EFCL Board Package May 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep.

Download the May 13 Board Package



Hello District B Communities,

And I thought this was a slow month! Thanks again to the 11 of 13 District B community leagues that came to our special District Meeting to elect yours truly as your EFCL District B representative for two more years and Bernie Zolnar as your EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day! So our district now has two representatives at the EFCL. Thank you and congratulations to Bernie once again!

District B News

Northwest LRT
The City has completed its evaluation of the NW LRT Route and it recommended the LRT use the 113A Street route to 153 Avenue and then off towards St. Albert Trail. The route was chosen because it “maximizes ridership and connections.” The recommendation goes to Public Hearing on June 22 at City Hall and two more information sessions are planned for June 9 at Calder Hall and June 10 at Caernarvon Community Hall. DD COMMENT: Without prejudice to the communities to the west of us this route is good for our communities in District B since it brings rapid transit closer to us than either the 127 Street or St. Alberta Trail options they considered.

5.0 Highlights from Approved Minutes from April 8

The following items are highlights approved in the minutes from the April 8 meeting:

• Social House Policy – Notes from presentation by Walter Trocenko
• Surplus School Site Update – Notes on Tim McCarger’s update
• Capital and Operating Grants Request – EFCL motion to seek $3 million per year to deal with community league back log of capital projects
• Distribution of Social Housing – EFCL motion to distribute social housing
• EMHA Sale of $25 League Memberships – motion to take this to the AGM – it passed at the AGM
• Residential Lighting Program – EFCL motion to support light efficient communities
• Neighbourhood Schools – EFCL policy statement on neighbourhood schools

7.1 EFCL Meeting with Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs
As you have undoubtedly heard the EFCL secured a meeting with the Edmonton caucus and the provincial cabinet. Almost 150 community representatives have already registered.
We have a 90-minute meeting, from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Thursday, May 27.  LOCATION:  Balwin Community League, 12904 - 74 Street   GOOGLE MAP
 You must RSVP to communications@efcl.org  -  MAXIMUM 4 PER LEAGUE.  First come first serve.
Program details are still be worked out, but plans at this stage call for a short presentation from the EFCL at the outset, where we can identify some of our key concerns/projects (provincial grants, casino funding, keeping schools open and as community hubs, Living Local).  DD COMMENT: this is a very good opportunity to carry community issues forward.

7.3 EFCL rep. on EPCOR Water Services Community Advisory Panel
The EFCL board is looking for a representative for this community that considers water issues in Edmonton.


7.4 City Report Notice to Community Leagues
The EFCL Planning Committee recommended to the Board that the City provide agendas and supporting documents (reports) at least 14 days notice prior to the Council or Committee meeting and that an automatic extension be provided upon request to the City Clerk. The EFCL board discussed this proposal at length and felt it a better approach would be to take our concerns about notice directly to the City Clerk’s office and attempt to discuss a system that would give communities more notice, but not shut the City down. DD COMMENT: this is a long-standing issue, many community leagues discover issues at the last minute and with no opportunity for them to properly consider the City proposals before they go to Council.

7.6 EFCL Board Retreat – so why is that news?
Ok, so a board retreat is hardly news, but one of the topics on the agenda is a discussion about how to improve our process for recruiting and selecting of EFCL directors (the last AGM left four key positions unelected due to a lack of quorum for district communities even though there were good representatives available to serve).
The board also wants to discuss better ways to community to district leagues.

9.3 Executive Director’s Report highlights
Allan Bolstad, our intrepid executive director presented the EFCL’s emerging Living Local campaign to Mayor Mandel and Allan reports that the mayor supports the initiative.

• EFCL Disappointed with school closures – the EFCL has indicated that we are not interested in participating in school closure processes. We are interested in retaining schools in communities and or schools as community facilities critical to the heart of communities.
• Aquatic Development Committee Update – the city’s Aquatic Development Committee has been working since March 2009 on the allocation of pool space. They committee has dealt with a number of issues (standards of play, tournaments, an aquatic allocation policy and the proposed community league pool allocation model. A meeting of league and area council representatives is planned for early June. Not date has been set.
• Northerners Update – there is a committee of 44 agencies providing social services to North East Edmonton with a goal to work with immigrant communities. DD COMMENT: I suggested this group consider coming to Area Council and other regional meetings to share their work with leagues so we know what’s going on and because this is an area we struggle with too.

