Councillors approve honorarium policy

At their Dec. 5 meeting in Fort Assiniboine Woodlands County councillors unanimously approved a recommendation to re-enter into a three year agreement including an option for two, three-year extension for property assessment for the county with Accurate Assessment Group Ltd.

The costs for the first three years of the agreement, starting in 2018, are $162,790, $165,301, and $167,813 respectively.

Councillors approved a report as information by director of corporate services Sue Oberg on the state of the county’s investments.

According to the councillors’ information package, as of Oct. 31, 2017, the municipality had $4,000,833.54 in a high-interest savings account with the Alberta Treasury Branch (ATB). This year’s interest rate is 0.5 per cent.

The county also has another $1,017,466.39, $1,029,487.97 and $5,034,590.83, also with the ATB, in deposit-notice accounts, better known as a term deposit, or GIC, earning 1.40, 1.75 and 1.80 per cent respectively.

“Basically what I’ve done with our investments is choose things that are very conservative that are guaranteed by the Alberta Treasury Branch,” she said, adding the deposit-notice accounts are soon becoming due and when that happens the funds will be transferred into a regular high-interest-savings account for cash-flow purposes. “It’s a pretty conservative way of doing things, but it needs to be that way because the Municipal Government Act says we need to be conservative and guarantee money.”

As of Sept. 30, the county earned $77,747.55 in interest from these investments.

Council agreed to enter a three-year fixed price agreement with Serenic Software to provide maintenance and support for the municipality’s accounting software package.

“It is where we keep track of everything we spend, our budget is in there, it does our job cost, tax and utility notices so it’s an all-inclusive type of program,” she said.

Chief administrative officer Luc Mercier noted when they first decided to go with the package in 2014, they determined it to be the most cost-effective method, noting many other municipalities use multiple platforms to do the same thing.

He added administration still feels that way despite the fact that Serenic has raised its annual support fees by an average of five per cent a year, from $52,073.54 in 2014 to $77,312.84 in 2018. The agreement would lock in the annual fee for 2019 and 2020 at the 2018 level.

“These fees are comparable to other software packages and we feel it is more cost effective to keep the current system instead of spending $500,000 on a new package and then all the cost and effort to transfer all the data into the new software,” Mercier said.

Councillors approved the allocation of $8,700 in the 2018 budget and instructed administration to negotiate an agreement with the Blue Ridge Community League to provide basic janitorial, monitoring and snow removal services for the community hall and boxing club, as well as the Blue Ridge library and change room facilities. The league is responsible for hiring the company, or individual, that will do the work.

“We truly believe from Woodlands’ perspective that this is the best bang for the buck that will provide service to our buildings and to help a community group have a more robust position. It’s a good deal all the way around,” Mercier said.

Councillors approved a revision of Policy 1905 (Travel, Subsistence and Honorariums) that clarified how much councillors and members-at-large serving on committees are compensated for their time, travel and meals while attending conferences meetings and other business.

For the mayor and councillors, when attending a meeting in their official capacity they are able to claim $150 for meetings less than four hours, $300 for meetings that are four hours to eight hours and $450 for meetings over eight hours. Travel time is included when making these calculations. Councillors will be paid $900 monthly to compensate for time spent dealing with matters of a municipal nature, including meetings and discussion with administration, or ratepayers.

Members-at-large appointed to boards, or committees receive $120 for meetings less than four hours, $240 for meetings between four hours and eight hours and $360 for meetings greater than eight hours.

In addition, the mayor gets $900 for his responsibilities and another $900 for councillor duties. Travel rates are billed at $0.60 a kilometre.

Meal allowance will be paid for councillors at the following rates: breakfast $15, lunch $20, dinner $30, or the actual cost of the meal with a receipt.

Councillors need to obtain prior approval from council to attend any conference or workshop where a claim for an honorarium will be submitted, with the following exceptions — the spring and fall conferences of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, the annual Agricultural Service Board conference and one conference or workshop in Alberta that a councillor has been appointed to.