did not include the many, many hours of time for ToL Administrator Mark Bakken.

3. Our figure was for TIME only and did not include materials. All that paper for photocopies and many of them colour copies because of the nature of the data (figures). You will recall that Councillor Charlie Fox measured a pile 2 feet high of materials that he received during his absence and that ONLY consisted of Finance Committee materials. More was produced upon his return.

Here are some details that Blair and others may find of interest:

Time:
1,300+ hours from January 2nd - March 15th
178 days @ 7+ hours per day
Average Hourly Rate/Level of Staff $80/hr. (w/o benefits)
Rough Order of Magnitude = $106,000 (with some supplies & benefits)

Tasks / Preparation:
Agendas & Minutes
Research
Finance Committee Inquiry Responses
Complex Financial Analysis of all Items
Preparation and Delivery of all Slide Shows
Preparation, Reconciliation & Re-Calculation of Several Model Budget Versions
Reformatting Spreadsheets (4+ hours each due to linkages)
Photocopying and Binding of All Materials
Circulation & Delivery of Materials
Meetings, Research & Compilation - Local Governement Finding Details
Budget - Staff Recommendations & Models

We stand behind our calculation and we trust that the Township will publish the actual figures and include benefits and material costs.