By Cecilia Nasmith
As Northumberland County Council's standing committees get preliminary reports on 2023 budgets from the county's different departments, this week's meeting of the Corporate Support Committee heard from one department whose budget is different from all the others in one respect – there are no previous year's figures to compare it with.
Municipal Solicitor Darrell Mast presented this new budget on behalf of the county's newly created Legal Services Department, calling for a total – at this preliminary point in the budget process – of $469,538 for 2023.
To put that into perspective, committee Chair Mandy Martin reminded everyone that the going rule of thumb is that $650,000 equals 1% of the consolidated county budget.
As well, Mast added, “we are an internal-service department, so we are funded entirely through internal charge-backs.”
The lion's share of the budget is the salary for himself and the two paralegals who serve as the department's prosecutors. Another important item is $8,500 for supplies - “the costs of setting up a new department, including building up a small legal library.”
And the $5,000 budgeted for external services includes the cost of going outside for legal services when required.
“That budget is transferred from the CEO's budget, so it's not new money,” Mast said.
Assessing the presentation, Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Moore estimated a $20,000 impact on the budget.
“Maybe even closer to $18,000, because the travel-and-training budget does include existing licensing fees previously paid by the budget,” Mast figured.
