City of Sault Ste. Marie staff are wanting five new hires to be added to their payroll at a total cost of $460,501.
The request for the new positions is contained in a 2025 preliminary budget presented to Mayor Shoemaker and councillors last night.
Here are the five proposed new positions, as presented to city council:
Records and election coordinator - $59,776
The city clerk's office is requesting a records and election coordinator who would be responsible for managing the city's freedom of information requests; the city's corporate records program including inventory, interpretation, application of the record retention policy and schedule, internal compliance auditing, destruction, disposition, and reporting, etc.; maintaining the corporate policy manual; assisting with digitization of corporate records; and acting as the election coordinator for regular elections and byelections.
The freedom of information work is currently done by the legal department and this hiring would save $81,000 by freeing city lawyers to focus on other work.
Application support analyst/programmer - $132,602
This new position would play a key role in ensuring current and future ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications are implemented, managed and supported effectively.
It would also add support required for the growing application user base, increasing complexity and needed integration between multiple systems.
It would also develop and support automated data processes and dashboards to communicate insights to staff and the public.
Maintenance employee - $87,056
The city's public works department is asking for one full-time parks playground maintenance employee.
City council has approved in principle to replace aged playgrounds over 10 years old, in addition to maintaining continuous operations of the new skating trail, Bellevue splash pad, Manzo Park splash pad and Downtown Plaza, additional staffing resources are considered necessary to maintain optimal levels of service provision.
In addition, there's been no historical staffing increase to address Penhorwood Park disc golf course, Strathclair off-leash dog park, Esposito Park pump track, Clergue Park outdoor exercise equipment or Queen Elizabeth skateboard park.
Events assistant - $97,084 (including benefits)
The recently approved parks and recreation master plan identified the need for additional staff to support community events.
During community consultation, it was reported that community events were strongly desired by residents – particularly free events, licensed events for adults and more culturally relevant events for shifting demographics.
The additional staff member would help increase the number of community events taking place, increase promotion and marketing of events, and work with Tourism Sault Ste. Marie and other entities on tourism-focused events.
The new hire would also work on developing winter events and events designed for adults.
Clerical research assistant - $83,983
Clerical staff complement has not changed in the city's legal department since 2016.
Since then, increases have been made to other departments including bylaw enforcement and the legal department has added a lawyer and a risk manager, which has increased the volume and variety of work.
Legal has no articling student or paralegal to assist in clerical and junior specialized legal work.
Legal is not able to recruit a replacement to cover temporary leaves when they occur, even on 12- and 18-month leaves.
City staff have also requested a number of other new positions, which are not being forwarded for city council's consideration at this time:
- financial analyst - $116,839
- three seasonal public works workers from May to September - $109,166
- construction skills trainer (supervisor) - $113,164
- CVOR licence driver trainer (supervisor) - $113,164
- assistant curator - $55,000
- programmer assistant - $80,793
"We've short listed and prioritized the positions, and we will come back at budget time with the strategy to fund those initial positions... in the future," Tom Vair, the city's chief administrative officer, told councillors.
Overall, the 2025 preliminary budget proposes a 3.74 per cent levy increase to $146.1 million.
The preliminary budget is just an initial draft and councillors can be expected to cut anything they view as unnecessary spending.
A budget open house will take place in the Ronald A. Irwin Civic Centre lobby from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20 for a come-and-go discussion on budget priorities.
City council's budget deliberations are scheduled for Dec. 9 and 10.
Tax policy, rate options and other recommendations will be presented to council in March/April of next year.