Minutes of the West Shore Parks and Recreation Society Board of Directors Meeting - September 12th, 2019

Call to Order

1. The Chair called the meeting to order at 2:59pm.

Approval of Agenda

2. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANEMA AND HILTON THAT THE AGENDA BE APPROVED.
   CARRIED.

Approval of Minutes

3. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS HILTON AND PEASE THAT THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING HELD MAY 9TH, 2019 BE ADOPTED.

NO ERRORS, NO OMMISIONS
CARRIED

Public Participation

4. Jon Conquest and Glenn Willing represent a group of tennis players that use the WSPR courts weekly. A letter was sent to the Board regarding some identified issues:

• 1. Maintenance needed – weeding and net repair – has been completed.
• 2. Recommendation that another door be installed into the tennis court area.
• 3. If there is water, the surface of the courts become slippery. Can a sign be put at the entry doors that warn people that the surface can be slippery? They requested consideration that when the court is re-surfaced, could different materials be used.

Wade Davies, Manager of Operations commented that signs will be put up as discussed regarding slippery when wet. The surface is porous concrete and to change to plexipave costs $70,000 and only works with sloped surfaces and our courts are flat. We will look into other solutions.

Chair's Remarks

5. None

Standing Committees

a) Finance Committee Update

Grant Brown, Manager of Finance presented the 2019 Second Quarter Financial review.

Grant commented on the following:

• Adjusted net surplus/deficit should be for June, not March
• 2019 financial performance is on pace to meet the proposed 2019 budget expectations.
• Staff are in the process of putting together the draft 2020 budget.

Sandy Clarke, Acting Administrator stated that finance meetings in October and November will begin review of 2020 draft budget.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANEMA AND KIEDYK THAT THE REPORT BE RECEIVED FOR INFORMATION.
CARRIED

b) Policy Committee Update

Sandy Clarke, Acting Administrator presented the report on revisions to the In Camera Policy.

The WSPR Board policy manual review determined the In Camera Policy needed updating.

Thank you to Director Anema for his work on updating the policy. The Board reviewed the draft policy and made several suggested amendments:

1. Remove numbers that reference statues from community charter
2. Remove the work “under” in (o)
3. Add “motions of closed meetings may be released from time to time as determined by the Board” at the end of the policy.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANEMA AND HILTON THAT THE POLICY BE ADOPTED AS REVISED WITH RECOMMENDED AMENDMENTS.
CARRIED

c) Skate Park Committee Update

Geoff Welham, Acting Manager of Recreation highlighted the following:

Some background on the skate park was provided. The Skate Park Coalition has generated some funds but is finding that some donors are looking for funds to be committed by municipalities or WSPR before they will donate. The coalition is asking for input from the board as to the next steps.

There was discussion between the Board members regarding how we fund projects that are not budgeted for, and what percentage of funds should be generated by the Coalition. It was clear that a portion of the required funds would need to be generated by the Coalition for municipalities to support the project.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS ANEMA AND KIEDYK TO APPROVE THE WESTSHORE SKATE PARK COALITION PROVIDE THE 5 MUNICIPAL COUNCILS WITH A PRESENTATION AND A BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE BUILDING OF THE WESTSHORE SKATE PARK AT WSPR.
OPPOSED – BY DIRECTOR MARTIGNAGO

CARRIED

Old Business

7. N/A

New Business

a) Dry Floor Staff Report

Sandy Clarke, Acting Administrator highlighted the following:

Staff have actively been advertising and booking the new dry floor space. There are a number of user groups that are using the space, including new users such as roller skating and increased pickleball opportunities.

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS KIEDYK AND HILTON THAT THE REPORT BE RECEIVED FOR INFORMATION.
CARRIED

For Information

9. a) Administrator’s Report

Sandy Clarke, Acting Administrator highlighted the following:

Administration/Human Resources

• The reorganization of the Human Resources department is now complete. The HR Manager position has been replaced by an HR Advisor position and a regular part time HR Assistant position. The Administrator will be responsible for attending GVRLA meetings and dealing with labour management issues. These changes were implemented on September 3, 2019.
• A Request for Proposal for Insurance Services was posted to BidBC and closed on July 19th. We received 2 submissions and 1 late submission. AON Reed Stenhouse (AON) was selected as the successful proposal, due in part to their greater municipal experience, more thorough submission and positive past experience with WSPR. Currently WSPR uses AON for insurance services and has done so since 2002.
• Staff are working with AON to draft a five-year agreement.

Operations

• The Ministry of Children and Family Development has recently announced an increase in maximum funding available through the Childcare BC New Spaces grant from 1 million to 3 million dollars. Staff have worked with a mechanical engineer and architect to ensure proper funding is requested as part of the new childcare spaces grant to complete upgrades to the existing mechanical infrastructure including the plumbing, heating and cooling. The grant has been submitted with an expected announcement in October 2019. Work would then begin in 2020 with a completion estimated for early 2022.
• Major capital work that was carried over from 2018 is well underway. The roof project over the JDF Arena is complete and the roof over the Library is near completion. The planned work during the annual pool closure is being finalized. The closure this year is extended to 6 weeks to allow time to replace the pool liner and the air handling unit above the pool.

Programs

• Summer 2019 saw 2393 summer camp registrations in over 75 different summer camps for children ages 2 -17, generating $411,487 in gross revenue. The staff team facilitating these camps is made up of 40 camp leaders and 18 inclusion workers. WSPR also provided free, accessible summer camp programming in our Roving Play Parks program. This valuable community service was attended by 1071 children in 2019. The program runs 10 am – 3 pm daily at a different park each week.
• This summer, Storywalks and Neighborhood Nights offered 7 weeks of free family activities at a variety of West Shore locations. WSPR also participated in several special events this summer, providing free staff-led activities. Events included The Emergency preparedness Fair, Mother’s Day Picnic and National Indigenous People’s day at Royal Roads University, Change Makers Feast at Bear Mountain, Canada Day Celebrations at Fort Rodd Hill and View Royal, Marine day at Witty’s lagoon, Eats and beats at Esquimalt lagoon, Giant Water Gun Fun at Fort Rodd Hill, and the Highlands Fling.
• Summer was a busy time in the pool. Weekday afternoon public swims regularly had 200 swimmers in attendance and was well used by WSPR and community summer camps. The Pool Safety Plan and procedures were updated to assist staff in effectively supervising these busier swims. Fall Swimming Lesson registration is strong, with full classes and growing waitlists. This is largely due to the 6 week pool shutdown reducing the number of lesson sets available for the season. Additional instructors will be hired to accommodate as many waitlisted families as possible.
• The Golf course continues to see high usage in summer. 3368 rounds were played in July, including 429 rounds played the weekend that would have been closed for Rock the Shores.

FOR INFORMATION ONLY

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS KIEDYK AND HILTON THAT THE MEETING MOVE IN CAMERA.
CARRIED

The Board Rose and reported the following motion from the JUNE 3RD, 2019 IN CAMERA MEETING:

MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS KIEDYK AND PEASE THAT THE WSPR BOARD OF DIRECTORS PROCEED WITH THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE EVALUATION COMMITTEE AND PUT FORWARD AN RFP TO BOTH PROPONENTS FOR THE OPERATION OF THE Q CENTRE.
OPPOSED – BY DIRECTORS ANEMA AND HILTON
CARRIED

Adjournment

10. MOVED/SECONDED BY DIRECTORS KIEDYK AND HILTON THAT THE MEETING BE ADJOURNED AT 5:28PM.
    CARRIED