A letter received by Council.
I have been following the discussion regarding the Aurora Cultural Centre and the new agreement
I have been following the discussion regarding the Aurora Cultural Centre and the new agreement
I have reviewed the new agreement and it is an improvement
over the previous one. The provision of the Aurora Room for Aurora Museum space
is one such improvement; KPI’s are another . Though the annual grant will now
be based on a “budget”, it appears that it is not a grant but a permanent
“entitlement”, especially with this agreement being in place till December 31,
2027 – 15 years.
According to the Lease Agreement, The Town is responsible for
all maintenance of the building, utilities and if I read the agreement
correctly, daily cleaning of the building and provision of consumable items.
Schedule C is not complete in detailing further equipment and supplies. It
was estimated that routine maintenance & upkeep is $133,565 annually. The
School is owned by the Town and as such, I can understand the maintenance of the
building resting with the Town to ensure that it does not deteriorate, but daily
cleaning.
I visited the Cultural Centre’s website to get the Board of
Directors but it was not provided. There was a item for members but no
information was provided and there is nothing to indicate the number of members;
nor is the Constitution available. So at this point, I don’t know how many
members the Cultural Centre has nor do I know who the Board of Directors are.
As part of the new Agreement, this information is to be available on the
website. However , I would have thought that the Centre would have made this
information available to the public from the start.
I don’t see an indication in the agreement of having the
Cultural Centre become self sustaining with the grant decreasing annually. I
would think that this would an important aim of the Council in an attempt to
keep taxes reasonable. We have seen taxes increase over the last several years
and it looks like we will again have a tax increase. As a resident and
taxpayer of Aurora, I don’t agree with the Town going forward with the
agreement.
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Being assured of people's interest and that the information getting through is clear and understandable makes what I do worthwhile.
We learned more at last night's meeting. The President of the board responded that the idea of financial self-sufficiency had never been conveyed to him. It is not his understanding of expectation. . .
Only one original member still serves on the board.
As volunteers doing business in secret, they have neither a stake nor an obligation to make a financial success of the operation.
They intend to continue to conduct business secretly.even though they are spending public funds.
As board members Councillors will be accountable to the board, They will not be accountable to Council.
That's a conflict.
The Mayor has been attending meetings for months. He keeps everything secret.
Unless another board of entitlement is created, town staff will be employed in the museum. It will be an additional cost. It means staff serving separate masters in the same building. According to the agreement ,Board staff will not work on statutary
holidays.
Town staff in recreational facilities are expected to work on statutary holidays.
Board members are self-appointed. Membership may change frequently. We have no idea of turnover.
Council will not be informed.We are not now.
Hundreds of thousands of tax dollars will be handed over to people Council knows nothing about, Four times a year. with no idea who is receiving it
Communication between the board and the town has been through the town's Chief Administrative Officer. . Expectations of the board have apparently been communicated by that official..
With no input from Council. .
If the Mayor has communicated any expectations, they are not known to Council.
The President really said that the idea of financial self-sufficiency had never been conveyed to him ? That is truly awesome. Does he live under a rock? Did Mayor Dawe never mention that tiny little expectation of Aurora's taxpayers to him? Does the Mayor also live under a rock?
ReplyDeleteNote to contributor: the Board of Directors is under the About Us/Staff drop down menu the ACC website http://auroraculturalcentre.ca/about-us/staff/
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry but the KPI’s of Schedule A in the “Final Report- New Agreement Provision Cultural Services ACC” as Item 12 in last night’s General meeting of Council seems missing in substance. (In fact, I’m sorry I didn’t read this earlier).
It’s mostly about “feel good” indicators: Customer satisfaction with Program Mix, with Quality Level, with Overall Governance, with Awareness of the Centre – all garnered from an annual customer satisfaction survey. So the ACC delivers good programs but how many people are using it. How many paid programs, how many people went to free programs?
Their KPI’s continue Programming spending vs. total spending, Programming hours per capita, earned revenue as a % of Town grant, value of free programs delivered, number of partnerships, volunteer hours as a % of paid hours. All well and good but it doesn’t set any goals – it isn’t measuring itself against anything or even itself. It’s just stating how it will be calculated.
Even what I would deem the most important KPI listed “#8. Change in visitors annually” has no teeth because it’s not going to be really measured against anything. (For example – the number of visitors could go up dramatically if they permanently move the farmer’s market to the ACC or the numbers went down dramatically because the market found a new winter location). There is nothing to show here whether the place is a success or not since it’s not even being measured against itself. It’s just reporting numbers without relevance to any standard. Even if you state we want to increase attendance by 5% annually – set a goal – work towards something. Otherwise it doesn’t matter – the Town isn’t really measuring the success to anything and the ACC has no incentive to succeed. Simply existing is success enough.
The strategic Plan as part of Schedule A states nothing about actually getting people to the place and using the facilities. Nothing about getting new members, new users, new people through the doors, or having the existing people who use the ACC use it more often. It all seems to be under the premise of “if you build it, they will come”, like the whole plan is just to ensure that is exists or perhaps more appropriately subsists through the accounts of the Town.
If I was an exhibiting artist wouldn’t I want more people coming in to see my work – potentially buy my work or make my work more popular (everyone has to pay the own bills and expenses). Otherwise why would I waste my time setting up my exhibit at ACC.
What this shows me is that if the Council lets this go ahead, then this is the example that they set for how they deal with everything else.
If you are going to give them the money – set some real tangible, real measureable goals to make it successful and something they need to strive for. Otherwise the future ACC will be status quo to its existing condition and the Town will be on the hook regardless of whether people go thru the ACC doors or not.
Have you got some ideas about new KPI's -- let's hear them and should they be as comprehensive as say , the KPI's for other Town operated facilities or the arboretum or the seniors centre or the AHS Or the 150 anniversary celebration -- we don't know what those are , do we?
ReplyDeleteMore citizens may have walked through the door at Chruch Street in 2012 than all the years combined since it was school -- great use of a town owned facility in my view
Council is NOT giving "them" money -- council providing Cultural programming at Church Street
"I visited the Cultural Centre’s website to get the Board of Directors but it was not provided"
ReplyDeleteIt's there. Simple website navigation must be a challenge for you.
Yes, they walk through the doors & get onto a mailing list forever. The same way we count kids once a year when they trick-and-treat. The #'s are interesting but mean nothing.
ReplyDelete