REGINA - A new interim board for the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. has been appointed by the city of Regina.
At a special meeting Friday afternoon, council appointed six individuals to the REAL board, all of them employees of the City of Regina:
The newly appointed REAL Board of Directors are:
Niki Anderson, City Manager,
Ly Pham, Chief of Staff,
Barry Lacey, Executive Director, Financial Strategy and Sustainability,
Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director, Corporate Services,
Jeff May, Manager, Sport Facilities & Special Events,
Maria Burns, Manager, Client Service & Labour Relations.
Originally there were five names that were going to be submitted, but in an amendment Burns' name was added and that was the composition that was approved.
According to a City news release, appointing the City of Regina employees was considered the "most efficient approach to swiftly and responsibly re-establish oversight of REAL at the Board level" after the resignation of all the voting members of the REAL Board. Those resignations were submitted following a 6-5 vote by council Wednesday to move forward with replacing all the voting members of the current board. The new directors will each serve a term ending July 31, 2024.
Council met for close to two hours Friday afternoon at the special meeting, and it was not all smooth sailing. Things got particularly heated as Councillor Jason Mancinelli started asking questions about the makeup of the board.
"Are we not paying attention to the Cuff report that was referenced that led to this mess, is my question," said Mancinelli, who expressed concern the city was about to repeat the mistake that led to the Experience Regina fiasco by overloading administration with too many duties.
In response, City Manager Anderson said she had "significantly more staff than (REAL CEO) Tim Reid had."
Mancinelli then put forward a tabling motion to the last week of January, but it was defeated 6-2.
The final main motion to appoint the directors passed 6-1, with Councillor John Findura the lone no vote and with Mancinelli having departed the meeting, Mayor Sandra Masters was not part of the meeting.
In speaking to reporters, Anderson said she expected the meeting to be heated, but "ultimately it went where I hoped it would."
"I think for me I'm just happy that we have what we need to start moving forward with the next steps," she said.
Anderson also faced a number of questions from reporters about the future of REAL CEO Tim Reid, but had little to say on the topic. "We don't even have an agenda yet," Anderson said of the new board, noting they would likely have their first meeting next week.
Anderson said a meeting she had this week with Reid solely had to do REAL coming back to council with a revised budget proposal on Dec. 5.
The city manager was also asked about what this meant for the future of upcoming events such as the Frost Festival. Anderson reassured people that "this is really about a change of governance, and so all of the great staff that are there now doing the work, they're still there."
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