Major differences in opinion still clearly exist regarding costs for the city-run Stars and Thunder festival after a testy meeting on Tuesday night at city hall.
Mayor Steve Black elaborated on the festival financial summary package that was released last week. It stated that the city's expenditures for the festival totaled $4,415,000, leaving a loss of just $30,000 and an anticipated household impact of $1.35.
Black said that both Chief Administrative Officer Dave Landers and City Treasurer Jim Howie approved the report before it was made public.
During his presentation on Tuesday he thanked a long list of corporate sponsors and event partners including Goldcorp's Porcupine Gold Mines, whose city centre berm acted as the launch pad for the fireworks displays. Included with their in-kind donation were costs for setting up fencing and berm prep work.
"What they didn't include, and would drive our number further up, was the cost and operational impact that they had from agreeing to work around our fireworks shows in their operations," said Black.
He addressed the 'other festival costs' portion of his report. Regarding a $70,000 increase in security and policing costs compared to his final pre-festival update, Black told council there were good reasons.
"As many people probably don't know, but those of us organizing the event did know, ISIS did issue a threat to Canada during the week of Canada Day, saying that it was considering targeting large Canada Day celebrations."
Timmins Transit operated for free, starting at noon, for seven consecutive days in an effort to move the masses to and from the Hollinger Park area efficiently, however these costs weren't included in Black's report.
"I don't have a projection of what the typical transit revenue was for that week if we ran full day and charged transit rates, but I wanted to be fully open and transparent. Things that weren't included but impacted the municipality. On the plus side, our Manager of Transit said that hundreds and thousands of people had the chance to experience our transit system. So for a promotional sense, it was probably the best marketing opportunity they had in terms of getting people used to the transit system, and having them use it, and see how well it can work," said Black.
He called complaints from local taxi companies related to losing revenue during the festival 'a compliment to our team who organized the shuttles and transit system' due to its effectiveness. The taxi companies were some of those who provided negative feedback to a Timmins Chamber of Commerce post-festival survey.
Concerning the sizeable NOHFC grant the city recently received, which was then included in Black's report as a 'revenue', he said there are some misconceptions as the grant wasn't given simply for park rejuvenation and refurbishment of the historic Hollinger grandstands.
"It's based on economic development. So we used the festival, and the potential of hosting future festivals, as complete justification for applying for that grant, including the number of tickets that were sold out of town, the number of tourists that were coming to town, and our CAO was involved in that process."
Black then asked city CAO Dave Landers point blank if he thought the city would have received the grant money without the festival.
"The letter from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund does link the grant of the $369,570 directly with the development of the project of the Timmins International Fireworks Competition and Festival," replied Landers.
Councillor Rick Dubeau interrupted by asking to see the full document that Landers was reading from, as it wasn't included in the public council package. Black told him it would 'be on the next slide'.
"Why haven't we received it?" Dubeau asked.
"Because, until you started going on online about it, I didn't feel the need to add it," said Black, in apparent reference to any number of festival related posts on social media.
After things cooled, albeit temporarily, Black explained why he used the grant money against the total costs for the festival. He said essentially it lessens the bill to taxpayers on work the city was going to have to do regardless of a festival.
"I accept that direct revenues was a $540,000 loss, but this is work that is being done at the park in soil remediation that taxpayers would have to pay for that's now received as a result of the festival application. A reduction of $370,000 of upper level government money."
Once the floor was opened up for input, Councillor Joe Campbell was the first to speak up. He took the opportunity to congratulate staff and volunteers who were able to make the festival work. He also spoke about a 'euphoria' over the event in the community currently, and added that discussions on a similar event next year are warranted.
Councillor Joe Campbell called Black's report 'creative accounting'. Andrew Autio for TimminsToday"But there is also some realities that should be discussed tonight, and one of them is your report here. I'm surprised to hear you say that this report was reviewed by the CAO and the treasurer, because I met with the treasurer this afternoon and he agreed there were some generally accepted accounting principles that were violated in the report, as to what you were showing here," said Campbell.
He dished out some not-so-subtle verbal jabs at his fellow members of council for their response, or lack thereof, to the financial report.
"It's easy to sit here and say 'I'm not going to paddle upstream', I'm going to get on board like everybody else, get on the bandwagon and say 'its wonderful', its easier going down the stream. But the reality here is that this event should not cost our taxpayers any money, and you've made a statement here that it's $1.35 a household. I sat today with the treasurer and received two reports. One is an actual report showing the total expenditures to date on this, and the the total revenues. To date, the total expenditures on this project are $5.99 million dollars," said Campbell, adding that even with properly adjusted revenue numbers, the city's loss on the festival is actually closer to $565,000.
He also read what he said was a statement from Howie which said that any additional expenses, which includes some outstanding bills, would be offset by revenues.
"So basically you're looking at a shortfall of $550,000 to $600,000 without the creative accounting. That's what has to go out to our taxpayers," said Campbell.
He then made it clear that he went to the festival each and every day, and is supportive of a similar event going forward, but only under different circumstances.
"This here is creative accounting. That's what it is in a nutshell, and I'll give you a chance to respond. But I can't sit here and listen to this having worked in accounting for 43 years to look at this, and have you put this forth," said Campbell.
Black said 'he had a feeling' the discussions could turn salty on Tuesday, so he brought along a printed copy of an email exchange between himself and Howie. He asked Howie that if 'Joe and Rick turn around' and ask questions, the numbers would match up with those they might have.
Clearly agitated, Black said he wasn't interested in debating all night, and bluntly asked Howie and Landers to answer if they had approved his numbers in terms of overall impact to taxpayers.
"I did review the slides as they came out. I understood that they were netted out, and that the difference in the cost was approximately $540,000," said Landers.
Howie said generally he agreed with Black's numbers, but due to his 'basic accounting principles' he had to charge banked employee hours somewhere, and thus he charged them to the festival budget within his own numbers.
Campbell reiterated his position that he supported the festival, and sees a potentially self sustainable event, but that the public deserves to know the actual costs.
"We have to do this thing right. We have to know what it really cost us this year, so we can budget accordingly, so that our taxpayers aren't on the hook for a penny next year. That we come up with a budget that is realistic, that will give us 100 percent chance of breaking even, or making money, because I don't want to lose all the economic benefits that it brought to the community."
Howie later said that it will be 'at least a month' until a full audited financial report on the Stars and Thunder festival will be ready. Council is likely headed to a vote to proceed with a festival next year at the next meeting on August 22.