9.4 Community Development Officer’s Report
Shahriyar Khan’s report is working on a variety of initiatives – the one I will mention is the EFCL

9.5 Community Planning Officer’s Report
Bev Zubot, our planning officer and the EFCL Planning Committee is working on:

• Social Housing Distribution
• Family Oriented Muti-Family Housing
• Zoning bylaw changes – transition between small and big buildings, row housing and infill
• Smarter Residential Lighting
• Recreation Facility and School Planning

The EFCL is extremely busy these days, you can’t do it all, but hopefully this summary helps you follow some of the things that you and your community are interested in.

David Dodge

Bernie Zolnar elected as new District B Planning Committee Rep

Bernie Zolnar was elected the new President of Glengarry Community League and the EFCL District B Planning Committee representative on the same day!

Eleven of the 13 community leagues in District B attended the Special District Meeting after we failed to get quorum at the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) Annual General Meeting on April 19.

Lago Lindo, Kilkenny, McLeod, Evansdale, Northmount, Londonderry, Balwin, Killarney, Delwood, Glengarry, Rosslyn and Belvedere community leagues attended the first District B meeting in many years on Tuesday May 4.

At the meeting David Dodge (yours truly) was re-elected as the EFCL District B Board Representative for the region. I am also currently the VP External of the EFCL as well.

This means our district has a representative on the board and one on the EFCL Planning Committee which works on city-wide planning issues on behalf of community leagues. The committee has started to become quite active monitoring new City policies and proposing policies for the EFCL. As Mike White from Lago Lindo said "It's good that we have someone from the Area 2 community leagues at the EFCL as well from the Area 17 community leagues to provide balanced representation."

The next Board meeting is May 13 at the EFCL offices. The meetings are open. Just today we heard the community leagues are going to be meeting with the Provincial Cabinet and Edmonton MLAs from the Tory Caucus near the end of May. We will let you know about the venue soon.

This will be a good chance to talk about a number of issues affecting community leagues in a round table format with the provincial government.

Congratulations Bernie for your election as the Planning Rep. I look forward to serving with you at the EFCL.  After the special District B meeting community folks from both Area 17 and Area 2 got together for a drink along with one of our MLAs.

Leagues Vote to Sell $25 Memberships to Hockey Players

On Monday Edmonton's community leagues passed a motion that will allow the Edmonton Minor Hockey Association (EMHA) to sell special $25 corporate community league memberships to every hockey family in Edmonton.

The new agreement is designed to address a long-standing logistical nightmare for hockey registrars. Some folks in the EMHA were ready to drop the requirement that hockey players must be members of community leagues because of very serious problems finding the right leagues, with people filling in fake community league membership numbers and even people just leaving the membership box blank.

Pictured are Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director and David Gibbens, EFCL President

Under the new agreement (soon to be ratified by the EMHA) the hockey association will sell every single hockey family a community league membership when they register for hockey. This will mean every single family of the 7,000 hockey players in Edmonton will have a community league membership, guaranteed. 

The EMHA will send the money and a list with complete information for each new member to the EFCL for passing on to leagues.

The new system is a change, but the vast majority of community leagues in Edmonton will benefit since they will capture every single hockey player from their community league. In the old system people got away with not buying memberships, buying them from other leagues or even by entering fake membership numbers. This arrangement also reconfirms the relationship between community leagues and hockey. The community leagues started hockey and have a long time affiliation with hockey people many of whom have served on community league boards.

Some leagues from the west end were not happy with the arrangement because their membership fees are higher, many around $40. The $25 corporate rate was chosen as the average rate and with a view to not increasing hockey fees too much.

The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues Annual General Meeting was Monday, April 19 at Athalone Hall.

As a footnote, I write today the "acting District B representative"  since our district did not have quorum on at the April 19th meeting! We have a special meeting of District B communities planned for May 4, 2010 to elect or re-elect a representative.

