Expect early playoff elimination of Hounds. Here's why

Sorry to break this to you, Soo Greyhounds, but City Hall isn't counting on you advancing very far in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.

It turns out that Essar Centre employee hours, as anticipated in the preliminary 2015 city budget, make no provision for the Hounds being in this season's playoffs.

None. What. Soever.

This inauspicious omen was disclosed today by Mark Brown, one of a half-dozen citizens attending the first of three public input sessions on the 2015 municipal budget.

If the proposed budget is ratified by City Council in April, wages and benefits at the Sault's flagship recreational facility would be slashed  $66,575 (7.6 percent) from last year.

"It's not that we don't have faith in the Greyhounds." Shelley Schell, the city's manager of finance and budgets, protested too much.

"But we never budget based on an assumption that they're going to make the playoffs," Schell said.

When the Hounds win a playoff berth, that's considered a bonus, she added,

Citizen Brown also called for a hard line in current negotiations with city employees, arguing that the only way to significantly reduce spending is to control payroll costs.

He also suggested a way to maximize citizen participation in budget planning: whenever the city finds itself with a budget surplus, it shouldn't be used for levy reductions .

Instead, Brown said, the money should be given to the citizenry, who should be allowed to identify worthy projects.

Brian Gallagher, owner of Store Your Stuff at 2196 Queen Street East, called for reduced sidewalk plowing and collection of garbage and recyclables.

Trash could be picked up one week, recyclables the next, Gallagher said.

He also asked the city to look into contracting out operation of the Essar Centre and sharing heavy equipment like bucket trucks with the PUC.

Other suggestions made at today's meeting:

• Getting rid of the Norgoma museum ship.
• Selling the municipally owned Pointe Des Chenes campground.
• Leasing out the sixth floor of the Civic Centre, previously occupied by Algoma Public Health. (Chief Administrative Officer Joe Fratesi said that the city is very willing to lease that space to a compatible tenant.)
• Peter Noble, a supporter of the Sault Ste. Marie Ratepayers Association, said that the city should provide information on the effects of budget reductions. "What would happen if there was a zero percent increase? Or a 10 percent decrease?"

Finally, a Completely Irrelevant SooToday.com Factoid from today's budget input session: Ward 3 Councllor Matthew Shoemaker, chair of the city's finance committee, answered several times today to the monikers "Chairman Shoe" or just "Shoe."