Wasteful spending needs to be cut: Mendicino

Dave Mendicino hasn’t seen the books yet, but the newly elected city councillor is convinced there’s “wasteful spending” within North Bay’s $85 million budget.

Mendicino said “front line” city staff have told him there are savings to be had, and that’s a major area the new council will focus on while preparing the 2004 budget.

“It’s not just the agencies, boards and commissions, but the overall budget, because nobody’s going to convince me that on an $85 million budget there’s not wasteful spending,” Mendicino said.

“And reversing it doesn’t mean cutting jobs or cutting service. Cutting wasteful spending just means doing things differently.”

business-like approach needed
One of the ways to reduce wasteful spending with the ABCs, Mendicino said, would be to recruit and appoint “more business-like” people to sit on them.

“We also have a council now that’s more business orientated, and I firmly believe that a more business orientated council would not have let the conservation authority get to the point that it did, and would have have put a stop to it long before that.”

Mendicino said a business-like approach is needed to handle the city budget.

“As a business person, when you’ve got an $85 million budget and you want to find efficiencies to save money, you can do it,” said Mendicino, pictured above.

“Business people do it all the time, and you have to apply that philosophy to running the city. There is wasteful spending and I know it, though I haven’t seen the books.
But I’m convinced there are savings to be had there.”

Need to be reaching out
Savings, Mendicino said, that could be achieved by “reaching out” to front line personnel.

“I hear it from them that we could be doing this differently, we could be doing that differently and that that would save us money,” Mendicino said.

“We need to be reaching out to these people a little more than the current administration has and listen to their ideas.”

Mendicino reiterated cutting services and jobs isn’t the route to go.

“When you’re trying to sell the city and bring business here, you can’t bring business here by reducing your level of service or cutting jobs. We will not go down that road,” Mendicino said.

“We want that to increase. In my mind the level of service has to increase, not go down, but I still say there are efficiencies to be found, and there are no ifs ands or buts about it.”

Proud they let their names stand
It helps, Mendicino said, to have a council deeply routed in either business or the chamber of commerce.

New Mayor Vic Fedeli and incumbent councillor George Maroosis, for example, were both past presidents of the chamber. Councillors Maureen Boldt and Mike Anthony are past directors, although Anthony says he will try to get back on the chamber now that he’s been re-elected.

Tom Mason, Darryl Vaillancourt and Mac Bain, all elected to council Nov. 10, are also chamber directors.

“I’m proud they let their names stand, and that they got in,” Mendicino said, “because the city must be run in a more business-like way, and now you’ve got that flavour in there.”