On December 9th, the Chestermere Recreation Community Association (CRCA) held their Annual General Meeting (AGM). Just as in the last AGM, there was a high hopes that finally a truce would be called between the CRCA and Rocky View County (RVC), that funding would be reinstated and that all would be well….but, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Since the new board was voted in back in January, they have definitely done everything in their power to keep Chestermeres only recreation facility running business as usual. Existing programs continue to operate, events are still taking place and new programming is now offered. From the outside, you may not even notice that there is a consistent clash between the CRCA and RVC.
At the start, it was only membership holders that were being allowed into the meeting, but after it became obvious that was not a popular decision, the meeting was then opened for the public, with members being the only ones allowed to vote…but there seemed to be mass confusion around that as well as the senior members of our community were unsure if they were allowed to vote or not.
Senior members attended the event expecting to have the right to vote on the important decisions that were anticipated being made at the Dec 11th AGM. However, after voting for two items, when the new bylaws were presented, it was determined that no one knew which bylaws they were looking at. It was quickly announced then that there had been a set of bylaws that had circulated during the required twenty one days prior to the AGM, but then a revised set had been released just several hours before the meeting. The revised section of the bylaws was regarding the allowing of seniors to vote and this quickly became a heated conversation as to why the seniors were being discriminated against depending on which membership they had purchased. Two options were then presented. One – hold no vote on the bylaws that evening and then call a special meeting in 30 days to vote in the revised bylaws or Two – vote in the bylaws and then hold a special meeting in 30 days to vote on the new bylaw regarding the seniors being able to vote. The later of those options was decided upon and the new bylaws were (mostly) voted on….by everyone except the seniors that is.
During the overview of the financial statements, which only accounted up to June 2015, it was disclosed that the rec centre did lose a substantial amount of funds in the last year – primarily due to Rocky View County no longer providing funding to the facility. Of course, there was the $200,000 grant that was given from the City of Chestermere, but as that happened after since June, it was no reflected in their report.
Board Member, Jed Snatic, also commented, “A year ago there was lots of speculation that the President was taking advantage, there was unaccounted for money from the lounge and everything else. So as a board, we decided ‘what do we do with this situation?’ We consulted a few accountants we even consulted the RCMP to possibly investigate. They said that they could not investigate until you do a forensic audit. We looked at a forensic audit, which is expensive and we ended up selecting Deloitte and Touche to just do a preliminary audit going back one year. They went over that first year, which was a $15,000 charge, and came back to us saying that there were a lot of irregularities but nothing of the fraudulent nature but they wanted to pursue it further. So, we took it back another year and they came back with the same thing – that there was nothing really flagrant or out of order. We ran up a bill of $30,000 and decided as a board that we would mark it and just move forward and clean up our house”. Snatic continued saying that everyone can rest assured that there is nothing sinister going on and that under their watch, the CRCA is the cleanest it’s ever been.
Rocky View County Recreation Manager, Corwin McCullough was in attendance and was allotted some time to address the crowd regarding the concerns of RVC and what is left outstanding in their opinion for the CRCA to comply to.
McCullough explained how in the fall of 2013 they preserved a conflict of interest with the operation of Edge Fitness in the rec centre and therefore they suspended their funding in June 2014. When this new board was elected RVC provided several items that would need to be completed by the CRCA in order to obtain that funding once again. CRCA board members state that initially the list of requirements from RVC was six, but they felt as if every time they completed one list, another one even longer than the first would arrive.
McCullough listed off things such as making sure that policy and procedures were being followed properly, that bylaws that RVC felt appropriate were approved, that they were provided a copy of the forensic audit which they had not received as of the AGM and a risk management plan that would list the duties of the key operational roles within the CRCA.
In his presentation, it was learned that just the day prior, the CRCA had lost its regional status and had been downgraded to a district facility. “This has been as the result of our policy 217 ‘The Community Recreation Funding Policy’ which outlines the criteria for a regional facility. The criteria outlines that two municipalities that would be involved in partnering in cautionary in order for that regional status to occur. The City of Chestermere initiated termination of that agreement last June. Consequently, because of that action, this facility is no longer considered or classified as a regional facility. That means that if now, or when, the eligibility is reinstated, you’ll have to apply for funding with district status and then, of course, the City of Chestermere will need to come back to the table and take on some of the responsibility of contributing to the cost of the operations”.