State of the City of Edmonton Address - Mayor Stephen Mandel

Today Stephen Mandel gave his annual State of the City address at the Chamber of Commerce event at Shaw Conference Centre. I attended along with Allan Bolstad, EFCL Executive Director.
The two-term Mayor laid out a pretty big vision that seemed centered around Edmonton's Expo Bid. He spoke at length about the "sustainable community" planned for the Airport lands redevelopment.
The Mayor spoke at length about LRT as a focus of transit development and about how it is the focus of creating a modern green city of the future. He even suggested a second ring road may not even be needed if we do an excellent job of transit, and LRT in particular.
He affirmed his commitment to seeing downtown redevelopment as a priority and encouraged business leaders and citizens to look carefully at the major sports facility being proposed for downtown as a possible key to creating a vibrant downtown in Edmonton. The reiterated the City needs to be prudent and fiscally responsible in any deal, but he also seems to favor a big, bold idea for down town.
The Mayor spoke from notes and there was no standing ovation this time. But it seems fairly clear that there was good, strong support for his vision in the room full of business leaders, politicians, plus a healthy dollop of City employees and a few lonely community people!

EFCL Community League Capital Projects Deficit 2010

Hi everyone, I referred to a report prepared by Allan Bolstad EFCL Executive Director on the capital projects deficit faced by Community Leagues in Edmonton and I now have a copy. Download it here: EFCL Capital Project Costs.

This report found about 10-12 Community Leagues will be looking to build Community League Buildings in the next ten years and another 3-5 need to rebuild. Estimated cost is $7.5 million over the next three years.

The report also documents $4.5 million in needed repairs to Community buildings, $1.75 million for Tennis Courts, $2.5 million for hockey rinks,  $300,000 for basketball courts, and about $1.45 million in other projects over the next three years.

This report is being used by the Tripartite Committee to attempt to find new ways to fund capital projects in Community Leagues and in fact the committee has a very rough draft proposal.  The EFCL Board has already endorsed a plan that calls for a new model for funding and $3 million over three years in matching funds to fund these important Community League capital projects.

EFCL Board Package April 2011 - District B Report

EFCL District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep., April 8, 2010
Download the April 8 Board Package

Notes from the April 8, 2010 Board Meeting

Hi everyone, I am back from the rain forests of southern Costa Rica and am ready for warmer weather here! If you are curious, here is a link to a slide show of Costa Rica photos. The follow are my highlights from the 43-page board package and the EFCL Board Meeting:

AGM is April 19, 5:30 pm - FREE FOOD! 

EFCL AGM April 19, 5:30 pm (dinner), 6:30 pm meeting. Athlone Hall, 13010 129 Street - goto EFCL.org for more information or RSVP. There is a lot happening with Community League issues, so come on out and catch up on the news, and compare notes with fellow community league folks.

Talent Show

This Saturday April 17th at Stanley A Milner Library Theatre, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm – 67 entries & great talent.

3.1 Presentation: Walter Trochenko on Social Housing
Walter Trochenko of the City of Edmonton presented an early draft of a Discussion Paper on Social Housing in Edmonton to the EFCL board. Click here to download this early draft (remember it’s only a draft). Version 2 of this may be available online at the City site already. The City is keen to find new ways to manage the distribution and supply of social housing and this report is about how that will be done. This report will be discussed at 5:30 pm at a public meeting on April 19 at Alex Taylor School and it goes to Executive Committee on April 21. In a nutshell there are three options:

• Status quo
• Flexible plan to attempt to steer housing around the city. The idea is to spread housing around, but not create hard and fast rules
• A hardcap on social housing in communities with more than their share

The report considers proposing the use of funding for projects to steer developments away from some areas and into others. The report contains a fascinating table that lists the concentration of social housing by community: four District B communities figure in the top 20 communities for high concentrations of low income people and families and social housing: Belvedere, Balwin, Rosslyn and Evansdale. The communities at the top of the list have up to 51% low income residents and one community, McCauley has 54% of its homes as subsidized housing units. The top 10 communities would be singled out, and social housing projects would avoid those communities.

