Sudbury councillors freeze HCI fund - for now
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City council's much-debated Healthy Community Initiative funds have been frozen for at least two months.
Following a lengthy debate at last night's meeting, council voted unanimously to freeze all spending on the HCI funds - including 2015 allocations and a carry-over of about $510,000 from 2014 - until after a public consultation takes place in late March.
Most of the discussion at the meeting centered on honouring Mayor Brian Bigger's campaign promise to freeze taxes, but some councillors pointed out it was too soon to really decide on the HCI funding allocations for 2015.
"I can't make a decision on how to get to zero percent until I see the whole (budget)," Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan said during deliberations.
Councillors debated five options for the funds, but ultimately agreed with Kirwan.
"Council feels it's important to have public consultation and I think it's a really good sign that that was an option, which we as a council came up with," Bigger told reporters following the meeting.
Bigger added that council will take its direction from the public input session, which could alter drastically how the funds are disbursed.
"Based on the public consultation, we'll be able to consider the information we've heard from different groups and individuals, and incorporate that into our policies and procedures," he said. "We do believe they're important in supporting healthy communities. There were some concerns about procedures and how they were handled in the past, so through the public consultation we'll have an opportunity to refine our thoughts on how they should be managed."
Under HCI, the city's 12 councillors get $50,000 a year to spend as they see fit in their wards. Critics don't like the fund, saying it is spent with little oversight and that it gives councillors an unfair advantage at election time.
A poll conducted by Toronto-based Mainstreet Technologies in mid-December found that Sudburians overwhelmingly want to see changes made to the funds.
More than half of those polled would like to see HCI funds discontinued: 34% strongly disagreed outright and 20% somewhat disagreed with their existence. Only 24% of respondents believed the funds should be maintained.
Mainstreet also asked Sudburians about the administration of the HCI funds. Thirty-six percent of respondents would reduce them to $5,000 or less, while 15% of those polled believed each council should be able to access as much as $10,000. Thirty-three percent of respondents did not believe councillors should have access to any discretionary spending.
maryk.keown@sunmedia.ca
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