It’s a program dedicated to finding efficiencies and identifying cost-cutting opportunities. But it’s faced some hiring delays and many Calgary city councillors aren’t happy about it.
Since it was launched in 2012, the zero-based review program (ZBR) has saved the city between $58 and $68 million.
Since 2012, eight city departments have been subjected to a line-by-line review of their operations.
“The ZBR program has identified $10 in annual financial gains for every one-time $1 spent,” a report before the city’s Priorities and Finance Committee suggests.
But the same report claims several projects have been delayed because of the loss of just one position or a delay in hiring staff because of a hiring freeze.
“The return on investment for this is so good that it’s frustrating to see that we’ve maybe lost a year of some gains,” said Coun. Evan Woolley, expressing his disappointment with hiring delays within the zero-based review program.
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Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he understands the program got caught up itself in some of the city’s cost-cutting measures.
“You know, sometimes you have to speak bureaucratese fluently and, reading between the lines, what I heard, it wasn’t anything malicious. It was just a little bit of red tape,” he said. “So, it’s ironic that the program that is cutting red tape had to cut a little red tape on itself.”
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The speed in which the zero-based reviews are conducted also drew criticism from Coun. Shane Keating.
“There must be a way for someone, at some point in time –some individual, or some group of individuals, or a committee or someone – to say, “We can’t do this, we gotta change it.”
Meanwhile, city manager Jeff Fielding defended the administration in council chambers.
“We … needed to get our headcount under control and the cost associated with that,” he said. “Irrespective of what people thought of that, irrespective of whether that was a tough process– whether they didn’t like it, or had other opinions on that– I’m going to say this: tough.”
Council did vote in November to open up the purse strings and allow the hiring of one staff member for the zero-based review, but administration says it will take time to get the program on track.
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