• First time homebuyers is market-based housing and none of the approved sites will change to social housing sites
•  20 more school sites that are not needed however are now being released and subjected to the City’s process for reallocating the sites once earmarked for school envelopes. Social housing will undoubtedly target these sites and try to get them allocated to social housing projects.

DD COMMENT: Download the report and participate in the process if you are interested in these issues. Equitable distribution makes sense, especially to those with more than their fair share, but this will not be easy.

3.2 Presentation 2: Tim McCarger - Allocation of School sites
Twenty school building envelope sites are up for grabs since they have been released by the school boards because the do not need them. Tim McCarger of the City is working on crafting the process for the reallocation of these sites. As you will recall the last time this happened the City worked with the province and the Municipal Government Act to allocate all of the previous 20 sites to affordable housing in a pretty unilateral fashion. This has created some healthy skepticism that a fair process can be brought to the table.
However Tim McCarger, to his credit, seems determined to see this happen. See the Surplus School Sites web page the City has set up for this process. There is a map of the sites and tons of information on the process. School sites in or close to District B include: Caernarvon, Dunluce, Miller, Belmont, and Overlanders. The map includes links to site maps for each site.

Remember the City gets first dibs on what happens with these sites (many City departments/programs could be interested), the second priority is non-profit uses and then if there is no interest by those two levels sites can be disposed of to developers or the site can be retained by the City and leased to a developer.

6.0.1 Tripartite Progress - New Funding Model Proposed
The EFCL and the City have come up with a VERY PRELIMINARY draft of a potential new model for funding community leagues as part of the TriPartite License negotiation process. We are making excellent headway in simplifying this agreement and fixing some irritants to some community leagues and actually making the agreement better.
Better yet, once confronted with the incredible capital funding challenges being faced by community leagues and their inability to apply for funds  from NPDP or to get loans to build or repair community league facilities on licensed land the committee is in the early stages of negotiating a new way to fund leagues.

Allan Bolstad our executive director has done a report that has identified about $18 million in repairs and construction required by community leagues over the next three years! This backlog has been building for some time.
The Tripartite Committee (consisting of City and EFCL and community representatives (me included)) has come up with a proposal to model a new funding process after the newly crafted Partnership Agreements the City has created for non-community league organizations.

The EFCL passed the following motion at the April 8th meeting:
Recommendation:

1. That the EFCL recommend to the membership that we ask the City of Edmonton to establish a capital grant program for community leagues of $3 million year, for three years, beginning in 2011.
2. That the EFCL recommend to the membership that we ask the City of Edmonton to increase the annual operating grants to community leagues, from $1.7 million/year to $3 million per year, beginning in 2011.

DD COMMENT: This is a needed step and a very good idea to emerge out of this process. We’ll see if it flies. You may want to follow this and let your councillor know if you think this is a good idea!

6.1 Distribution of Social Housing (pg 12)
Edmonton City Council has asked the administration to review the placement of social housing in Edmonton and as you can see there is a lot of action on this file lately (see above). The EFCL Board thought it prudent to weigh in on this issue. The EFCL board passed a motion (see page 12 of board package) to support the redistribution of social housing, giving stressed out communities the ability to support better social housing if it will help them, that consultation with stakeholders and communities is critical and finally that we support the equitable distribution of housing in the city.

DD COMMENT: This is a file to watch closely and the EFCL is trying to make sure the communities interests are protected. The City’s discussion paper will go to Executive Committee on April 21.

6.2 EMHA Sale of $25 Memberships to ALL PLayers (pg 14)
Hmmm, well the hockey guys are still not very happy with the Community League membership situation. The good news is the EMHA wants to retain a good relationship with Community Leagues and the EFCL. But apparently the hockey registrars have had it with all the problems with Community League Memberships. Apparently people write down numbers that don’t exist, they often do not fill in the CL numbers on the hockey forms and the hockey guys are fed up and they asked for a new round of meetings with the EFCL.

Our online membership sales system has improved things a great deal--we sold a few thousand new memberships last year, but the system is not solving the hockey situation.
Therefore the EFCL met with the EMHA and has begun negotiating a new agreement to ensure ALL hockey players have community league memberships and that the process is easy for them.

