Board of Director’s Meeting – Minutes

Wednesday, June 8, 2022
Location: Online, 6:30 p.m.

Attendees: Eric Chabot (EC), Sara Bergsma (SB), Margaret Lara (ML), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Alan Cooke (AC), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: None

Guests: Eric Parris, Julie Rock, Ian Campbell

EC called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m.

EC asked the board if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. None were made.

Review of previous minutes

  • CB moved to accept May minutes. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report

  • Expenses as expected, around $16.6k for this month.
  • Expenses for SummerFest are coming in. SummerFest sponsorship coming along well which helps cover costs for event.
  • Some unusual items to be investigated further with Finance Department:
    • Audit expense higher than usual
    • Tax levy amount doesn’t match budgeted amount
  • Anticipate that drawdown from surplus can be returned to reserve this year.
    • CB moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Council Report

KTD (Local)

  • Survey for ‘Living in Milton’ Town of Milton Official Plan is closing tonight. Opportunity for stakeholders to provide input.
  • Digital Main Street program is running again for this year – opportunity for businesses to get support and resources for digital marketing.
  • June is Pride Month, Town and community groups have activities planned.
  • Town unveiling an Orange Crosswalk at the corner of Martin & Mill Street, by Mill Pond, on June 13.

CB (Regional)

  • Regional Official Plan coming back to Regional Council with staff recommendations on June 15
  • Construction continues along Ontario Street
  • New bollards expected to be installed along Main Street at Martin in the next week. Orange water barriers have been removed in anticipation of the new bollards.
    • ML moved to accept the Council Report. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Executive Director’s Report

Administration

  • Interviews underway for second Canada Summer Jobs student position – this person will support with beautification, litter clean-up, downtown activations on weekends.

Summer activity series

  • With support from our additional student, we will run some small weekly activations later this summer (music, activities, possible collaboration with businesses running initiatives, public art activities, etc.) to attract visitors after they go to the market, or others, to Main Street.
  • KTD provided recommendation for pianist and he has a piano that can be transported for mobile shows. Could also engage local music schools, young performers, etc.
  • EC – Do low touch, high impact initiatives. Signage and marketing to get people shopping downtown and to visit businesses. Tie in with things happening already in the downtown.
  • CB – Look at Flix at Fairgrounds plans.

Downtown Milton SummerFest

  • Happening Saturday, June 18, 12-8pm.
  • Approximately 70 vendors and BIA members, 20 sponsors. Entertainment happening at BMO Stage and Milton Strong Performance Area. Car show confirmed for Commercial to Fulton – two shifts of around 30-35 cars, four hours each. More adult volunteers needed! Town secured some staff to support at event. Charitable partner is Food for Life.

Staffing

  • Staff resources are strained taking on all aspects of the event planning that were previously managed by the Town. SummerFest is a large-scale event and our team as it is currently is too small to take on all the planning for an event of this size. Current staff working lots of overtime to get through the work. Need an additional permanent fully trained resource in the office if we want to continue to run events like this, and need to reduce volume of the other initiatives and new activities at this time. Will post for third position (permanent) later this summer. Board previously approved amount for the third position. Instead of hiring a junior person at a lower rate, could hire someone with more experience but part time. Spoke to Town re support, Economic Development exploring this.
  • EC – Overtime work could be properly covered by a third person in the office. Challenges with having to train new people all the time. Reserve student position(s) for tasks that require less training time.
  • JT – Staff working from home or office? Boardroom not needed if we do not plan to meet in person. Want to ensure we are only paying for space we need.
  • RS – Working from office during the weekdays. Not currently paying for any meeting space, only paying for office space. Had previously looked at other office space options but found our current space is best suited to our needs.
  • EC – Make posting for third person for end of June/early July. Start in August.
  • RS – Will determine whether it would be an assistant or a coordinator level position.
  • EC – Budget has been approved to hire someone which will help reduce the strain on office staff. Will likely be a few efficiencies next year as well. Student positions don’t need a desk, they can focus on litter and outdoor tasks. Engage a recruiter to help fill position.

Mural

  • Contribution agreement signed and submitted. Delays in being able to communicate about the project because we haven’t been told by FedDev’s Communication Department that we can speak publicly about the project yet. Adam van Koeverden’s office spoke with FedDev on our behalf and FedDev said we can launch the call for artists and speak about the project but not mention FedDev until after we hear from the Communications Department. Will add them to the webpage once we get permission from the Communication Department. Will launch call for artists this week, and come back to the board by early August with a design plan for final approval.
  • There will be a public art booth at SummerFest to promote the project and engage kids and families in creative activities.

LED Seasonal Decorations

  • Received notice today that we got approved for HHBRTA funding to purchase some new standard street pole decorations. Waiting to hear how much we were approved for (may be less than what we applied for). Planning to put a small working group together from the board to help spearhead planning & implementation on this project. Suppliers have told us orders for seasonal decorations need to be placed in the summer to ensure they arrive on time – there are supply chain issues causing delays.
  • MG – Purchasing policy outlines how purchase can be made and additional details. Purchases over $25,000 would go through a request for bids/quotes process.
  • EC – Can run our own bidding process (call out to contractors, public postings, etc). Don’t have to use Town’s online bidding process if the timing won’t work for us. Prepare request for quotes which outlines what we need in terms of decorations, installation, etc. Share publicly and invite companies to submit quotes.
  • RS – This is largely an infrastructure project (new decorations) and has some some smaller expenses related to marketing and evening programming.
    • JT motioned to accept ED Report, ML seconded motion. Motion passed.

New business

  • July meeting – rescheduled to Wednesday, July 6.

In camera discussion

  • Filling board positions

Adjournment

    • SB moved to adjourn. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.
    • Meeting adjourned at 7:52 pm.