Erin council has disbanded four committees of council, including the Ballinafad Community Centre and Erin Township Tennis Club, that were non-compliant with a town bylaw.
The disbandment does not mean the committees will cease to exist, however.
The town’s auditor found two committees were running independently of the town, stated a March 6 report from clerk Dina Lundy.
“During their review, the auditors commented that due to this structure, it is not possible for management or council to provide effective oversight, which could result in exposure to legal and other liabilities, as well as reputational risk should there be issues with how these enterprises are managed,” stated her report.
From this report, Lundy reviewed how the entities were established. She found that a bylaw from 1985 established four boards: Hillsburgh Community Centre and Arena, Victoria Park in Hillsburgh, Ballinafad Community Centre and Erin Township Tennis Club.
“Upon further review of the bylaw, it has been determined that of these established boards, two are no longer operating as boards (Hillsburgh Community Centre and Arena and Victoria Park in Hillsburgh), and the other two are operating in a state of non-compliance (Ballinafad Community Centre and Erin Township Tennis Club),” Lundy stated in the report.
“The established boards still in existence are no longer operating as intended nor in compliance with the bylaw, likely evolving over the 32-plus years of their existence,” said Lundy.
The review of the Ballinafad Community Centre led the town to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Halton Hills, increasing contributions from $500 to $5,000 per year.
Staff recommended volunteers who currently operate the facility be appointed to a committee of council with terms of reference. This would also allow membership from Halton Hills.
Lundy stated the Erin Tennis Club is similar to other Sports organizations with their own board, but it operates on town property without a rental agreement and the town holds its reserve funds.
Lundy noted the group has made “minor contributions” to the facility and to hydro costs.
“This arrangement is not consistent with similar organizations, and poses risk to the municipality as indicated in the auditor’s report,” she stated.
The recommendation was to allow the club to operate as a “separately-incorporated and fully independent” organization.
Councillor John Brennan said the town has to work with the volunteers.
“I want to make sure as we go forward, and I’m sure this is what the intent is, that we work closely with those people because they’ve been servicing in a largely voluntary capacity for all these years and they have been managing an asset for the town that is a great asset,” he said.
Parks and recreation officer Jamie Adams agreed.
“We need to be very mindful of the hard work that’s gone into this and that we are looking for aligning good business practice and increasing the financial oversight, while continuing to support that community with very minimal disruption to what they’re currently used to,” she said.
Councillor Matt Sammut asked how the tennis club would be run.
“We really want to remove some barriers for public access … they run a really good program when it comes to leagues and learn-tos and also summer camps,” said Adams, adding it would mirror minor Sports groups.
Councillor Rob Smith noted the club’s season was set to start in April.
“Their new season’s coming up, they’re trying to prepare for it, where does this leave them?” he asked.
“We don’t want to put them in a bad spot, we understand this is a transitional period; we don’t have a new frame work in place yet,” said CAO Nathan Hyde.
“We want to actually work with them to develop what this looks like moving forward … we don’t want to unduly burden them.”
Erin Tennis Club president Chuck Hall was present at the meeting and was permitted to make comments.
“One thing that wasn’t in the report was some of the contributions that we’ve made, not just in man-hours as volunteers, but also financially over the many years that we’ve been custodians of the courts,” he said.
The contributions included purchasing wind screens, contributing over half of the cost for the court resurfacing and the building of the club house.
“Our contributions have been significant and we hope to be able to do this moving forward, to reinvest into the facility and to make sure that we can provide a place for the members of the community to come and play tennis and be social and be active,” he said.
He added that being unincorporated and uninsured are issues the club needs to face immediately.
“Our season starts in a month, we’re under a little bit of a precarious situation,” he said.
Council approved the recommendation to repeal the 1985 bylaw, effectively disbanding the four committees ,and directed staff to develop terms of reference for the Ballinafad Community Centre committee as an advisory committee.