It looks like the only way to ensure good cooperation is to integrate CL membership sales right into the hockey registration process. The idea is to charge one fee: $25 to every single hockey play as they register and then turn over the list of new members and money to the EFCL to pass on to the leagues. The EFCL will be forced to undertake a certain amount of administration here, but every player will have a new membership and it will be paid for.

DD COMMENT: I am still in favor of an improved online membership sales system, but this sounds like a good deal for Community Leagues. On the upside ALL players will have a membership and they will be paid for in one-fell swoop. Some leagues may complain if their membership fees are higher, but that is a small price to pay for a guarantee that all EMHA players join leagues and that the relationship is cemented for the long term.

6.3 Artifical LIghting Policy (pg 16)
In order to reduce light pollution, conserve energy and ensure adequate lighting for security pruposes the EFCL passed a recommendation from the EFCL Planning Committee to encourage the City of Edmonton to be a Light Efficient Community.

DD COMMENT: This is an innovative policy to encourage the city to manage light really well. Check it out.

6.4 Neighbourhood Schools  (pg 18)
The EFCL Planning Committee thought it was important to come out with a clear statement of the importance of schools to communities. The statement acknowledges the critical role of schools in strong communities and supports the “continued presence of neighbourhood schools in mature neighbourhoods...”
DD COMMENT: A good clear statement.

6.5 President’s Dinner  (pg 19)
The EFCL is planning to host a dinner for all Community League Presidents to recognize the significant contributions of the Community League Presidents and all of the Area Council Presidents as well. This event would be instead of an awards gala for this year only.

DD COMMENT: A good idea and long overdue at the City-wide level. See you there!
That’s the highlights from the EFCL Board Package for what appears to be an extremely busy period for Community Leagues in Edmonton. If you have any comments or questions please fire them off to me anytime.

EFCL Board Package March 2011 - District B Report

Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues District B Report
David Dodge, District B Rep., March 11, 2010
districtb@efcl.org
Download the March 11 Board Package

District B Community Leagues: Lago Lindo, Kilkenny, McLeod, Evansdale, Northmount, Londonderry, Steele Heights, Balwin, Killarney, Delwood, Glengarry, Rosslyn, Belvedere

Notes from the March 11 Board Meeting

Hi everyone, here are some notes about things that caught my attention in the March 11 Board Meeting Package.

6.1 Free Memberships (pg 11)

The idea is to offer free memberships to new residents to introduce them to the benefits of community league membership. Of the two recommendations to the board (see page 11) the board opted to support the second which reads: “That the EFCL encourage community leagues to provide free memberships to new residents and that the EFCL survey all its members to see how many support a policy of giving free memberships to new residents in their neighborhood.” As an example, Duggan CL has provided free memberships for newcomers and free soccer registration for newcomers as well.

DD COMMENT: this is a great idea. This would capture new members that may not even know that community leagues exist. We rope them in, introduce them to the benefits of community leagues and renew them in the second year. The board opted not to put a resolution to the membership to “require” all leagues to participate because we did not think it will fly. That’s too bad, this is a good idea. What do you think?

6.2 EFCL Annual General Meeting Agenda (pg 12)

The EFCL AGM is April 19 at Athlone Community League (13010 129 Street)
Registration and Dinner 5:30 pm, Start time: 6:30 pm Finish Time 9:30 pm
We still do not have a District B representative on the EFCL Planning Committee. This is a great opportunity to make a difference on City-wide issues from a community point of view. The committee is presently working on defining Family Friendly Housing, side yard transition policy, Artificial Lighting Policy, Affordable Housing, Social Housing, Group Home spacing, and much more.

DD COMMENT: It would be great to have a representative from District B, ask around, we probably have some great candidates in our region.

6.3 Planning Committee (pg 13)

The EFCL is putting the final touches on side yard transitions between low density and multi-unit housing. The key recommendation is to retain a 7.5 m side yard between apartments and housing instead of the 3 m being recommended. The committee is also recommending side yards not be relaxed based on sun shadow studies until the City has adopted minimal sunlight standards. And finally the RA* Apartment Zone (up to 6 stories) should not be adopted to reduce them from 7.5 m. (See page 13)

The EFCL Planning Committee is also working on an efficient lighting policy. The board liked the presentation that was made (page 14), but sent it back to committee to specifically acknowledge community security concerns and how it can be dealt with in the context of an efficient lighting policy.

