The first year featuring a new way for calculating the budget requests of different community groups has run into some growing pains.
Agencies such as the 50-Plus Club, Youth Community Centre and Community Village all made their pitches to council this week for funding for the 2013 year.
But not all groups were invited to do so. Last year council passed a policy giving administration more leeway in providing annual funding to different agencies.
Known as the “city manager’s purse,” the pool of money for community groups is supposed to use the previous year’s budget allotment as a benchmark for future funding.
The community services advisory board, which reviews applications for several city grants, was also asked to vet each agency’s request. The intent was to depoliticize the budget process.
Several groups, however, have asked for more money than they received in 2012, a fact that did not go unnoticed Thursday night.
“I think it’s against policy,” said Coun. Cathy Heron. “We were supposed to be given an allowance equal to what we gave out last year.”
In total, outside agencies have asked for approximately $72,000 more than they requested for the 2012 budget. Only the St. Albert Public Library and Arts and Heritage St. Albert are exempt from the policy.
Chris Jardine, general manager of community and protective services, said $13,000 worth of minor adjustments were made to each case. The remaining $60,000 in additional requests was supposed to be presented to council as a separate business case, but was mistakenly included in each group’s budget request.
“It was intended to be brought forward but it was to be a separate business case from those requests,” Jardine said.
Of the groups asking for additional funding, the Youth Community Centre presented its request as the most dire. In asking for $175,000, board member Paul Quantz said if council doesn’t approve the new amount, the centre will have to cease operations as of Jan. 1.
The centre has received Family and Community Support Services funding every year since it opened in 1998. That grant funding was discontinued earlier this year.
City council has traditionally paid the centre’s rent, last year to the tune of $104,000. The centre is asking the city for more direct funding than the money it usually receives, but less than the approximately $210,000 it got last year in both city money and FCSS grants. The club is trying to renegotiate its lease to use less space at Grandin mall and has also cut back on staff and programming.
Quantz said there is no plan B if the city does not grant its request.
“We don’t have any alternatives,” Quantz said. “The youth centre will cease to offer youth services at the beginning of 2013.”
The St. Albert 50+ Club is also looking for more funding from the city over what it got in 2012. In requesting approximately $169,000, compared to the previous year’s $159,000, the club said the money will go to the Meals on Wheels program, paying its part-time bus driver a market salary and maintenance of its building.
“The club is responsible for maintenance,” Jardine said. “This is the third year they’ve asked us for help with maintenance.”
The St. Albert Community Village asked council Tuesday for a decrease in its rent to help it expand into more of its building so it can offer more services. The village, located in a city-leased building, now pays rent of $8 per square foot each month. It wants that adjusted to $1 per square foot.
“We do need the money,” said board member Charles Schroder. “We’ve identified $350,000 in renovations in addition to those we’ve already done.”
