HRM continues to refuse to tell us how many millions of taxpayer dollars it is paying a private firm to operate the new four-pad arena in Hammonds Plains. Readers will recall that the city contracted with Nustadia, Inc.—a subdivision of the Ohio-based Cochran Group—to operate the arena, but did not make that contract, or its terms, public. The Coast filed a Freedom of Information request for the information.
Monday, we received a copy of the 150-page-plus contract, but the essential detail—the dollar amount of the contract—is redacted. In a cover letter, Nancy Dempsey, the city’s FOI officer, justified the censorship by citing sections of the law that allow governments to withhold information that could “harm the financial or economic interest of the municipality.”
We reject that reasoning, and will appeal Dempsey’s decision to the provincial Freedom of Information review office.
Still, there’s some useful information in the unredacted parts of the contract. We now know that the term of the contract is 20 years, but that the city can automatically renew it for up to two five-year periods.
And, the contract explicitly states that all arena employees “shall be paid by [Nustadia] and be under the control and direction of [Nustadia] at all times and shall under no circumstances or at any time be deemed or implied to be employees of HRM.” This, of course, was the entire purpose of contracting with Nustadia in the first place: to save money through an end-run around the public employee unions. Or, put another way, by paying arena workers a crappy wage.
This article appears in May 20-26, 2010.
The trouble with municipal unions is that they’ve been able to run rampant with weak councils when it comes times for contract negotiations. The expense incurred by municipalities when hiring new employees is astronomical. In my hometown, the town janitor was being paid more than the Manager of parks. It was getting ridiculous. He goes out on LTD and they have to pay some new kid the same amount because it’s unionized? It’s such a difficult place to be put in for a municipality. Especially when looking at adding a dozen new employees… why should the guy cleaning the rink and making ice get $60,000/yr?? oh, right, because he pays union dues.
You can’t have both, Tim. Gripe about the increase in municipal budgets and then support insane unions and their unrelenting greediness. Seriously, you want to look at cutting budgets, let’s get realistic with union wages – send them out on early retirement, and allow municipalities to hire new people – with less experience, but who are willing to work – for a reasonable wage. Wage increases should come with experience – not with the strength of the union.
So, I agree that we should know the cost of the Nustadia contract. Fine. But I’m thinking that it’s probably a good move for the municipality to contract out something like this so they can keep costs in check, and be able to budget for it appropriately for the next 20yrs. An arena will ALWAYS lose money for a municipality, might as well pay someone to take away the headache and provide the community a service. Oh, and if you don’t want to work for $15/hr, work elsewhere.
I think we need to keep the issues separate: one issue has to do with the right of the municipal taxpayer to see how his or her money is being spent, and the other has to do with the merits of individual budget line items.
Every taxpayer will have different thoughts on the four-pad arena, and on Nustadia, and on municipal unions. I personally am not enthused about the arena, I don’t know enough about Nustadia to be anything but neutral about the company, and I am not happy with public sector unions. Someone else may be in favour of the arena, against Nustadia, and for PS unions. But *both of us* may be strongly in favour of seeing the numbers, because I’m guessing the majority of taxpayers like to see how their money is being spent.
The core problem here doesn’t have to do with Nustadia or city unions, although there are specific issues related to both. The core problem is the culture of secrecy that seems to be entrenched in city staff, and which is infecting the mayor and some councillors. Rather than believe that the work they conduct on our behalf should be public by default, they believe that it should be private by default. That’s the mindset that needs to be stamped out, and that’s the central issue.
I don’t know if it’s the case here, but often when this mindset starts to prevail, it has to do with a sense on the part of the perpetrators that not everything they do can stand scrutiny.