DD COMMENT: This is a great idea, but we must acknowledge and look after community security concerns right in this policy. The police tell us to light everything all the time, and this sometimes completes with energy conservation and light pollution concerns of some. The idea is to look after security and conserve energy at the same time. Apparently, more light isn’t always the answer. More on this alter I am sure.

6.5 School closure position (pg 16)

The EFCL Recommendation:
March 11, 2010 6.5 – School Closure Policy Position Allan Bolstad, Executive Director

1. That the EFCL ask each public school board to step up its efforts to keep schools open by working with the local community to find partners for vacant space before announcing any closures and by taking steps to eliminate vacant space.
2. That each school board be invited to join the EFCL’s Living Local campaign by promoting the concept of students attending schools close to where they live.
3. That the EFCL go on record as opposing the process currently used to close schools and communicate its concerns about the impact of school closures to the school boards, the City of Edmonton, the Province of Alberta and other key stakeholders.

DD COMMENT: I whole-heartedly supported this position and so did the board. Schools are the heart and soul of a community and inner city neighborhoods are about to face a blizzard of proposed school closings. The current process results in schools being named for closure and then the community rises up and declares war on the closings. The problem is the decision is all but made at this point. The EFCL is not happy with the process and is actively working to work with board(s) to get notice of schools at risk so communities can receive notice and start work on plans to save their schools well in advance of the fatal day. It is hoped that creative arrangements can save as many schools as possible, both in recognition of the vital role they play in the fabric of the community and in the sense that as the city evolves there is a good chance with changing demographics and densification that these schools will be needed again some day. The EFCL received notice that the process has started to close Eastwood School, McCauley School, and Parkdale School. This added some urgency to this issue. More later. (see page 18 and 40)

8.3.2 Report on First Time Home Buyer’s program (pg 25)

You will recall the City rammed through a program to build “affordable homes” on surrendered school envelope sites around the city and designated 20 vacant sites for a pilot program to build affordable housing. Walter Trocenko answered a number of questions we had about how that program is doing – you really should read this on page 25.

DD COMMENT: essentially this program is going nowhere fast, since the demand for the housing is not high.

8.3.3 Group HOme Distribution (pg 26)

The EFCL Planning Committee has formed a sub-committee to look at the distribution of Group Homes in Edmonton. An enquiry was submitted by several ward 3 councillors and there will be a report on the spacing of group homes to the City’s Executive Committee on March 18. DD

COMMENT: The planning committee and others are taking an interest in social housing issues and we all need to support these efforts, but we are pushing for is fair distribution of housing projects and group homes across the City.

8.4.1 Community Ice Time Allocation Changes Comming Soon (pg 27)

The City of Edmonton provides 100 hours of ice time to community leagues much of it is NOT allocated each year. The City would like to develop a separate allocation process where you can go and rent ice for your league on a priority basis, but only for non hockey activities. The EFCL is hosting an allocation meeting for 2010-2011 on March 24, at 6:30 pm at the EFCL Office. Don’t miss this if you are interested in community ice time in the arenas.

8.4.7 Swimming Pool Allocation (pg 30)

The Aquatic Development Committee met on February 23. They are creating two poll allocation committees: one for city-wide groups and the other for Community Leagues. A meeting is being organized for June – stayed tuned for dates and times.

10.3 Community League Day Kick-Off Event (pg 39)

As you may have heard Community League Day is September 18 and communities all over the city are organizing special events to promote community leagues across Edmonton at the start of the new Community League Membership Year! Register your event with Michael Janz at the EFCL and let’s make this the biggest group of community events ever. Send your information to michael.janz@efcl.org to get your league involved – 15 leagues have already registered their events. The EFCL is planning a photo op stunt four days before Community League Day to draw attention to it – 150 students from Victoria School are each going to hold a sign representing all of the Community Leagues in Edmonton in the shape of a map of Edmonton in Churchill Square on September 14.

That's it, please send your comments in anytime.