Bradford council is preparing for the future costs of parks and recreation, but not without concerns.
Council’s committee of the whole recommended allocating $869,752.57 into a new strategic acquisition reserve fund during the council meeting Tuesday night.
The funds came from the sale of surplus property along Holland Street West which was originally purchased in 2007 for street widening, but most of it was not needed and sold off earlier this year.
While Ian Goodfellow, director of finance and treasurer, recommended adding the funds to the town’s capital expenditure reserve in his Reserve and Reserve Fund Policy Update report, Mayor James Leduc instead suggested the creation of a brand new reserve fund to help prepare the town to purchase more property in the future, as those purchases were recommended by consultants working on the updated Leisure Services Master Plan, earlier in the meeting.
“We don’t have a plan for when it comes to acquisitions, and this money came from a land acquisition. ... This here would give us an opportunity to at least purchase these properties when they come available to council without impacting the financial end of the budget,” he said.
Most councillors were supportive of the idea.
Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano explained these types of opportunities were why he was hesitant to allocate the funds back in June.
“I love the idea ... If we have a reserve fund for future land acquisition and sales that doesn’t affect the taxpayers, I think that’s strategic, I think that’s smart and I think that’s where we should be putting the money, and if it comes down to it, I would like to support the motion on that,” he said.
At the June 20 meeting, a disagreement about the funds resulted in a heated exchange between Giordano and Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott.
At the time, Scott wanted all the funds from the sale to be put into the town’s capital replacement reserve, but Giordano convinced council to wait for further direction from staff, which Goodfellow provided in his report this week.
On Tuesday, Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper said he could see the benefit of both the staff recommendation and the mayor’s suggestion, but also wanted to highlight council’s No. 1 priority of traffic safety and mitigation, and look at ways to reduce the tax burden of the related measures.
“I get the acquisition part, but what can we do to actually lessen the burden on some of these strategic priorities?” he asked.
Goodfellow explained the town has a new strategic initiatives reserve with a balance of $10,000 which he recommended be rolled into the municipal capital facilities reserve, from which strategic priorities could be funded.
“These funds, these reserves are totally at the disposition of council. ... They’re available for the purpose you see fit, so if you wanted to retain a strategic initiatives reserve, it currently does exist, so I simply would not suggest that it be rolled into — if that’s the will of council — not rolled into the municipal capital facilities reserve and instead enshrine that reserve into this rendition of the policy,” he said.
Harper thanked Goodfellow for the clarification and said he would support the mayor’s recommendation.
Ward 7 Coun. Peter Dykie also expressed his support for the mayor’s suggestion, as did Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine, who pointed to the Leisure Services Master Plan update and the amount of land the town will need to acquire and buildings to build.
“The fact that this money comes from the sale of a property, I think that’s a good idea to put it into a reserve to purchase future properties. Going back to that presentation, there’s going to be so much happening and so much needed in this municipality,” he said.
Recalling budget discussions in which it was decided the town’s capital levy would not be increased, Scott was hesitant and noted the capital expenditures reserve needs help.
“I’m not opposed to a strategic acquisition reserve ... but I wouldn’t want to invest the whole $870,000. I’d still like to put something into the capital expenditures reserve given the strain it’s already under,” he said.
Ward 1 Coun. Cheraldean Duhaney echoed Scott’s concerns.
“I really don’t think everything should go in that one reserve. Based on what the budget was, we actually didn’t put much into capital, because of the taxes and so forth, so I think maybe putting some in it would be great,” she said.
Deputy Mayor Ray Sandhu, added to the numbers in favour of the mayor’s suggestion for the new reserve.
“I actually agree with that. That is smart planning. We do that in our personal lives, where we know we’re going to have some big purchases coming up and we start planning ahead of time,” he said, before passing the conversation back to the mayor.
Leduc took a moment to reiterate that his suggestion for a new reserve fund came from reading the report on leisure services which demonstrates the need to begin the putting aside funds for to buy more property and build more facilities.
“We need to start looking ahead. ... We’re talking 100 acres that we need to pick up. ... We need to look sooner rather than later. It’s very difficult to get land in this community right now. ... We’re investing in the future and we’re investing in recreation and green space,” he said.
In response to a request from Duhaney for clarification, Goodfellow explained that the capital expenditure reserve was intended for maintaining existing assets, and that any growth-based acquisition could be funded through development charges.
“Whenever we’re adding assets, adding parkland, adding recreational space, there’s development charges available to at least partially fund that ... We are currently collecting towards additional park amenities, outdoor amenities, additional indoor recreation space as well, and I fully intend to utilize those funds before we dip into our own pockets,” he said.
Goodfellow noted there is currently $26 million in the development charges background study for additional indoor recreation space and $6 million for outdoor parkland — in addition to the expansion of Henderson Memorial Community Park.
Harper felt it still makes sense to have the new reserve to help fund non-growth related items.
Scott reiterated his concern that the town is at risk of having an unfunded asset renewal plan, again recommending that the funds be split between both reserves, but Giordano suggested the capital reserve fund would be better addressed at the next budget.
All but one member of committee voted in favour of transferring the $869,752.57 into a new strategic acquisition reserve fund, with Scott being the sole objector.
As part of the vote, committee also endorsed the staff recommendation to transfer of $624,812.54 of the sale proceeds to the roads and protection development charge reserve fund and to approve the updated reserves and reserve fund policy.
Leduc had also suggested that the $2,433.12 staff recommended be transferred to the Council Community Initiatives Fund (CCIF) reserve, instead be divided up and transferred to each ward’s account; however, after some conversation, the mayor said he would be OK with the money going into the CCIF reserve, and pulled that recommendation.
Recommendations from committee of the whole are considered for approval at the next regular council meeting.
