Prince Edward County (PEC) currently employs roughly a dozen senior leaders (directors and the CAO’s office), with director salaries starting near $150,000 and executive assistants typically budgeted around $80,000. Residents reasonably ask: what are we getting for this overhead, and is our structure appropriate for a small municipality facing acute affordability pressures?
What the numbers say (and don’t say)
- Budget + signals from County Hall. The County’s 2024 budget was approved in December 2023, setting tax-supported spending and establishing the staffing complement for the year; however, PEC does not publish a consolidated, easy-to-read staffing/FTE dashboard by department in the same way some peers do. That lack of transparency makes it harder for residents to link payroll, deliverables, and outcomes. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- Governance roles on paper. The County’s own risk-management framework clarifies who holds the pen: the CAO is responsible for embedding risk processes across operations, and the Director of Corporate & Legislative Services is specifically accountable for risk and insurance management. In practice, that means ratepayers should be able to see regular, plain-language reporting tying cost, risk, and results to the org chart. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- Compensation pressure. Local analysis of the sunshine list indicates the number of County staff earning $100,000+ rose from 34 to 46 between 2023 and 2024 (+35%). While inevitable in some areas (policing, EMS, utilities), it underscores why PEC needs a clear headcount strategy tied to outcomes. (This is secondary analysis, but directionally useful until PEC publishes its own dashboard.)
How peers publish—and right-size—their structures
- Quinte West shows its FTEs by division. The 2024 Quinte West corporate budget book lays out 2023 vs 2024 FTE counts division-by-division in a single table—exactly the kind of disclosure that lets residents connect payroll to service lines. Its Water & Wastewater Services book even includes an internal org chart and staffing counts (e.g., admin 6.0 FTE), so people can see how many positions support core, fee-funded services. Quinte West
- Quinte West also spells out who’s in charge. The public corporate directory lists the CAO and the director team by name and portfolio—helpful for accountability and for understanding span of control. Quinte West
- Ontario-wide benchmarks exist. The annual BMA Municipal Study (used by dozens of Ontario municipalities) provides comparative indicators—such as FTE per 1,000 population, general government cost per household, and overhead as a % of total spending—to evaluate whether a city is “top-heavy” or right-sized for its service mix. Municipalities use BMA results to adjust structures over time. muskoka.on.ca
Where PEC is falling short
- Outcome reporting is thin. Residents hear that the County has a Director of Affordable Housing (plus a supervisor and staff), but there’s no simple, routinely updated scorecard that answers the first question taxpayers will ask: How many affordable units were permitted, financed, started, and completed this year? A credible program shows a pipeline (Stage 1–4) with dates and unit counts—updated quarterly.
- Role changes without open competition erode confidence. Elevating a program director to interim CAO can be legitimate during transition, but best practice is to run a public, competitive CAO process within a defined window (e.g., 90–120 days) so Council can test the market and the public can see due diligence. (Some neighbouring municipalities explicitly post the process and timelines on their websites when they recruit.) Prince Edward County Municipal Services
- Strategic drift vs. core services. As water/wastewater, roads, and affordability crises deepen, PEC has announced multi-year initiatives (e.g., DEI strategy with $25k for consulting; climate lenses) that may be worthwhile—but only after a balanced core is stabilized. Without a published staffing plan and KPIs that show “core first,” residents see mission creep while bills keep rising.
What “best practice” could look like in PEC (a practical model)
1) Publish the org chart and the headcount math—like Quinte West.
- Post a current org chart (CAO + directors) with FTEs by division and 3-year trend lines.
- Add a one-page “People & Payroll” dashboard in every budget: FTE per 1,000 residents, admin overhead as % of spending, and year-over-year change. (All are standard BMA indicators.) Quinte West
2) Lock in an open CAO/director recruitment protocol.
- Any interim appointment >120 days automatically triggers an external recruitment with a published job profile, timeline, and public announcement of the successful candidate.
- Council receives a public memo noting the candidate pool size and selection criteria (not names), preserving confidentiality while proving process.
3) Tie leadership to deliverables with a quarterly KPI scorecard.
- Affordable housing: units by stage (site plan/financed/under construction/occupied) with year-to-date totals and 3-year targets.
