A local councillor is hoping to get an outside perspective when it comes to municipal staffing needs in Chatham-Kent.
Chatham councillor Michael Bondy is planning to bring forward a motion later this month requesting that the municipality of Chatham-Kent retain Grant Thornton LLP to conduct an audit and analysis of its staffing levels.
According to Bondy, municipal departments being overstaffed is a common concern from residents.
"What do we hear from the public all the time? There's too many staff, it's top-heavy, etc. So let's find out," he said.
Bondy is asking that the audit examines what the return on investment is for existing staff members and what areas could use less staff or possibly more. He's also hoping to get an analysis of the overall business operations of the municipality and where cuts could be reasonably made without impacting citizens.
Bondy said he realizes that talking to staff about possible cuts can be a sensitive area. However, he's asserting that it's time to start discussing it.
"When we have our budget deliberations, we talk about everything from the ladder on a swimming pool, but never about staff, which is about 85 per cent where we spend all our money," he explained.
Bondy said although internal reviews are fairly commonplace, this is would be the first time, that he knows of, that an external consultant is brought in to review the Municipality of Chatham-Kent's operations.
A separate motion by Councillor Clare Latimer was approved on March 1 that will have municipal staff prepare a report before the end of the year looking at the operations of the municipality's service centres and information desks and whether there are any cost savings to be found.
Bondy said he feels internal reviews can create difficulties and believes it's less likely for cuts and costs savings to be found that way. Bringing in a third-party is the only way he said he believes a municipal review can be done fairly.
"An internal review is asking staff to look at their own staff to find reductions. Logically, that's unlikely," said Bondy. "Because people are friends, who wants to do that to a co-worker? A third-party neutral firm can come here, it's not personal, they have no skin in the game at all. It's completely neutral. They're not from Chatham-Kent, they don't know anyone on a personal level and they'll be completely objective in their analysis."
On its website, Grant Thornton describes itself as a "leading Canadian accounting and advisory firm providing audit, tax and advisory services to private and public organizations." Once the audit is complete, Bondy said the company will most likely return to council with their findings and recommendations.
"It's very simple," he said. "These people are good at it, they know exactly what they're looking for, they've done it for many other municipalities."
