The $2 million Dutch Village Road typo

Halifax continues police reform efforts in a busy Wednesday for city politics

Wednesday May 21 was a busier than normal day in municipal politics as the Board of Police Commissioners meeting from earlier this month was rescheduled for yesterday afternoon.

Before the Board met, the Audit and Finance standing committee met and reviewed the third-quarter earnings of the city’s investment portfolio. We’re up $3.6 million instead of the expected $4 million, but on the year, we’re $2.5 million over expectations. The city’s bean counters have put the municipality in a good field position for earnings this year as we await results from the fourth quarter of play in this year’s economic game.

The city’s capital budget, passed earlier this year, required some housekeeping amendments. Some of the city's budgeted items were contingent on getting funding from other government agencies or organizations. Some of that funding went through, some didn’t, and the municipal budget needs to be updated accordingly. The committee recommended council do just that when they sent this report along.

Also notable in the capital budget report is that the Dutch Village road work this summer will require an additional $1.9 million in funding. In the report staff write that his mistake was “previously known during the budget preparation process however, could not be finalized in due time.” At the meeting, city staff said it was a typo. After the meeting, a city spokesperson wrote in an email that “there was an inconsistency between the capital budget book and the financial tracking software that was not identified until the capital budget books were printed.” It is unclear why a typo known about ahead of time could not have been amended during the budget process, even if the budget book had been printed, because it was not yet approved by council and therefore subject to changes, like correcting typos and fiscal discrepancies.

Other than a fairly routine motion to move money around from the Halifax Commons pool and pool park accounts so that the city could save some money by making a small hill instead of trucking away dirt, and paying for the mobile food market, the meeting was dominated by a presentation about hydrogen busses.