City council will consider a new contribution agreement for the Powell River Council for Arts and Culture (PRCAC) that would cover a two-year retroactive term.
Director of economic development and communications Scott Randolph outlined the proposed PRCAC contribution agreement and arts centre lease at the Tuesday, September 17, committee of the whole meeting.
Randolph said the original contribution agreement with PRCAC was established in 2015 with no fixed end date.
“It needs to be amended,” said Randolph. “It’s out of date for a couple of different reasons.”
One is that the original agreement contained cash grants and in-kind grants for use of city facilities for the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA).
“Those were taken care of under a separate agreement with PRISMA, so they are no longer valid as part of this agreement,” said Randolph.
He said the other piece was the in-kind grant for use of the arts centre space above Powell River Public Library was not contained in the agreement.
Randolph said what has been done in preparing a new agreement is taking into account changes to the city’s five-year financial plan that were passed recently this year. Under that plan, there were some limitations made to the funding provided to the arts council moving forward.
“Under the direction of council the new contribution agreement with PRCAC is set for a two-year term that retroactively begins on January 1, 2019, and ends on December 31, 2020,” said Randolph.
Under the agreement the city would provide PRCAC with certain services, according to Randolph. These include a cash grant of $25,000 to fund the council’s operations as allocated by the city in its annual budget in the fiscal year 2019. The amount of cash grant from the city to fund the council’s operations will be reduced to $9,000 in 2020.
There will be an annual cash grant of $10,000 to be distributed by the council to eligible community organizations and projects. There will also be an annual grant in-kind in an amount equivalent to the rent payable by the council under a lease between the city and the arts council for the arts centre facility above the library. The city originally signed a lease agreement with PRCAC for the space for one year (August 1, 2017, to July 31, 2018) at a flat rate of $38,000. At the time, the city voted to waive the payment of the lease, according to Randolph.
Randolph said council has discussed the matter as part of the budget process and expressed it would like some time to assess to what degree it would like to fund PRCAC. The agreements provide a 16-month window for city council to assess the situation and provide direction on funding levels beyond 2020. He said PRCAC has been asked to produce a business plan for council’s review before December 31, 2020.
If council endorses the agreement, the financial impact involves direct funding being provided for the operations of PRCAC in the amounts of $25,000 in 2019 and $9,000 in 2020. The in-kind lease costs for the arts centre amounts to $30,972.41 in 2019 and $31,420.99 in 2020.
If the agreement is adopted by city council, as per the five-year financial plan, the city will provide an annual cash grant of $10,000 to be distributed by the arts council to eligible community organizations and projects in 2019 and 2020. There will also be an annual grant in-kind for use of city facilities having a value of up to $20,000 for arts, culture or heritage programs, activities or events to be distributed by the arts council to eligible community organizations and projects in 2019 and 2020.
