The cost of keeping municipal staff connected had councillors flabbergasted on Monday, during the first public meeting to discuss the proposed 2012 municipal budget.

The Town of Jasper has budgeted about $50,000 for phones. 

“That’s more than we spend for the housing corporation, for example,” pointed out Mayor Richard Ireland, who questioned the cost of phones during last year’s budget deliberations, as well. “Housing is the perennial, most important issue in this town and we spend more on telephones than the budget for the housing corporation.”

In the proposed 2012 budget, the Jasper Community Housing Corporation has a budget of $33,048, down from $41,500 in 2011. The 27.8 per cent reduction is largely due to a decrease in labour costs.

To make the municipality’s phone bills more palatable, Coun. Rico Damota suggested that maybe it’s time to rid the municipality of landlines, since most people have cellphones anyway. 

But Alice Lettner, director of finance and administration, said landlines actually aren’t the major cost in the municipality’s communication system.

“The major cost is the usage time on cellphones,” she said. “Think about your own cellphone. Think of how much your personal cellphone costs and then think about how many employees within the municipality have cellphones. 

“(The numbers) seem staggering, but that’s the communication that goes on these days.”

On average, the municipality has about 80 employees. With a budget of $50,000 for phones, that equates to about $50 a month, per employee.

“What package do you get for $50 that gives you calling and everything else?” Lettner asked council.

Most municipal employees with cellphones don’t just use them for calling, they’re also used for email and text messaging. 

Lettner said that text messaging is cheaper than making a phone call, so that is often the means of communication chosen by municipal staff.

During the discussion, Coun. Mike Day noted that his cellphone costs him $70 a month, which equals $840 a year – $215 more than is budgeted for each municipal employee.

Damota suggested maybe the answer is not to provide staff with cellphones, but rather to subsidize the personal phone plans that they already have. 

Lettner said there are issues with that as well, because people might be more likely to turn off their phones or ignore work related calls when they’re not working, if they’re only subsidized for the hours they’re paid to work.

“The idea of that cellphone is that you’re a little bit more connected,” she said. “When you want to have that level of connectivity, you have to pay for it.”

Ireland said although he doesn’t think the municipality should revert back to using “cans and string,” he doesn’t think phone costs should make up such a large portion of the operating budget.

“I made an issue of it last year and nothing has changed. It just seems like too much,” he said.

The town’s total operating budget for 2012 is about $12.8 million, up from $12.3 million in 2011.

The proposed 2012 operating budget forecasts a 4.1-per-cent municipal tax increase.

During Monday’s meeting, council also discussed the operating budget for corporate and legislative services, family and community services and the housing corporation.

Public budget meetings will continue tonight from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building.

Being discussed will be the operating budgets for emergency services and environmental services.

The final budget meeting is being held Dec. 7.