Kerrisdale community centre members last week voted overwhelmingly against signing the Vancouver Park Board’s joint operating agreement.
“We have an engaged community and because of the ongoing concerns about what is included in this agreement, we knew that we had to go to our members for a vote on whether to sign it or not,” said Kathleen Bigsby, president of the Kerrisdale Community Centre Society.
“Our members gave us clear direction that they don’t feel that this agreement is good for our community centre.”
Close to 500 members cast a ballot with 481 voting to reject the agreement and 15 in favour.
Bigsby said that following the vote, the society board will meet to identify its next steps.
“We need to fully understand all of the pieces of what this vote means to our community centre,” she said. “We had hoped that we — and other CCAs — would have been able to come to a mutually satisfactory agreement with the park board to get a JOA that works for the park board and CCAs.
“And I can say, without hesitation, that the group of CCAs did our best to do that. Unfortunately, the park board was entrenched in pushing a JOA on us that did not work for our communities and we could not, in good faith, recommend to our boards that it be signed,” Bigsby said in a press release. “It is a real shame that the park board does not see us as being true partners.”
Hastings Community Association held an information meeting for its members last Wednesday.
"The board wanted to know what our community thought — and, like usual, they told us — and they didn't hold back," said association president Sherry Breshears. "The members here tonight unanimously agreed that the current draft of the JOA does not work for our community and they don't want us to sign it."
The board will meet to make its decision on Sept. 27 and Breshears said that the feedback from members carries serious weight in the decision-making process.
"Our board was present at the meeting and they heard how our members feel first-hand," Breshears said. "Now, the board must outline the next steps through a formal board decision. I don't think anyone is going to be surprised at the outcome of next week's board meeting."
Killarney Community Centre Society Tueday night joined the growing list of CCAs rejecting the agreement. After an informal vote of association members during a public information meeting showed unanimous support of rejecting the agreement, the board formally voted to reject the current JOA.
"The board wanted to know what our community thought and our community members were very clear: they were unanimous in their direction," said society president Wendy Tupling-Guest. "They don't think the current draft of the JOA works for our community and they don't want us to sign it.
"There were many seniors in the room," she added. "This is an especially important agreement for them because we have been working for years to get a new seniors' centre. Last night our seniors told us — in no uncertain terms — that they support our CCA. All of the members present at the meeting did."
In April, after a year of consultation, park board commissioners voted to approve the joint operating agreement and gave the community centre associations (CCAs) a signing deadline of Sept. 30.
Earlier this month, a group of 12 of the associations penned a letter to the board outlining a number of outstanding concerns around the agreement — among others, they say the proposed agreement infringes on the autonomy of the CCAs, gives the board the ability to evict an association from all or part of a community centre and does not reflect the board’s responsibility to provide recreation programs and services.
At Monday’s park board meeting, director of recreation Donnie Rosa updated commissioners on the agreement ahead of the signing deadline later this month.
She told the board that she has held more than 30 meetings with individual associations working through issues and crafting appendices to the agreement. While each association is being asked to sign the same JOA, each agreement will have appendices based on the individual operations of the centres.
“The tone of the meetings has been extremely positive,” Rosa told commissioners.
Her report outlined and addressed the concerns in the CCAs’ letter.
She said the agreement holds the CCA’s to a higher standard than other independent societies — the B.C. Societies Act as a minimum threshold is not enough.
“Good governance is critical to ensuring that CCA’s exclusive use of space is for purposes that benefit the community,” Rosa said in her report.
She disagreed that the agreement gives the board the power to evict associations arbitrarily, adding that in the case of expansion or a new facility, the JOA allows to park board to ensure the “capability of the organization matches the scope of the facility.”
Read the full report here.
With the deadline quickly approaching, Rosa updated the board on where things are at with each of the CCAs.
As of Monday night, two associations, Marpole and Douglas Park, had finalized everything and signed the agreement. Strathcona’s board voted unanimously to approve the agreement and is in the process of finalizing its appendices. The rest of the CCA’s are at various stages, with many still to hold meetings before the end of the month.
Rosa said she will report back to the board at the next meeting on Oct. 2 and if there are still CCAs that haven’t signed the agreement commissioners will have to decide on a course of action.
The new JOA goes into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
@JessicaEKerr
