2023-2027 Draft Financial and Corporate Business Plan

On the whole the city of Penticton has great recreational facilities, however there is one issue of growing concern. The underuse of the city park tennis courts and the exponential growth and demand for pickleball facilities.

Previously a small vocal groups of tennis players expressed concerns that double lining tennis courts for dual sports would interfere with tennis using the existing nets. The Penticton Community Centre has indoor courts lined for 4 different sports and players have no issue with overlapping lines for Badminton, Volleyball, Basketball and Pickleball.

Currently there are over 300 plus registered Pickleball Club members plus hundreds of non members plus visiting tourists vying for a limited resource beside the senior centre at 2905 S Main Street.

There have been no or rare tennis players at La Kawanna Park 123 Power street in the last 5 years, similarly for McLaren Park and Columbia Park. Skaha Park tennis courts are intermittently used but primarily in the tourist season.

I would like to recommend to Penticton Mayor and council adding funds for the double lining of current tennis courts to accommodate the exponential growth in Pickleball , the fastest growing sport in North America. BC has the largest numbers of pickleball players in Canada, the economic benefit of adding additional tourism venues is significant.

Any noise issues can be mitigated with sound barrier material on the perimeter fence , currently employed and effective at the senior centre pickles courts

6.7% is way too high for small businesses to absorb these atrocious tax hikes. The majority of Penticton’s residents are seniors living on fixed incomes — they cannot afford this tax hike.
Request: It is now time to look for significant efficiencies in operations and all depts of the city. Ask staff to review each of their departments to modernize, streamline, and prioritize projects over longer periods of time. This has to be council’s number one priority to hold staff accountable for measurable efficiencies with firm timelines.
Request:
- Stop downloading the rising costs of goods and services. Businesses and the general public are struggling to buy groceries and feed themselves and their families.
- Demand staff review and find operational efficiencies including reviewing all purchasing contracts.
- Ask staff to justify what they are buying and why before contracts are tendered. The excuse of ‘we’ve always done it this way.’ Is long over.
- Increase the cost sharing of new projects including renewing and upgrading the city’s infrastructure responsibilities.
In summary, start running the city like a small business with a fixed budget.

SUGGESTION: Great companies as part of their annual budgeting activities and three-year strategic planning will undertake an exercise of:

"If you had to reduce the budget by 5% what would you cut or optimize?"

AND

"If you could double-down on three items in the budget what are they and why?"

It would be interesting what this exercise would surface if undertaken by each department and then you examine, discuss, and determine if this drives tangible actions (...it should).

It would be great to categorize these expenses/costs into a few buckets:

(1) Essential - these are basically expenses that keep the lights on, water running, etc. Typically, essential expenses are non-negotiable.

(2) Enablers/Investments - these expenses enable other initiatives or services to be created or operate more cost/time effectively.

(3) Nice to Haves - there are nice-to-haves in any budget, what benefits od they provide - perhaps city employee job satisfaction, enhanced visitor experience.

Categorization helps drive prioritization conversations.

Page 18 Capital Borrowing and Planned Capital Costs: The BC Government has announced that it will distribute $1 B to cities in the province.

SUGGESTION: Perhaps the $7 +/- Million earmarked for Penticton can be used for these capital projects or other projects which that money can then be used for these projects.

Suggestion: Moving forward can the city separate "Recreation and Culture" into two distinct items. This will allow better clarity of where money is being spent and if that is the best/right investment.

For example, based on usage and benefit to the citizens is it best to invest in the Recreation/Pool Centre vs the Library?

The city needs to expand its tax base as the population has been around 37,000 residents give or take single digit percentage points for more than 10 years. One of the biggest opportunities is to increase the tax base - this should be a combination of both residential and businesses. If you bring in large employer based companies into the city or nearby then those employees will need/want to live in the city. In addition, there needs to be a focused effort (not just the North Gateway) to drive density with apartments, condos, and townhouses.

Cities need to evolve, grow, and develop in order for them to pay for services and infrastructure.

What is the economic development plan to drive growth? How do you attract developers? How do you bring in different types of industry into the city? Who do you partner with to build a business park building(s)?

Looking at the overall Safety Plan - what data and criteria was used to determine that the addition of four firefighters is the best overall investment for the "Safety and Resilient" pillar?

