The public will get to know why some programs at the Youth Community Centre (YCC) will no longer receive some grant money, council decided at its Monday meeting.
City council unanimously passed a motion, following a request by the St. Albert Gazette, to release a backgrounder explaining why the community services advisory board (CSAB) recommended to council last month that the YCC no longer receive Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) program funding.
What council releases, however, will not be a photocopy of the same backgrounder it received when it voted in favour of the CSAB recommendation May 29.
Instead, according to the motion, Mayor Nolan Crouse will consult with the city's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) co-ordinator, which is chief legislative officer Chris Belke, CSAB chair Trina Shipanoff and FCSS director Scott Rodda to provide a backgrounder and make it available to the public.
"It's very straightforward. I believe the public has the right to know certain dimensions of the decision-making that took place while refraining from naming names," said Coun. Roger Lemieux, who crafted the original motion.
Council was originally expected to vote on a notice of motion by Coun. Malcolm Parker asking for the backgrounder to be made public, but Parker said he would not bring his motion forward for a vote because the city has an established FOIP process.
"In this case the FOIP co-ordinator has responsibility to determine what can and can't be made public," Parker said. "Therefore I will not be bringing my motion forward and avoid any legal litigation that might result."
The backgrounder to Parker's original motion contained a recommendation from Belke that council not make the backgrounder public, citing a section of FOIP that states recommendations from a public body may be kept confidential.
"If it's possible to redact some information from that document and release it, that's something we can do," Belke said.
Expectations
Councillors who expressed some reticence in releasing the document expressed two concerns – that the CSAB has always operated with the expectation the reasons for their decisions will be kept confidential, and that the contents of the backgrounder could prove "embarrassing" to some person or group.
"I talked to the CSAB chair and other members and their sense is that they go in camera to discuss applications and they want to preserve the integrity of the in-camera process," Parker said.
As for what could be embarrassing, YCC board chair Doug Campbell said he's not sure what content fits that description.
"We know they were disappointed in the April 24 report because we hadn't introduced new programs fast enough," Campbell said. "That was not a surprise."
But Shipanoff has already defended the CSAB's decision, albeit quietly. In a letter to the editor in the June 9 Gazette, Shipanoff states "a social conscience is exactly what is being displayed by those who understand needs of today's youth and have put in the hours and work required to full understand what can be done meet that goal." In her letter, she does not identify herself as the chair of the CSAB.
In an email response to questions, Shipanoff said she did not identify herself as the CSAB chair because she was writing "as a citizen of St. Albert."
"The needs of today's youth are identified in the 40 developmental assets, which as a mother and previous educator I firmly believe in," she wrote in her email.
In her letter, Shipanoff wrote there were choices: "Continue to recommend funding without change, knowing the tax dollars are not being utilized with efficacy or alternatively; recommend change, not just for change's sake but rather because it is required."
In her email, she said she did not mean to imply the YCC was not using tax dollars efficiently.
"My intent was not to imply that the YCC was using tax dollars ineffectively but rather to highlight that 'youth dollars' in St. Albert could be utilized to reach a broader range of youth in a more preventative fashion."
She also said it would be "inappropriate" to explain CSAB's decision as it was conducted in camera.
