Rankin Inlet senior administrative officer (SAO) Darren Flynn said December sees the hamlet getting ready to tackle the third quarter of the fiscal year, as well as making every effort to ensure its on budget and ready to end the year in good fiscal standing.
He said, right now, the hamlet is also planning some of its capital for the next one to three years.
“It's, really, part of a cycle that we do every year,” said Flynn. “Every quarter has its own unique challenges. When you're in the third quarter, you want to make sure you're on line for your financial targets.
“Because, if you're not, then you have to make some real fast corrective measures and discuss them with your council to make sure that you are going to come in on target.
“It's always wise for the SAO to take any measure before council. You have to remember that the SAO is an administrator and council is governance.
“If you're going to have good administrative practices, as well as good governance oversight, the SAO should be working collaboratively with his or her council throughout all months of the year.”
Flynn said he's been an SAO for a long time and there's never been any harm come out of a conversation.
He said sometimes you think you have things all figured out and, when you actually sit down and discuss it with council, you find that there may be a different angle that you didn't look at before.
“Collaboration is always the way to go. There's no one person who should be left on their own to make those decisions.
“It needs to be a team effort at all times.”
When it comes to the possibility of the Christmas spirit making people easier to deal with in December, Flynn said he finds most people throughout the year are generally easy enough to get along with.
He said, at times, people are dealing with issues or problems that can make things a bit more difficult, but that can be true of anytime of the year, not just Christmas.
“When it comes to people who, perhaps, can be a little bit more difficult to work with, I like the challenge of trying to satisfy them, as well.
“The big difference with the third quarter is if something isn't going the way the hamlet envisioned it — if you're going to have it cleaned up by year's end, you have exactly three months to accomplish it.
“At that point, that's why you do the analysis and have the discussions. If you're over in one area, do you do a reallocation from another area, or do you suspend an activity and wait for it to equalize back on the expense side? There's no fixed formula for any of this.
“At the end of the day, if you balance out on the bottom line, that's really the most important target to hit. But there's always pressure throughout the year to make sure you're sticking to the target.”
