Although he’s only been on the job two weeks, St. Albert’s new city manager Kevin Scoble already has an idea of a direction in which to take the city.
Two priorities stand out about the rest in terms of the first orders of business: working on the tax ratio of residential to non-residential, and moving forward with the many regional initiatives in which the city is taking part.
After a week or two getting to know the city and the key players in it – including those in the business community and not-for-profit sector – economic development factors significantly in his plans.
Scoble said working toward an 80/20 assessment split of residential to non-residential properties is a priority set by council, and one he wants to move forward on.
Progress has been made in the past several years, with the ratio improving most recently to roughly 84/16 in 2016, and improvement from the 91/9 ratio in 2008. The goal is to lower residential taxes by raising the amount of assessment that comes from non residential taxes.
“That’s an outstanding issue for the long-term sustainability of the city,” he said.
And in a city that’s part of a larger regional structure, Scoble said there’s important work to be done with respect to working together to advance areas of mutual interest. In that case his role is ultimately to support the elected officials in their work.
He said meetings with his administrative counterparts in neighbouring municipalities are already in the works, beginning with a meeting with Sturgeon County officials last week.
While Scoble is a professional engineer, he also holds an MBA degree, which he said would support the work the city needs to do with respect to economic development.
This is the third municipality for which Scoble has worked, and he said the majority of what municipalities do is very similar to each other.
He cited work he did promoting “green utilities” with the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo as one example of success he’s seen in the past with respect to economic development, and encouraging entrepreneurship in that municipality.
“It was really a catalyst to bring in some business in the private sector in that community,” he said. “Maybe we won’t do the same thing, but it’s about the mindset of how to approach it.”
Scoble said the city has some notable strengths, including its stability and a mature, highly educated and engaged population. Likewise, there are some opportunities on which it can build – although he’s not offering too many details as yet.
“I see a number of opportunities that I want to discuss with council and have our staff look into here,” he said. “I think there are some unique positioning of this community that we can use to its advantage.”
He noted several specific policies and projects where St. Albert is really leading the way when compared to other municipalities in the province, such as the Smart City initiative, the service-level inventories and the efforts to encourage public participation.
Even some of the weaknesses and challenges in the community, like the financial difficulties that could arise as a result of the economic downturn, can be turned into opportunities.
“There are opportunities in slower times, too, in terms of favourable pricing and new ways (of doing things),” Scoble said. “That’s where most of your innovation comes, is in bad times. People are more open to new ways of doing things.”
Ultimately, Scoble said he’s honoured to have the opportunity to work in a city he’s often visited, and in which he finds the people to be among the friendliest in the province.
“The courtesy, the politeness and the outgoingness of the people is something I’ve really noticed here,” he said.
