This’ll probably be a long one, which is typical for our summer meetings.
Agenda highlights
Civic Grant Funding Formula
Following our Committee of the Whole discussion, Admin is recommending that grant funding be increased to keep pace with population growth, which would mean an increase in funding by about $114,000 by 2027.
Policing Policy
Our Policing Committee is recommending that Council direct Administration to update our Policing Services Policy by the end of the year to embed the desired ratios of RCMP officers, Municipal Enforcement Officers, and Civilian Policing employees from the 2014 Policing Long Term Department Plan. My questions for the Committee/Admin related to this recommendation are:
Why?
Does this change anything that we’re doing administratively?
Does this impact any service levels or budgets?
How often should the plan be reviewed/is it outdated now?
Is a more comprehensive review of the policy warranted? (It was last updated in 2019.)
Council Remuneration and Expense Reimbursement Policy
Following our discussion at Committee and decision at Council, this is a proposed policy to govern per diems for “activities which are not part of the general duties of Councillors as outlined in section 153 of the Municipal Government Act, but which confer a benefit to the municipality by the Council Members’ participation in them”. Based on an environmental scan of other Albert municipalities, Admin is recommending a per diem of $100 for commitments of less than 4 hours, and $200 for those that are more than 4 hours (max $12,000/year), and $50 for Deputy Mayor duties not covered by a different per diem. These per-diems will end in 2025 when members of Council are deemed full-time.
loader and snow blower(+$64,657)
Living in a well-maintained winter city can be costly. The $500,000 budgeted this year for a new loader & snow blower is insufficient; The blower came in at $216,211, which left a $64,446 shortfall for the loader. This motion will top up the budget to allow us to purchase the loader.
Fountain Park Renovations Borrowing Bylaw - 1st Reading
“The City was successful in obtaining a Federal grant/loan for the Fountain Park Pool Renovations.
The opportunity has a unique funding arrangement that provides a $1.25 million grant if the City also takes a $3.75 million loan… The recommended option would result in a reallocation of $3.75 million from the approved Fountain Park Renovations project to the Police Building Accommodation project. The recommendation represents a proposed funding strategy and does not impact the delivery or scope of either of the projects. This funding strategy results in no additional dollars or budget increases to the projects, including no impact to the planned debt level or tax impacts.”
St. Albert Trail - Phase 3 Borrowing Bylaw - 1 st Reading
The continuation of the North St. Albert Trail project was approved last year, and this bylaw allows administration to proceed with what was approved.
“The cost of the project was estimated and approved at $16,220,000 million dollars. The borrowing
bylaw is being recommended for $20,500,000 million which includes a 25% contingency.”
2025 New Council Term
This is my motion to consider whether to direct Admin to create a project charter by October 2024 (for consideration in the 2025 budget) that would increase the administrative support & provide office space to St. Albert’s first full-time Council. In the backgrounder, it was stated that “Administration understands this business case is for permanent employees and not contractors or temp agency administrative support for Council”, but I don’t think the intent is to limit options like this - As an elected Council is a temp/contract position, it may be appropriate for their administrative support to also be temporary. The following is the motion being recommended by Admin, which is way more clear than the motion I proposed!
“That Administration develop a business case to provide members of Council with individual office
space and a budget for comparable Administrative Assistant support to what exists in similar Alberta
mid sized municipalities, for six full-time Councillors, for the Council term commencing October 2025.
That this business case be prepared and presented to the Standing Committee of the Whole by
October 2024.”
Cellphone & Technology Subsidy(-$10,500)
This is a motion to eliminate the subsidy that Council received for using personal phones & home office internet ($70/month) for our roles. If this passes, I could see members of Council starting to use a City-provided phone instead, which would be costlier than the $50/month we receive to offset our mobile plans. I’m also not sure how this would work for members of Council who are on contracts that were selected to cover both City and personal use.
St. Albert Transit 10-year Plan ($200,000)
This is a motion to set in motion a new 10-year plan for transit, in light of the demise of regional transit. Administration, however, recommends that we undertake a larger-picture “Mobility Choices Long-Range Strategy… that includes 10-years plan for Transit Services… [and that we ensure] the Capital Charter for 2024 related to development of Mobility Choices is… sufficient… for Transit related technical studies”.
Take it or Leave it Facility
This is a motion to direct Admin to research the costs/timeline of opening a facility like Strathcona’s Hodge Podge Lodge or Edmonton’s Reuse Centre. Interestingly, “St. Albert has previously held a ’Take It or Leave It’ event where larger items could simply be exchanged between residents; however, that event became
rather combative and thus the event has been cancelled”.
This is a brief and incomplete overview of our meetings, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. Members of the public can register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.