ATHABASCA — Town councillors had plenty to discuss during their latest meeting when the charges and fees, reserve, and assessment management policies were presented for recommended amendments after all three policies were discussed during council retreat.
During the Nov. 7 meeting, councillors approved the amended and updated policies as presented, and all three motions were carried unanimously. Changes to the fees and charges policy, which include cost increases for several services, will come into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
“The particular policies that were chosen to be reviewed were … front and foremost they were issues that were brought forward to council, or council decided those were the priorities,” said mayor Rob Balay during a Nov. 11 follow-up interview.
Fees and Charges
First in the list of policies to be addressed was the fees and charges policy. Amendments to the document include removing the fees for photocopying and printing services, upping the rates for faxing services, and updating the list of returned payment methods to cover electronic fund transfers, pre-authorized payments, and more.
Other amendments include increasing the charge for certified true copies of documents from $10 per copy to $15, adding a $25 fee for refund requests regarding over and duplicate payments, and increasing the dumping rate per cubic yard for concrete and asphalt from $15 to $20.
“The main reason (for the increases) was the attain compliance by increasing the penalty,” said Balay. “It was too easy for (people) to pay the penalty and not comply, so we upped the rate and we’ll monitor to see how that works.”
Reserves Policy
Updates to the reserve policy were the subject of plenty of councillor discussion. A definitions section was added to clarify councillor questions which arose during council retreat, as well as a delegation of authority section, and a section outlining policy review timelines.
Graling had questions about the wording in the revised reserve administrative procedures, specifically around the language included in the first clause of the establishment of reserves and reserves fund.
The clause reads “Council, on recommendation of the CFO may establish a reserve or discretionary reserve fund, where advisable,” — Graling questioned the need for the last two words, noting not all council decisions come from administration.
“Do we need to state that?” said Graling. “What if we come to you and tell you that we want to establish a fund, but it’s not your recommendation? …we’ve, as a council, identified a few priority areas that we’d like to see focus on and I just want to make sure that that’s built into this policy guideline,” she added.
CFO Dalley stated council has the final say on any decisions made, regardless of administration recommendations, and said the presentation of reserves in the policy is intended to ease administration burdens upon further policy review and revisions.
Dalley said the list of 14 reserves included in the agenda, “Either capture the individual reserves or at least the group of reserves that we want. In my opinion — and this is just my opinion — we don’t want to have a list of 200 reserves for every single little thing,” said Dalley.
“We want to be able to plan ahead,” said Coun. Jon LeMessurier. “But we don’t have the funding to ever really fulfill any of these beautiful ideas that people implemented a few years ago.”
Adminstration informed councillors additions to reserves can come from budget allocations, as well as specific motions at year-end to allocate a portion of any remaining surplus, but added prioritization is a key part of reserve allocation.
“The question is, every single year, where is the money coming from?” said Dalley, and cited last year’s deficit of approximately $500,000. “I talked to the assessor; we’re not growing. The only way for us to get money is raise rates, raise fees, raise property taxes.”
Coun. Dave Pacholok, who chaired the meeting in Balay’s absence, summed the discussion up in one sentence: “You can’t work with what you don’t got.”
Asset Management
Last on the agenda for policies was the asset management policy, an item also discussed during council retreat. Prior to the Nov. 7 meeting, the town did not have an asset management policy, but Pacholok expressed the importance of implementing such guidelines.
“This will help us going forward, as long as it’s used properly,” said Pacholok. With infrastructure as the town’s first priority within the council strategic plan for 2022-2032, the policy will act guiding document for maintenance, repair, and replacement of equipment, and facilities.
Pacholok also asked how the management plan will be deployed. “Are we going to start by being more diligent with public works, the water crew?”
Dalley said the document will formalize many ongoing maintenance plans for equipment already being practiced, such as the maintenance and replacement of the public works truck fleet.
The policy outlines the development of an asset registry, which will list all tangible assets of the town, and allow the current state and estimated lifetime of assets to be determined. Development of targets for service levels, which assets are critical to the performance of the service level targets, and optimizing the operation and maintenance investment plans for assets are also part of the new policy.
Data on all the towns identified assets will be collected in a geographic information system, or GIS, which will allow for a unified approach to management. “The goal is, over the next couple years, that we would have it all in that system and we’d have plans,” which could be updated over time, said Dalley.
Coun. Edie Yuill posed questions about the policy review section, which stipulated the policy has a lifetime of four years or less and will be reviewed during the term of each elected Council.
“I would like to see it (reviewed) annually during budget discussions,” said Yuill, who’s sentiment was echoed by Graling. Following councillor discussion, the review section was removed from the policy prior to being approved.
Balay highlighted the importance of the new policy, stating “It’s a tool that gives more information to council to what priorities should be.”
“We can’t just rely on government grants,” he said. “We have to find ways where we can replace that infrastructure that’s been identified through our asset management plan.”
