Outside agencies seeking funding from St. Albert city council during budget deliberations might have to make their cases to the community services advisory board (CSAB) in the future.
Administration is proposing that the board review a new policy that was approved Monday by the standing committee on finance, which would see agencies that council typically funds directly, instead present business cases to the CSAB. The city manager would review each proposal for compliance and would be given a "funding allowance" that would be allocated to each business case after it's reviewed and ranked by the CSAB.
The city's administration, through direction from council, has been looking for a way to provide sustainable funding for local agencies, as well as tackle multi-year funding, said acting city manager Chris Jardine.
"We ask every year, 'How do we establish a policy to give some guidance?" he said.
The CSAB's current function is to review of the budgets of local social service agencies that are funded under the Family and Community Support Services program (FCSS) and make recommendations to council regarding the agencies' annual grant allocations.
Most outside agencies that receive funding outside the parameters of FCSS, such as the Youth Community Centre, Stop Abuse in Families (SAIF) and Community Village, approach council directly at budget time with their requests.
If the new policy comes into effect, all outside agencies seeking city funds would have to submit to this process, with the exception of the Arts and Heritage Foundation (AHF) and St. Albert Public Library, which Jardine likened to "Crown corporations."
"The AHF and library are extended arms of the city so we have an ability to provide influence, and we have an agreement with the AHF that has significant governance in place with those two," Jardine said.
Multi-year agreements, which council has been wary of approving in the absence of a policy, can be made but administration won't factor in inflation in subsequent years.
"Our initial thoughts were there would be some inflation but we backed away from that," said Jardine. "We don't want to [make it policy] that you get a cost-of-living increase."
Coun. Cathy Heron endorsed the policy, saying the CSAB was in the best possible position to evaluate these applications.
"The one thing the CSAB allows for is the non-political community knowledge base, so they can evaluate without being pressured," Heron said.
Jardine affirmed that was another goal of the policy.
"We want to see the objective is well thought-out, there's a demonstrated passion to undertake the project and put them through a little rigour having the CSAB as a non-political body," he said. "This might start a whole new level of lobbying. The intent was that you guys aren't being lobbied."
NABI review
The finance committee also revisited the ongoing issue of whether or not the city should fund the Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI). Under the proposed policy for the funding of outside agencies, NABI would have to submit a business case to the CSAB.
"Is someone going to analyze the NABI balance sheet at CSAB compared to a not-for-profit like SAIF?" Mayor Nolan Crouse asked.
Coun. Malcolm Parker spoke up to defend NABI.
"NABI gives back to the community by creating jobs," Parker said.
"SAIF keeps people from being killed," Crouse replied.
Heron stepped in, agreeing that both groups have merit.
"Nobody can come up with a clear way to evaluate the impact on our community," she said. "I think that would be unfair to evaluate their worth on that factor."
The committee made no changes to the policy, which will go before the CSAB before returning to council.
