June 26, 2017 Council Meeting Notes: Annual report, financial statements, and council remuneration

At Monday night’s council meeting, Langley City’s 2016 Annual Report was presented to, and adopted by, council. This annual report contains details on the City’s operations including services provided and achievements made, outlines progress towards meeting our strategic plan objectives, details some statistics, shows permissive tax exemptions, and presents the municipality’s 2016 consolidated financial statements. The 2016 Annual Report can be viewed on the City’s website.

Later during the same meeting, the consolidated financial statements were presented again to council, and adopted by council.

2016 Revenue and Expenses for Langley City. Select table to enlarge.

As shown, the City had about $41 million in operating costs in 2016. Policing was the single largest area where the City invested revenue at $10.3 million, following by Engineering Operations (streets, lighting, and walkways) at $5.6 million, than Fire Services at $4.5 million.

These consolidated financial statements also include City employee remuneration and expenses. In 2016, Langley City had a total of $10.6 million in employee remuneration and benefits.

Similar information was presented about council. In total, council had $321,505 in remuneration, benefits, and expenses. This total represents around 2% of all remuneration/benefit costs at the municipality, or 0.7% of all operating costs, a very small number.

2016 Council Remuneration, Expenses, ad Benefits. Select table to enlarge.

The Annual Report, Statement of Financial Information, and Council Remuneration and Expenses are required to be adopted and be publicly available under law.

Another housekeeping item was dealt with at the meeting. Council repealed an old policy regrading media advertising which required the City to advertise for half the year in the Langley Time, and the other half of the year in the Langley Advance. As both papers are now owned by the same company, this policy no longer makes sense. The repeal will allow the City to get the best value for advertising from Black Press, the owner of both local papers.

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting about the remaining items covered at Monday night’s council meeting.