qathet Regional District directors will direct staff to provide potential options to bring budgeting into compliance regarding a qathet Museum and Archives expenditure for shelving in the facility.
At the April 3 finance committee meeting, museum and archives president George Wall appeared before the committee to outline expenditures the museum had made with qRD funds.
“I understand it has been some time since qathet Museum and Archives has presented to the board,” said Wall. “I want to start with apologizing for anything that may have been misleading in the past as to how the funding the qRD gives to the museum would be allocated in excess of staff salaries.
“We had an excess of funding build up because we weren’t able to fill a couple of positions at the museum and the museum board at the time thought that maybe the best use of that funding was to update our shelving and storage facilities.”
Wall said the previous storage system was not great. He added that there had been some turbulence on the museum board as well. He said the previous president and treasurer have both stepped down.
Wall said he had been on the museum board since 2022 and was recently appointed as the president. New board members have been invited to fill vacant seats, including Doreen Berrington as treasurer, and former museum executive director Bert Finnamore, with both bringing a wealth of knowledge to the board.
“They are going to help us move forward with the shelving and kind of how the museum is going to go forward,” said Wall.
He said the museum has had a storage deficit for two decades and has not been able to accept new items into the archives. He added that there has been trouble updating exhibits because of a lack of space. The museum went ahead with procuring mobile shelving and spending approximately $160,000, according to Wall.
“The board moved ahead with the understanding that the qRD was already onside,” said Wall. “The board members voted in favour of moving forward with the shelving project and maybe we didn’t have the full story.
“As we move forward, this got flagged with the asbestos abatement and other things that had to happen in the museum buildings in order to move forward with the shelving project. It benefits the museum greatly.”
Wall said the museum board did not believe it was stepping outside of bounds of its agreement with qRD in spending the money in this way.
Unclear agreement
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said in reading the qRD financial plan, it doesn’t say qRD contribution is exclusively for operations, so shelving could actually fit with how the service operates. He asked staff if capital expenses were allowed under the service.
Manager of financial services Linda Greenan said it was not clear in the agreement and a section of the agreement does say qRD will help with the payment of certain costs, but another section states that the qRD apportionment will not go to capital costs, including construction or renovations to the museum.
Gisborne then recommended appointing a qRD board member to the museum board. Wall said the museum was open to more members of the board.
Berrington said when the museum decided to move the expenditure from salaries to the shelving, it would be under the classification of conservation expenses. She said the shelving provides necessary supplies for safekeeping of the artifacts.
Greenan said the best move forward would be for the board to direct staff to provide a report on some potential changes to the museum agreement that would bring the expenditure into compliance.
“Once we agree to potentially change the agreement, it’s at the behest of the board with how the museum can use the funds,” added Greenan.
City of Powell River director Cindy Elliott made a motion that the committee recommend to the board that the board direct staff to provide a report on potential changes to bring the museum and archives funding needs into compliance. The motion carried unanimously.
The finance committee then discussed the prospect of offering a director appointment to the museum and archives board to serve in an ex-officio, non-voting capacity. The committee carried a subsidiary motion to refer the matter of a director appointment to the April 24 committee of the whole meeting.
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