Council has put all capital planning decisions on hold until it hears back about the seniors' club's plans for a new community centre this fall.
Council agreed to halt all changes to the 10-year capital and utility capital plans after a closed-door session last Monday. Councillors also agreed to move the third and fourth phase of the Riel Park remediation project to the unfunded list, potentially delaying work that was set for 2011 and 2012.
The capital plans will remain in limbo until at least September when council hopes to review a report about the community centre proposed by the St. Albert Senior Citizens' Club. The capital plan identifies $3 million for a seniors' club project in 2012, though the project is unfunded.
Council has also asked for a report on the Riel Park project, also due in September.
"Whatever we do, we need to free up the capital to do that," said Mayor Nolan Crouse of the proposed projects. "These are all priorities, but we don't have enough money to do them all."
Closed-door session
Both changes to the capital plan were discussed in private as part of a council priorities and planning session. At a committee meeting in March, councillors agreed discussions on the two plans should be held in private so they could work out which projects merit funding prior to budget discussion this fall.
Crouse said the priorities and planning meetings have always been conducted away from the public eye, noting if such discussions were made public it could raise the hopes of local groups that might not receive funding in the end.
"We do not want to mislead people," he said. "We need to be able to have those conversations without setting up expectations that we're going to debate them in an open forum."
Coun. Gareth Jones said the in camera session gave he and others a chance to discuss the plans in a frank manner. Although he acknowledges the three-month capital planning delay would push back some of the budget work, he felt it was prudent to wait.
"It's very difficult to make all those decisions on larger amounts of money without all of the factors in front of you," he said. "We have to really, really think and discuss what is important for the majority of St. Albertans."
Sustainable
According to executive director Leslie MacEachern, the final draft of a city-funded consultant report was recently handed over to the club. That plan has to be reviewed by other community groups potentially involved in the community centre project before plans reach council.
Although she could not discuss the recommendations, MacEachern said she believed council would be interested in the different ideas presented in the report.
"We really believe this will make a lot of groups, including us, more sustainable," she said. "It'll address community needs."
City manager Bill Holtby said the delay in determining capital priorities would not push administration into a corner in preparing any amendments for the budget in November.
He added that the adjusted timeline still works with city staff's budget work process.
