SUNDRE – Although the Town of Sundre has previously shown its support for the Mountain View Seniors’ Housing Foundation’s annual Golf Classic by registering a team, the municipality has until recently never before sponsored the event.
But while there was unanimous support on council to more formally get behind the tournament fundraiser, there wasn’t quite a consensus on how much to approve for the unbudgeted expense.
Chris Albert, director of corporate services and acting CAO during the regular May 12 meeting, said sponsorship packages are available at a variety of levels.
The rates from 2024 were: platinum, $5,000; gold, $2,500; silver, $1,500; cart sponsor, $3,000; hole sponsor, $500 per hole; and hole-in-one, $2,000.
For comparison, administration included in council’s agenda package the amounts contributed by neighbouring municipalities that sponsored the event last year. Olds, Didsbury and Mountain View County were all silver sponsors while Carstairs was a gold sponsor.
“Administration would recommend that whatever council choose as a sponsorship level, this does come from council’s discretionary fund, which is a component of the community services department’s budget,” Albert said, adding that fund only had a remaining balance of $426.
“Any sponsorship level that council chooses over that would cause the budget to go over,” he advised.
As per departmental practices, community services would first be expected to work within its allotted budget and find savings elsewhere. If that was not possible, the year-end financial review would potentially yield areas in other departments to make up for the expense, he said.
Additionally, he pointed out that council has in past years also drawn from its discretionary fund to support the Sundre Hospital Futures Gala.
“So that could potentially also cause the budget to be exceeded in this particular case,” he said, adding that while administration recommended approving a level of sponsorship, the total amount was ultimately at council’s discretion.
Coun. Chris Vardas moved to sponsor the gold package for $2,500. Praising the facility, the councillor said the municipality had done everything it could to bring the lodge to town.
“It would be kind of nice to have the Town of Sundre – since we’ve benefited from this – be able to become a sponsor for once,” he said, adding the amount wasn’t overwhelming and that some wiggle room could be found in the budget at year’s end to accommodate the expense.
“Depending on what the entire year looked like for entire organization, there may be a requirement for council to approve taking that money from a restricted surplus, from a stabilization fund,” said Albert, adding that would be a last resort if the amount couldn’t first be found somewhere else in the budget.
Coun. Owen Petersen spoke in favour but expressed reservations about creating a headache for staff by spending beyond council’s discretionary fund and putting pressure on the department to make up the shortfall.
“I don’t want to put more stress on community services,” said Petersen, adding he was encouraged by the fact the item could still come back at a later date for council to decide.
Mayor Richard Warnock, who shared Petersen’s concerns, sought to amend the motion to instead approve the silver sponsorship package for $1,500.
“I believe it’s a good place to start,” said Warnock.
Coun. Todd Dalke agreed.
“I think silver is fine,” said Dalke, adding that should be the maximum amount council considers.
“We cannot expect community services to foot that bill,” he said.
The mayor called a vote on his amendment, which carried with Coun. Connie Anderson opposed. Coun. Paul Isaac was not present on a notified absence.
With the motion now being whether to approve the $1,500 silver sponsorship, Coun. Jaime Marr spoke opposed.
“I support this event and I do believe that council should support this event as a sponsor,” said Marr.
“However, I don’t believe it’s fiscally responsible for us to go into arrears being a silver sponsor,” she said, suggesting a good place to start would be sponsoring a hole for $500.
“We’ve never sponsored this event in our sitting history,” she said, adding council should proceed prudently and further discuss the item at the fall workshop to consider better planning for it in the future.
Acknowledging his colleague’s concerns, Vardas countered by pointing out the facility has been around nearly 10 years.
“We haven’t really sponsored it ever,” he said, calling seniors housing a “very vital part” of the county and the community.
“It’s well deserved.”
While Vardas said he too did not want to put undue pressure on administration, the councillor felt the overage could be addressed at year-end when there’s typically a modest surplus to work with.
The mayor said the municipality has a responsibility to support seniors housing, “especially when Sundre has twice the population of seniors than other municipalities our size.”
And all of the funds raised by the foundation is ultimately divided up by the number of beds and distributed back into the municipalities with facilities, he said.
“We get a pretty good chunk of the money that’s raised back,” he said.
The motion passed with Marr opposed.
The 15th edition of the Mountain View Seniors’ Housing Foundation Golf Classic is scheduled for Sept. 11 at a location that had yet to be announced.
