Is Newmarket sponsorship a cash cow or money pit?

This is a photo from the Era's web page which shows two Town of Newmarket supervisors - Stephanie Dryiw (Supervisor of Marketing and Sponsorship, Recreation & Culture) and Colin Service (Supervisor, Marketing and Sponsorship).  You can read the article via this link.

Ms. Dryiw isn't listed on the latest Sunshine list but Mr. Service is and his 2014 salary is listed at $124,484.98.

Being supervisors, we can assume each has direct reports below them.  In the private sector, it's typical for a supervisor to have in the range of 10 employees.  I don't know what ratio the Town of Newmarket uses but let's lowball and say 5 employees per supervisor.  That makes the "Marketing and Sponsorhip" team 10 employees plus 2 supervisors.

If Mr. Service makes $124,000 then for a similar job, Ms. Dryiw must be making very close to $100,000 annually.  Let's say that the average of the 10 employees is $35,000 annually too.  This would make the department's payroll in the range of $550,000.

To be financially viable, the department would have to bring in at a minimum two to one ratio of sponsorship dollars versus expenses.  Anything less than that makes the exercise not worthwhile.   Pretend that there is no additional expenses other than salary, then you would be looking at $1,100,000 in sponsorship money annually.  That means each of the 60 donors getting awards would have to sponsor events to the tune of just under $20,000 on average.

Here is a photo of all the sponsors:


Outside of Magna and Metro, I don't see others on this list who could afford a commitment of $20,000 annually.  (Remember what a big deal the Town made of the dog park sponsors who agreed to $5,000 annually?).

Our Town Councillors talk about sponsorship money as a potential revenue source but from what I can see, the exercise has been a complete failure.

Town Council promised the dog park would be paid for by sponsors.  It wasn't.

Town Council promised that the increased cost associated with the Old Town Hall would be paid by sponsors.  Where is that money?  

And when it comes to naming the Riverwalk Commons or ice rinks, I think that we're seeing corporate naming rights doled out at cut rates in order to preserve the facade that this sponsorship initiative is working out.

It's time to cut bait and save taxpayers the expense.

Unless, of course, the real reason for this program isn't revenue.  Maybe it's photo ops?