There were no members of Chestermere City Council at this AGM and in a conversation had later with Mayor Matthews, she advised that there was an invitation extended to them by the CRCA board, but as the City has no say over the operations of the CRCA, does not own the land or the building and cannot speak to the decisions or operations of Rocky View County, the City responded to the CRCA board advising that they would not be in attendance.
This meeting also presented a new lease…well actually it’s now being called a license… between Rocky View County and the CRCA.
CRCA President, Mel Foat, addressed attendees saying, “This has been a long road folks. I volunteered for this position to make recreation better..for the betterment of the children, my grandchildren, for the youth and for the seniors of this community. I have not had a real real real fun time. I can see both sides – I really can. But I do not think that we should keep bending over all the time and taking the abuse that we are. We are volunteers. I’m lucky enough to be semi-retired, so I can donate lots of time, but every other of these board members have lives to live. I put mine on hold for 8 months. I spent between 16 to 18 hours a day in this facility trying to help get it back on track. It’s a challenge for me every day but I don’t begrudge it. But we have got to put an end to this fight between the City of Chestermere and Rocky View County. All I can say to Rocky View County and Administration at this time is it’s time for you guys to pull up your big pants and stepped up and gave us the things that belong to us”.
Foat went on to then say that he feels he has done everything he possibly can do to give RVC what they are asking for but says that they are now crossing a line in that RVC is now wanting to know everything that happens at the rec centre from who they hire and other administrative day to day items. “I will not give them anymore stuff”, says Foat.
“I just want you guys to go back to your council and if you think you can hurt us anymore, well you’re in for a good ride”. Foat continued saying, “We are willing to pay you for this facility $2.5 million to what you’ve put into this facility through your grants and whatever it may be. You give us back our land, we own the building and that is our offer tonight and you can take it back to your council and if you don’t take it I’ll meet you in court”. To which the room erupted into cheers and applause although many people in the days following wondered where the CRCA would get $2.5 million from.
Following the AGM, I contacted Corwin McCullough with a few follow up questions such as with the membership/board not voting in the new license how this impacts funding? What the differences will be for the CRCA now being a district facility? Will RVC accept the $2.5 million offer? Mr. McCullough provided us with the following:
“Funding will not be reinstated to the CRCA until the terms and conditions that Rocky View County has clearly communicated to the organization have been met. Rocky View County makes recreation funding available based on the scope of the facility. Since the City of Chestermere has withdrawn from the inter municipal cost sharing agreement the organization is no longer eligible for the possible $200,000 of annual County funding associated with regional status. Funding at the district level is considerably lower, but, again, funding will not be provided until the County’s terms and conditions are met.”
With regards to the $2.5 million, McCullough commented, “The taxpayers of Rocky View County would expect the County to sell the recreation centre for fair market value. I’m sure the residents of Chestermere would feel the same if their municipality were selling assets. Mr. Float’s offer represented only a small fraction of fair market value”. When I asked what RVC considered the fair market value to be, his response was “I’d like to help you and answer that but can’t because it’s tied to an in camera discussion and legal opinion”.
You can say what you will about the situation – who’s to blame, why can’t this simply be resolved..but one thing for sure is that the CRCA board is trying to do their best and is not giving up. Although many user groups did notice their rates going up this year, programming is very much alive and well at Chestermere’s only recreation centre. Events such as the Country Fair, the Christmas Craft Markets and the Community Christmas Party went on business as usual and did exactly what a community centre should do….serve its community.
The dedication of the CRCA board was summed up very well by board member Jed Snatic. “The county of Rocky View who is our landlord/stakeholder has failed to fund us for three years. Now, they’re going to say that’s for reasons of we haven’t done what they’ve wanted us to. They’re just our landlord. Landlords don’t decide what the staff do and how much you pay staff and virtually everything you do within your complex. I think our founding fathers messed up thirty five years ago when they signed away this piece of property that they’ve had since 1920. I think that somehow we have to find some sort of resolution, I don’t expect that we’re ever going to come to terms with these guys (RVC) or get any funding towards our future. Without these guys, maybe not in the next fiscal year but in the following fiscal year, we will be in a break even position. Not giving us money…Rocky View County feels they don’t have to because it’s ‘their’ money…the City of Chestermere also feels its ‘their’ money. But it’s not ‘their’ money….it’s our money.. It’s for our kids! This board…we’re here to try and straighten up the mess and we need a little bit of cash to do it. If these guys won’t give it to us, we’ll go around them, over them, under them. This thing will stay open and it will grow and it will be the cornerstone of this community”.
