VALUE FOR MONEY

Do you think an $81,000.00 planner is too expensive? (See yesterday's blog post)

Well, consider this - first of all that is the going rate for planners. (NOTE TO KIDS: go to school and be a planner.)

So lets do the math.

At $81,000.00 a year, based on a 35 hour work week for 52 weeks a year comes to:

$44.50 an hour.

Since we have no idea how many hours the current planning consultant charges us (except for the 7 committed hours a month in office since June 2009) lets be generous and say he charges us for 20 hours a month for 12 months of the year, based on the planning consultant fees paid in 2009 of $65,000.00, comes to:

$270.00 an hour

Which do you think is better value for money?

A full time planning employee at $44.50 an hour who could also draft bylaws, do legislative research, work on the next five year OP review, work with Council to develop a strategic plan (which is a vision statement)deal with bylaw infractions, write reports, hell they could even answer the phone if it is busy....oh yeah and they could also deal with Highlands who are, in their own words, proposing a 2,400 acre, 200 foot deep open pit limestone mine on prime agricultural land.

OR a planning consultant at $240.00 an hour who to date has taken 6 years to work on the OP and still not produced a final draft or maps and guarantees 7 hours per month in the office?

Just asking.