Coaldale mayor addresses concerns on administrative transparency

Jason Beekman, a member of the Citizens group, told Lethbridge News Now that residents have been left in the dark on the details of the multi-million dollar project.

However, Coaldale mayor Kim Craig told LNN that’s never been the intent.

Craig noted that the project was included in Coaldale’s 2019-2021 Capital Budget, which he said was made public on November 26, 2018.

“It [the Capital Budget] was a very comprehensive document that laid out our initiatives, not in the least of which was the Civic Square project, and it went into a lot of detail there,” he said.

“We also [had] dialogue with the Chamber of Commerce [a presentation was made on June 12, 2019] and we’ve had public open houses after we announced the Capital Plan and had poster boards for people to come and see, and the Capital Plan’s been online, different things like that.”

The 2019-2021 Capital Plan document can be viewed here. Details on Civic Square are on page 47.

The budget set aside for the town office space (to be located on the second floor of the building) is $3.5 million, with the budget for the commercial and common areas on the first floor at $4,130,000 and $1 million pegged for the outdoor civic space and parking lot.

As far as communicating directly with the public over the course of the planning, Craig said recently that’s been difficult, due to challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[The town] can’t necessarily have big open houses, too. We’ve been working on the town plan with a working group and we’ve had to have Zoom meetings and it does impair your ability to engage,” he said.

“I don’t want to hide behind that and I’m not doing that, but obviously this group [Citizens for a Better Coaldale] is there and maybe there could be a little bit stronger communication piece out there. I can’t argue that.”

Craig added that a request for proposal for architectural design services for the project was posted on the Alberta Purchasing Connection website last year.

Additionally, he said during the process, there was a public request for expression of interest (RFEI), which can be viewed here. The document also includes further details about Civic Square.

Craig said discussions on Civic Square included in council can be found in the official recorded minutes of council’s meetings.

He explained that the RFEI sought a private bidder to take charge of the building, helping to reduce the town’s overall spending costs.

At council’s regular meeting on December 9, 2019, they made a resolution to formally change the business plan through which the Civic Square project would be undertaken.

“Instead of building and leasing out and/or selling additional commercial space within the Civic Square building to new businesses, Council decided to let the private development community look after that portion of the project such that the Town’s role in the project was minimized to simply purchasing a second story commercial condo from a private developer,” he later stated via email to LNN.

“This effectively made the Town a “customer” or a “purchaser” of space within the building rather than the developer of the building. In turn, this reduces the financial overhead the Town is responsible for managing. Under this new business model, the developer is responsible for finding buyers of the commercial spaces within the Civic Square office complex, not the Town. The Town simply purchases the space it requires with cash it has in the bank.”

The mayor continued.

“The end result is an aesthetically-pleasing two story office complex that will bring new development, businesses, services, jobs and tax revenue to Coaldale’s downtown core, capitalizing on the momentum of a soon to be revitalized Main Street.”

Craig added that the planning process has since been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and contractual details between the Town of Coaldale and the selected proponent for the project have not yet been finalized. Therefore, the name of the proponent cannot be released at this time.

“The motions and documents that Council published to date about the Civic Square project, and the desire for how it should be undertaken, have been very detailed. And through the promotion of this project, we’ve been very open about it. We are excited to make these details public and to share the benefits of the public/private partnership with the community. But we can’t be pressured into releasing details about private investors prematurely,” he said.

“Once these details are finalized, the name of the development group undertaking the project, including what they are building and for how much, can be made known publicly. It would be a breach of confidence to prematurely release such details.”

MEETING WITH CITIZENS FOR A BETTER COALDALE

Following concerns raised by Citizens for a Better Coaldale, Craig said his council is open to meeting with the group earlier than the originally suggested time of September, to discuss the project.

“Nobody at council wanted to discount or dismiss anybody with the group with the motions made at the last meeting. One motion was to receive the document for information, which is quite standard,” he said, referring to a letter sent to council by the group earlier this month.

Craig said further details, including contractual information on the project, should be available in mid-August or in early September.

WHAT ABOUT THE POOL?

Another question brought up by Citizens for a Better Coaldale is why taxpayer money is being spent for new town office space as opposed to something like ensuring a full-time fix for Coaldale’s outdoor pool.

The pool suffered a critical failure last summer, which was fixed in the short-term, but some residents are calling for more long-term action.

“The town office that we’re in has been remodeled and reconfigured a number of times where the HVAC system is just not really workable and the floorplan is all cut up and whatnot, so it’s not an efficient layout for the functioning of a town office, so that had to be addressed. Downtown Coaldale was a number one priority. We’re spending several millions of dollars on Main Street right now to upgrade Main Street. We wanted to kind of coordinate the effort and have a very professional looking downtown for the future as well,” Craig told Lethbridge News Now.

“We also promised the residents of Coaldale a public engagement process on what kind of a pool to build and we’re not anywhere near where there’s enough information on what the residents of Coaldale want in the way of a pool…that’s a discussion that’ll take many more months to figure that out.”

Craig said the pool and Civic Square are two “completely different investments”.

“The way these public amenities operate, they cost money. There’s a lot of overhead that you really have to subsidize as a municipality; we lose about two to three-hundred-thousand dollars a year on our pool and it’s only open three to four months a year,” he said.

“Then if you decide to build a bigger, better one, you’ve got that much more operating cost, whereas if you do a good job on Civic Square and regenerate, reignite the investment in downtown Coaldale and create taxable business-commercial properties, then that adds to our tax base and that makes it a little bit more affordable to cover the overhead costs of some of our public amenities like a newer pool.”

APOLOGY

Craig went on to issue an apology to concerned residents, addressing Citizens for a Better Coaldale.

“I do apologize to the group for any gaps that we have, they weren’t designed to be gaps in our transparency, but we’re certainly willing to engage and whatnot,” he said.

“You know, I was really looking through the information out there, and this group seems that they want a good product at the end, and they don’t necessarily have any big outstanding issues per se on the project itself, but they want a good quality project with a financially responsible way of doing it, so we’re more than happy to discuss all that with them.”

The plan is to construct Civic Square on the vacant lots west of and adjacent to Westland Insurance, with a dual outdoor parking/festival space on the vacant lot adjacent to the Coaldale Public Library.

by Justin Goulet

Coaldale mayor addresses concerns on administrative transparency

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