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Mono Council eyes budget process amid upcoming municipal election

August 30, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Mono Council has unanimously approved taking some steps leading to its final budget process, due to the upcoming October municipal election.

At this past Tuesday’s (August 28) town council meeting, treasurer Les Halucha presented to council the option to receive the complete budget package at the first meeting in December with no prior presentation from staff of capital projects, business plans or the cost of living recommendation.

The other option presented was to take some of the steps leading up to the final budget, with a capital projects presentation at the second meeting in September and Departmental Business Plans at the first meeting in October.

The recommendation from staff, in a letter to council, was to accept the option of receiving with entire package with no prior presentation, as “it allows for the new council to make the decisions at very step of the budget process.”

Councillor Fred Nix disagreed with the first recommendation. “I don’t think council should approve them, but we should at least go through the process.” Both options would have budget deliberations start in January 2019.

“There’s no real problem,” said Mr. Halucha. “Just in the past, some of the decisions that were made prior to the final budget meeting accepted by the new council, the process got repeated again.”

In previous years, council has approved a multiple staged budget approval process; generally beginning in the second meeting in September department heads present proposed capital projects, then in October department heads present their Departmental

Business Plans; Treasurer proposes cost of living adjustment, the first budget draft is presented to Council in November, where it is then finalized, then passed in December.

Councillor Sharon Martin agreed with Councillor Nix. “The public can get a grasp on what’s going on.”

After further discussion, Councillor Nix moved to accept the option of receiving some of the steps leading to the final budget process, which was seconded by Councillor Martin, and unanimously approved by Council.


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