Building a cohesive city council team to address the fiscal challenges facing the city is top of mind for the eight city councillors elect.
City council newcomers Lyn Hall, Albert Koehler and Frank Everitt will be joining veteran councillors Murry Krause, Brian Skakun, Cameron Stolz, Garth Frizzell and Dave Wilbur around the council table at council's inaugural meeting on Dec. 5.
"For me, personally, it's going to be that transition from the school board to the city," Hall said. "Although a lot of the operations parallel each other, there is going to be a steep learning curve. For me, as a new councillor, I have to bring myself up to speed on the city's operations."
Hall said the councillors elect have already met with mayor elect Shari Green to being the process of getting to know each other, and what their goals are.
"One of the first things - and we've already started this - is building that team," Hall said. "Of course we'll have some fiscal challenges in the new year."
Finding efficiencies, while meeting the city's infrastructure needs will be one of the core challenges this council will face, he said.
Koehler said getting up to speed on the city's finances will be his top priority.
"I'm certainly not in favour to increase taxes. Taxes have been increased multiple times inflation in past years, and we just can't do that," Koehler said. "One of the challenges will be getting our financial house in order. The other is to make sure we are a team and we function as a team."
As a veteran of four council terms, Krause is no stranger to working with new councillors and mayors.
"I'm looking forward to working with this council - I think it's going to be a great group," Krause said. "I think loud and clearly coming out of the election was the need for a core service review."
Krause is currently the chairperson of the city's finance and audit committee. There is a need to develop a longer-term vision for managing city costs, debt and capital spending, Krause said.
"[But] there is some assumptions that there is lots of frills that we can easily pare down the budget," Krause said. "It's not going to be easy. This council and the previous council have looked for efficiencies and savings."
Skakun said going into the new term - his third - there is already positive signs from this council.
"We're going to have our differences of opinion ... but it is going to come down to how council can come together as a team to get things done for the community," he said. "From my perspective, this is probably some of the most team building I've seen this early in a term."
Skakun said in addition to the pressing financial issues, he plans to keep the issues of government transparency and promoting economic development on the table.
"The first priority is council has to get together ... and decide what our priorities are in the next three years," Skakun said.
Stolz, who will start his second term in office on Dec. 5, said it's important that voters have patience with the new council on the issue of taxation.
"[The budget] has been drafted and moved forward by the previous council," Stolz said. "The current council has had a budget handed to it from the previous council. It would be foolish to make rash decisions before a core service review is done."
Stolz lead a review of the city's fleet purchasing methods, which ultimately saved the city over $700,000.
"That took 10 months ... to go through the whole process," he said. "Doing a full core review will take six to 12 months. You don't just do a core review in two months."
Until that review is complete, he said, council won't be in a position to cut spending in a strategic way.
Wilbur, also entering his second term, agreed that city council has to carefully balance fiscal restraint with providing essential services.
"We have to make sure we're sustainable first. The challenge will be to do that job one, and keep the sign that we're open for business up," he said.
Wilbur said he supports a core service review, and in fact called for one in his first year on council, but believes it needs to be focused to prevent the timeline and cost from spiraling out of control.
"We can't wait two years to get it done," he said. "We have to look at key areas. Any longer than six months is getting to long."
Any core review has to be practical and respond to the needs expressed by the community, Frizzell added.
"It has to be something that is practical and would ultimately result in better service to the community," Frizzell said. "If the last three years have taught us anything, it is that we have to keep in touch with the public. This is the people of Prince George's city - it is not owned by the council."
Ultimately, the ideal solution to the city's financial sustainability is attracting new residents and business growth, he said, especially in small business areas.
"The silver bullet is going to be getting people to move here," Frizzell said.
Everitt was unavailable for comment as of press time.
