WHTBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MA 9, 1988, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN STHT'SWHE OU MOEY GOES The Town Clerk's departmnent bas unwittingly let us in on the secrets of expensive government. It was ail contained in a document written to justify an increase in bingo licence fees. Bingos are governed by provincial laws but the licences are issued by the municipalities who are entitled to collect a fee to "cover the cost of preparing and issuing licences as well as any additional costs relative to supervision and control." On the clerk's recommendation, Town Council approved an increase to $412 for a thirteen-week bingo licence. (Bingos depend heavily on repeat customers so most bingo licences are for weekly events running throughout the year - the licence must be renewed quarterly.) The clerk's report contained the following breakdown to justify the fee structure. Receive application & forward to Durham Police $ 52.00 Review application and approve 80.00 Set up file 12.00 Forward licence and information 31.00 Monitor progress ofbingdreview financial reports 125.00 Administrative cost, equipment, etc. • 110.00 TO TAL$400 Now I know something about bingos having helped with a good many for the Whitby Historical Society. The application is ~ --.--~. a single two-sided legal-size formn with questions about the _______________________________________ organization involved, its history and raison d'etre. It asks where and. when the bingo will take place, a schedule of the prizes and how the proceeds are to be spent. It concludes with names, addresses and phone numbers of four members of the organization who take responsibility for its operation. The entire form takes no more than alf an hour te fill in, yet the clerk's department wants us to believe that it costs $52 to simply receive it and forward it to the police department. Let's see! If we assume an average salary of $10/hr., that's more than five hours work. 0f course, they have to get it across the street to the police station. Maybe they lease Bobbie's limo .. *. at $25 per quarter hour. Then they have to review it and approve it - $80. Eight hours workl? These are al non-profit community organizations with which the Town is supposed to be quite familiar. Mind you, there are some pretty shady characters out there - like me for instance. You just can't be too careful, you know. But eight hours? Even if they had to read all my columns for the last three months, it wouldn't take that long. Of course I've neyer actually seen how fast they can read. But there's lots of other suspicious types - lawyers, accountants, businessmen, even cops. Like John Buchanan, who helps with the same bingo, there's another dangerous character. He even works for a rival police departnent - one of the boys in blue f'rom big bad Toronto. Besides he sits on the school board and anyone on the Board of Education bas to be considered a potential rival for our councillors. You've got to watch guys like that. Very closely! Then they set up a file - $12. Now I'm an expert on files - I've done quite a few. A folder costs about ten cents and a label . less than a cent. Two lnes per label at three words per minute (conservatively) would take no more than five minutes. Mid you, this is a bureaucracy, se we need a requisition in triplicate withthe approval of the lord high clerk himself. And then they have teo find the . form again which by now is buried onTs somebody's desk. Yes, I suppose they might be able te use up twelve dollars. aneukarefolotnotypePrtPryanmudsy ndwscosdm 14 Thirty-one dollars te forward the licence and information to the client. I know for a fact that they don't use Bobbie's limo for this one - in fact they usually get picked up by the applicant. Once an applicant bas bis licence, he can run a bingo every week for thirteen weeks but he must file a report each time fo h ensaMrh8 98eiino b which details the expenses and the profit. This report is also a single page two-sided legal length form. It contains about a half dozen numbers, as well as much of the same information as was on the application. The clerk's department reviews these reports - roughly an hour per week for a total of $125. Now I know that *HryJry ak 0yasa ebro opst aei og seme of the profit numbers are a bit bigger than the bingot, numbers themselves but still, even longhand, it shouldn't takeintombr17wa285 more than a couple of minutes to add up a few figures. And you really have to watch these community groups you know - if they make too much money, they might get a little YE SAG uppity and show less respect for our great and generous council. And the other $110? The bureaucratic inspiration ran dry. wit th aprovl o th lod hgh ler hisel An thn teyGRAND TRUNK RAILWAY STATION, BROOLIN, C. 1910 hav tofln te, orm aginwhih b no i buiedonThe Grand Trunk Railway station in Brookclin stood-trl thie cornefA nronSr e nd All they could come up with was administrative costs (I thought that's what the whole licence was about), equipment (theyve got * Plice Chie Gèoesakieareports Amperce rpin Whitby all these expensive computers and stuff up there - somebody has to pay for them) and etc. (that's always good for another traff>c and liquorviolations have increased. hundred dollars) to round out the bill. In thirteen weeks they do it all again - nine times out of tenfr0eia M ar 18 do the applications are mere copies of previous ones with new dates Wh iTBY CH91NiE but it wouldn't do to use the same file would it? No, according to the clerk's.dept., they set up a new one. It is rumored that one of the persens charged witb conspiracyin tbe sbooting i yrtle And what's the bottom line? The Town expects to make $12,680 off bingo licences this year. Mnd you, when you Station on Dec. 14, 1887 bas jumped bail and will not appear incourt. 'nsider that the nineteen groups who currently hold ongoing The Chronicleis suggestingthatatelephone shouldbe placedin the town clerk's ce. lcne sider tathe smtigaprah* ilindlas A well1 known drunk went into Sebert's Livery Stable, ldcked the stable boy in the ze and licences will take home something approaching a million dollars, sahdsvrlwnos the Town's fee does seem rather paltry. ButsomhowI tinkthoe goup wok alotharer orl The whole tewn turned out one night last week te see a, single horse race- against . hrse But somehow I think those groups work a lot harder fora their share than the Town does for its. And they spend it a lot and sleigh. The single horse won, b4hittle roney was.botqon theoutcome. more wisely.