Council Overview
Information from Drumheller
Committee of the Whole Meeting
Monday, November 2, 2020

Councillor Fred Makowecki read a declaration highlighting November as Movember. This is to raise awareness of men’s health.
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Drumheller R.C.M.P. Staff Sergeant Ed Bourque presented statistics on crime for the third quarter as well as comparisons. He said currently, the detachment has three support staff as well as an additional part-time municipal employee. The local detachment also has two GIS (plainclothes) members working on high profile files, and the detachment working on getting it its Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) it up and running. This is part of the Southern Alberta District Crime Reduction Unit, and it is an operation to share intelligence on prolific offenders and crime trends. It has been successful with a couple of recent high profile arrests in Hanna and Rosedale. In the uniformed officer contingent, the detachment has two corporals and four members.
Across the board, crime statics are trending down. Bourque notes there are a number of circumstances that contribute to these. One of these could be CERB payments, creating a situation where offenders are not committing property crime. The CRU teams are also focusing on prolific offenders and are actively doing curfew checks on offenders with conditions. While statistics at the Drumheller Institution show zero, the RCMP is active with investigations at the Drumheller Institution however, they may not be recorded as from this area. There are also instances where charges are dealt with internally. There are currently a few officers that are awaiting transfers to other jurisdictions. The RCMP is reaching out to the community for feedback from residents on policing concerns and priorities.
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Director of Infrastructure Dave Brett provided an update on the fountain repair. The town has made arrangements with a contractor and consulting company to work on a cooperative design to get the most practical and cost-effective solution done. He anticipates design work will be completed within the next couple of weeks, and he hopes to execute some of the work this winter, and the fountain will be operating this coming spring.
Mr. Brett also provided an update on the See Click Fix Town reporting app guidelines for responses. They have made some tweaks to the policy, and are planning to revise the policy to reflect different categories and response times for complaints.
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Communications officer Erica Crocker provided an update on the new website construction. The page layouts and the design has been approved. Ease of navigation will be a primary focus, and they are working on a strong branding element. Content is being created and updated. She said they are on schedule for a launch in mid-November.

Council Overview
Information from Drumheller Town Council Regular Meeting
Monday, October 19, 2020

Mayor Heather Colberg opened the council meeting and informed public attendees of the 2019 Audited Financial Assessment being conducted, and of the Flood Mitigation meeting in Midland following the council meeting.
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Councillor Jay Garbutt requested an amendment to the council agenda for the closed session regarding CAO evaluation..
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Stephen Washington from Wild Rose Assessment gave a presentation to Council on the land assessment process.
Wild Rose completed consolidated assessments, looking at groups of homes rather than individual homes, to compare and adjust for differences between properties.
He explained how assessments are looked at by area, then type and age of home, and location within the Drumheller Valley. Coun. Jay Garbutt noted the Town of Drumheller has only one mill rate, regardless of location within the community. He added, if the mill rate remains the same from one year to the next, property taxes may still increase depending on property assessment value or changes to the Senior’s and School requisitions.
Mr. Washington noted residents can appeal their assessment; he added he receives 50 to 60 calls per year, which is still only two per cent of overall assessments. Only one review has gone through a full appeal process.
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Leon Pfeiffer from RSM Canada remotely presented the 2019 Audited Financial Statement to Council for approval.
Town of Drumheller ended 2019 with a Consolidated Statement of Financial Position valued at $40.3 million, up from $36.2 million in 2018.
Net Financial Assets were up $4 million from $13.3 million in 2018 to $17.3 million in 2019.
The Town had $241.2 million in Tangible Capital Assets with $100.7 million in amortization. Overall the net book value of the Town’s Tangible Capital Assets came in at $140.5 million.
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows came in at $6.8 million, which was less than half ($13.9 million) of 2018’s. However, Mr. Pfeiffer noted operations were still generating positive cash flow. Overall, the Town ended 2019 with $5.5 million in cash flow.
The Town’s Accumulated Surplus came in at $26.2 million in reserves, with $420,798 in Unrestricted Surplus.
Overall, the Town was under budget by $2.2 million on the Operations and Accumulated Surplus statement.
There were some corrections needed to the Audited Financial Report, including conflicts regarding councillor salaries, which Mr. Pfeiffer noted he would look into.
Coucillor Garbutt questioned whether the amortization rate for 2020 could be lowered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Pfeiffer stated since certain facilities, including recreation, were unused for a portion of the year the amortization rate could be lowered for the 2020 budget as the lack of use could arguably prolong the lifespan of the infrastructure, and “could reflect in the amortization rate
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Councillor Tom Zariski made a motion for council to approve the 2019 Audited Financial Statement as presented by RSM Canada. The motion was carried.
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April Harrison, manager for Community Development and Social Planning (CDSP) provided an update to council on strategic events.
An event coordinator will be starting on Monday, October 26.
CDSP has applied for a number of grants and have been approved for $133,777 in the last week.
One grant earlier this year was through the Drumheller Rotary Club to furnish a local shelter for those suffering family or domestic violence.
Councillor Tony Lacher thanked the Rotary Club for making the funding happen.
Mayor Heather Colberg thanked those involved in working to apply for available grants
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Council moved to go into closed session to discuss CAO Darryl Drohmerski’s evaluation. The motion was carried.
Prior to adjournment, Mayor Heather Colberg reminded the public of the Flood Mitigation information session being held in Midland.
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The 2019 Audited Financial Statement is available to the public online.

Complete minutes from council meetings can be found at
www.drumheller.ca once they have been adopted.