SCOW & Special Council Meetings February 11, 2025
With Mayor Heron out of town, she’s asked me to chair our meetings this week as Deputy Mayor - I’m pretty sure I did that same thing this time last year! At first glance, I expect these meetings to be fairly quick.
Last weeks highlights
Homeland Housing Board Meeting: I was back out in Morinville to discuss Homeland’s activities. Our annual audit is coming up and we continue to move forward of the St. Thomas St. project.
Emergency Management Advisory Committee Meeting: This is an annual review meeting of Emergency Management activities in the city and I chaired this meeting as Deputy Mayor again this year, as the mayor is away at a conference. It was a great reminder of the strength of our Emergency Management systems, and how much work goes into ensuring that they work!
Youth Advisory Committee Meeting: As always, this is an incredibly engaging group of young people interested in learning more about the city. We scheduled an extra meeting in February to do some planning for a grant they’re applying for.
SCOW Agenda highlights
Transit Drivers
About a year ago, Council approved $100,000 for a consultant to “develop an implementation plan and... financial analysis for bringing transit drivers in-house”. A lot of the details report is confidential, but I can share that:
“The review indicates financial savings and operational benefits to the City with the existing [emphasis added] outsourced scenario compared to equivalent service provision with internal staffing... Savings are a result of, but not limited to, the contractor’s dedicated service offerings, operating model, and organizational efficiencies that contractors can gain from providing a similar service across multiple jurisdictions…”
Advisory Committee Terms
Last year, the Youth Advisory Committee recommended that their committee shift from a Jan-Dec schedule to a September-August one to align with the school year. Council supported this recommendation & also directed Admin to look at other committees as well. Admin are now recommending that the Seniors Advisory Committee move to this modified schedule as well. Other committees either can’t move to a different schedule because of logistical or legislative reasons, so it’s just these two that are likely to change.
Council Agenda Highlights
In addition to the quarterly report, we’re being asked to decide whether to support the recommendation to transfer the $10.8M 2024 operating surplus (5.1% of the 2024 approved budget) to a few of our reserve accounts: 60% to the Stabilization Reserve (~$ 6.5M, used for unexpected 1-time expenses), and the remaining 40% (~$4.3M) split between the Capital and the Municipal Land and Facilities Reserve.
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.
