Board of Director’s Meeting – Minutes

Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Location: online 6:30 p.m.

Attendees: David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Margaret Lara (ML), Eric Chabot (EC), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Troy Newton (TN), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Sara Bergsma (SB), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC)

EC called the meeting to order at 6:34 pm.

EC asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

EC asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

  • SB motioned to accept. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

  • Treasurer’s report sent by MG
  • Operating costs holding steady, not much spending elsewhere in budget due to shutdown
  • Revenues limited to levy, no sponsorship coming in
  • Projecting a surplus of $56k if everything stays the way they have been (no events)
  • RS asked about the projection that $15k would be coming in by sponsorship. MG said that was the projection at the of COVID, but now we see it likely won’t materialize. Surplus will likely be larger than we anticipated at the beginning of COVID.
    • TN moved to accept the treasurer’s report. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report

CB (Regional):

  • Regional Council voted down Burlington’s request for funding for a grant program giving $2,500 to businesses for COVID expenses. The reasoning was that the Municipal Act prohibits bonusing (section 106) and also the program only helps a small number of businesses, so many councillors did not feel they could support the motion (but it got support from Burlington councillors and their mayor).
  • Increased masking regulations in common areas in condominiums – see COVID-19 page on Halton Region website for details.
  • Region going through Official Plan meetings (have one tomorrow night at 7pm – Natural Heritage and Agriculture areas), will be coming back to Council later this year with some growth concepts, hopefully to be approved next year.
  • Go to Milton.ca to find out about the Town’s official planning process. Consultations are underway, and the plan needs to conform with province and region.

KTD:

  • Official plan process underway, staff is looking for comments from various stakeholders.
  • DMBIA hasn’t submitted comments yet but might be useful to hear from members on this – could collect comments and give to staff for them to take into consideration (what would members like to see downtown, land uses, policies, etc)
  • Cultural project underway – looking to establish and define a culture for Milton. Events underway around town, one was at Sports Center this weekend where staff have people engage in art projects to help define what Milton means. Opportunity for membership to have their say and discuss ‘old Milton culture’, heritage buildings, entrepreneurial stories, etc.
  • Construction underway on Bronte Street will be going until December and some elements will continue after that. Main Street construction is complete for now (that project caused a lot of grief for our businesses, restaurants as they reopened from lockdown). In the spring they will do the final coating on the road but it will just take a day.
  • Town Hall is open again (10am-3pm).
  • New garbage cans in place in some spots. DO said there should be a focus back on cleaning up Mary and Mill Street now that those garbage cans are in.
    • DO moved to accept the Council report as presented. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

RS presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

Annual General Meeting

  • RS and MG to begin working on 2021 budget, planning to bring to board at the next meeting.
  • Move October board meeting to October 7, hold AGM the following week (likely October 14).
  • At AGM, invite a Regional representative to present the Regional Official plan as it relates to Downtown Milton, give members and the community an opportunity to provide input into the plan.

2021 Budget considerations

  • Town is more risk averse than province when it comes to hosting events, etc.
  • COVID numbers are increasing. If that continues, we won’t have face-to-face events
  • Budget is a living document and we will need to be adaptable since our situation is ever-changing
  • MG said last year, we made investments in salary and planned to continue to do that. We have previously kept the levy fixed at 3.5 % and we need to consider whether there will be a levy increase this year. Anticipating that 30% of levy will go to surplus this year.
  • EC said don’t want to shrink budget because eventually we will be opening up and will need funds to be able to do our activities as usual. Recommending keeping budget similar but hold on to extra funds and use those so we are ready to go as soon as things open up. Once there is a vaccine everyone is going to be competing for attention to get people to come back. We need money and a plan in place. We will need to continue to expand allocation to human resources because good people drive us. Once the job market opens up again there will inflationary pressures on wages and we are currently behind on wages. Summary: Two areas of focus should be 1. Staffing. 2. Having money to do something big once things open up (big capital project, fancy marketing campaign, event).
  • RS – initial thoughts: Consider whether to do a levy increase this year, since it is a challenging year for businesses and the optics of an increase could be negative. Three areas we could focus on: 1. Human resources to help keep our wages as competitive as possible and to keep good people. 2. Banners (consider whether to do those in 2020, 2021 or half and half). 3. Flowers – Flower Shed has been fantastic and very responsive. We need sufficient funding to be able to continue working with them.
  • KTD – Participated in a Chamber board meeting this morning and there they decided, because of the optics of it, they don’t want to increase their membership fees this year and add an additional burden to members. Chamber has more money than us but we do need to consider that. Agree with keeping levy increase low, but need to make sure we still have enough flexibility to do some activities, and we need to be ready to move once things open up. Italian Canadian Club just did a drive-in concert series. Once things open up we need to be ready to move forward.
  • DO – Concern on the optics of raising the levy, but we need to make sure we can open up strong once we open. I would like to see banners done. Let’s clear out the low-laying fruit that we haven’t done yet while the events are not happening. We could try for a low increase on the levy, and spend more on beautification for now.
  • MG – We are going into the new year with $171,000 cash.

Tiny Tots

  • RS suggested to do a scavenger hunt and activities over a two-week period.
  • A good way to engage members in something, participation is easy and optional for them, and provides a way to attract people downtown safely.
  • There may be some sponsorship opportunities for external businesses and our members
  • We could incorporate a charitable component into the event.
    • DO motioned to move forward with scavenger hunt, CB seconded. Motion passed.

Other Business

  • CB suggested a movie drive-in in the Brown street parking lot and has a contact for the screen.
  • EC suggested connecting with the churches to use their SOCAN permission (they do that in Sauble Beach for events).
  • KTD said to talk to Rosanna at the Italian Club because they have done those events three times.
  • We might be able to do a projector style.
  • Could generate interest for businesses. Italian Club had people delivering food by golf cart. Rachel to connect with Rosanna.

Adjournment:

  • CB made a motion to adjourn. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.
  • Meeting adjourned at 7:07 pm.