- Utilities: break out cost to serve (fixed vs variable), capital delivery milestones, and a five-year rate trajectory.
- Roads/Assets: lane-km resurfaced vs. plan; asset condition targets; backlog movement.
(These are common elements in Ontario municipal reporting and align with risk roles identified in PEC’s own plan.) Prince Edward County Municipal Services
4) Adopt a “core-first” staffing and spending rule for three years.
- No net new FTEs or consulting lines outside water/wastewater, roads, finance, planning/building, fire/EMS until:
- the five-year water/wastewater rate path is under CPI+1%, and
- the road state-of-good-repair KPI improves year-over-year.
- Any exceptions require a public business case showing payback or mandated compliance.
5) Benchmark annually with BMA—and show your homework.
- Build a BMA scorecard slide into budget open houses comparing PEC to peer municipalities (population 20k–60k) on overhead, FTE density, and utility cost per household.
- Where PEC is above the median, publish a corrective plan and 12-month actions. muskoka.on.ca
6) Make growth pay, visibly.
- Publish a Development Charges (DC) dashboard: what’s collected, where it’s allocated, and which capital projects it funds.
- Implement “use it or lose it” servicing allocations with a public registry of allocations and expiry dates so capacity isn’t stranded (a lesson from other municipalities that had capacity tied up without builds). (Quinte West’s divisional transparency is a good disclosure model to emulate here.) Quinte West
The point
Residents aren’t asking for miracles; they’re asking for focus, transparency, and proof. Other Ontario municipalities already publish staffing tables, org charts, and outcome dashboards that make oversight simple. Quinte West’s FTE tables and utility org charts are good templates; the BMA study supplies the yardsticks; and PEC’s own risk plan shows where accountability should live. Prince Edward County Municipal Services
If PEC wants to restore trust—and keep costs from spiralling further—the County should adopt this best-practice model now, and then let the results speak for themselves in next year’s budget.
Council Motion: Organizational Transparency, Accountability, and Staffing Best Practices
Date: [Insert Date]
Moved by: [Insert Councillor Name]
Seconded by: [Insert Councillor Name]
WHEREAS Prince Edward County employs approximately ten directors, each with significant compensation, and additional staff at the senior management level, representing a major share of municipal overhead; and
WHEREAS residents have expressed concerns about the affordability of core services, including water/wastewater, roads, and property taxes, and the need for visible outcomes from senior staffing investments; and
WHEREAS neighbouring municipalities such as Quinte West publish clear staffing tables, full-time equivalent (FTE) counts, and divisional org charts within their budgets, and the BMA Municipal Study provides comparative indicators for municipal overhead, FTE density, and cost per household; and
WHEREAS best practice in municipal governance requires transparency in staffing structures, open competition for senior leadership roles, and clear linkage between staffing resources and service outcomes;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT COUNCIL DIRECT STAFF TO:
- Publish an Organizational Dashboard in the 2026 budget including:
- FTEs by division with 3-year trend lines.
- Administrative overhead as a % of total budget.
- FTEs per 1,000 residents, benchmarked to BMA study medians.
- Adopt an Open Recruitment Policy such that any interim CAO or Director appointment longer than 120 days automatically triggers a transparent external competition, with process details made public.
- Develop a Quarterly KPI Scorecard tying senior director portfolios to measurable outcomes, including:
- Affordable housing units permitted, financed, started, and completed.
- Water/wastewater capital delivery and five-year rate trajectory.
- Road resurfacing/rehabilitation vs. plan and asset condition improvements.
- Implement a Core-First Spending Rule for the next three budget cycles: no net new FTEs or consulting lines outside of water/wastewater, roads, finance, planning/building, and emergency services, unless mandated or offset by payback within three years.
- Report Annually to Council and the Public with a benchmarking slide comparing PEC to peer municipalities (population 20,000–60,000) on staffing density, overhead, and household service cost, and present corrective actions where PEC is above median.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that these measures be implemented beginning with the 2026 budget cycle and reported to Council quarterly for oversight.
Rationale:
This motion aligns PEC’s governance with provincial best practices, restores transparency, and ensures staffing structures deliver measurable value to ratepayers, while focusing municipal resources on core responsibilities: water, wastewater, roads, emergency services, and financial stability.
Leave a Reply