From a citizen and business perspective, the top issue voiced is property and person crime - should the biggest investment be aimed at this priority. As stated in city reports, the vast majority of calls the fire department are handle are medical/overdose calls which speaks to a deeper conversation of how to optimize the fire department services.

We need to work harder on potholes and cracks in our roads. It should be mandatory every year to fix them. It also should be mandatory to paint lines on roads in city especially intersections. If you are local you know where lanes are for turning but for tourists it is a mystery.

Taxes do not need to go up every year for new ideas. Please try to budget with the money you have. Our pensions do not go up. If this continues we will have to move to be able to continue living in this city.

I cannot help but comment on the proposal (read completed already) relating to taxation increases within the City.
....and having lived payed taxes and worked professionally in the city for nearly 30 years, I feel I should have a valid opinion.
In what world does the Mayor, who nether lives nor pays taxes within the City have the nerve to support such an increase.
Without digressing into the abilities, and lack of, financial fundamentals of the councilors I will address some key issues surrounding the increases.
The overall common theme these days is to throw tax money at problems that do not exist. More Police has become the go to answer for all community safety problems within the city. Yet never any metric of success, or program failures come on behalf of the influx of yet more money.
Where are the Police now? What are they actually doing? Yes , I have heard the comments of the officers in charge. Officers are so busy. Officers cannot attend every call. Officers are over worked.
I for one would like to know where they are? What are they actually doing each day and night. You can drive around our town in minutes and regrettably, in the last years, never a Police car is seen.
Covid? Management? No patrols. No cops on bikes. Heaven forbid seeing an officer walking downtown on a Friday night. Whats happening?
Moving back to my original feeling of a metric to be placed to show success, there needs to be accountable showing of what is actually taking place hour by hour to determine the needs for more officers. I for one do not believe that has been shown simply by painting a picture of statistics.
Bylaw and Community safety officer funding. Please. no more funding down this endless pit. Two bylaw employees driving aimlessly around town hours on end to what end? They have no powers as the non-existent police have. They may collect some of the garbage left behind by the homeless on our streets for which I applaud them. But apart from collecting meter money, whats the point?
And further whats the point of additional resources. Again. What do they actually accomplish day to day. And until that is shown clearly, what is the point of adding more resources.
Community safety officers? If the police were doing there jobs, which was being done until around covid began it seems, there would not be a need. Handing out homeless shelter information, overdose prevention kits, and food bank location to the homeless? Really?
The Government of BC already is heavily involved in this aspect with millions of yet more tax dollar funding numerous questionable projects. Again, another duplication of tax money and resources that is simply not needed nor showing any metric of success.
More fireman? Again, where is the yard line on this. Penticton already has union paid firefighters that are available 24/7. And arguably, having the lowest number of calls to actual fires within the province for the size of the community. Totally understand the dynamic here. With a population base of seniors living here, the sense of security is a definite ace in the hole as far as the chief making demands for more resources. But again, really needed? Why. For what. What is the real need and what has been lacking? There is a very fine line to having what you think you may want for the next big event, but actually what you really need is already in place.
Affordable housing priority to the amounts of 3%? Exactly what does that look like? Where does this strategy actually spend the kind of money that comes for 3% of taxpayers pockets? More initiatives to house the homeless? More pamphlets for those in need? Where is the planning for this money to go? In what shape and to who?
There is no mention of real infrastructure spending, of attempts to draw more well paying jobs the city, just money out the door on 'nice to haves'
There has to be someone on this council the has the determination and courage to say enough. Strongly enough to have others stop the insane spending for no benefit.
Bicycle lanes come to mind. What has been done to improve the services and life style in Penticton in the last years? Very little as I see it. Just more money and apparently more needed to increase the look of important work being done by council.
Sooner or later following this path of insane taxation the seniors will increase the deferment of taxation to the point of no return. Young people will be forced to move where there are jobs and houses they are able to afford. And Future Mayors and Counselors will be scratching their heads wondering where it went wrong.

If you have read this far, I thank you and hope that some of this rings true. I closing, I would like to state a simple fact I was taught years ago.
If you don't have the money, DONT spend it. And that what I see the Mayor and council doing. Remember, its NOT your money. Stop the bleeding. Stop the spending. Its simple really.