President of the P. R. Community & Student Association (PRCSA) karol orzechowski began the Annual General Meeting (AGM) by asking attendees in the room to “look at each other in the eyeballs, because we are all asking us all to do this for a really specific reason, and that's because we're not just abstract people that exist on the internet. And we're also not abstract people to each other. We're all members of a community, and we're all here because we love this place.”

The AGM comes at a time of conflict between Sadleir House and OPIRG Peterborough as their office space (which includes a 230 square-foot storage space for the Free Market) of 20 years is being renovated into a main floor accessible washroom in the fall of 2024, and their proposed new space in House would see a decrease in storage space. 

The tension between the two parties brought forward conversations around a need to improve community consultation outside of the board during the AGM, and bettering relationships within the House.

The meetings began with reports from Sadleir House’s General Manager Matt Jarivs, the Facilities Manager Michael Gray, and Office Manager Sam MacAndrew. The reports included an update on renovations inside the house and a financial update which saw $32,000 in grants awarded to the house.

The AGM also saw the nomination of six board members which were passed with two abstentians from Pakin Pongpaiboon and Coordinator of OPIRG Peterborough, Nico Koyanagi. Notably, Koyanagi does not have voting rights as she is not a paying member of the PRCSA.

During discussions, Koyanagi raised the concern to orzechowski on how the board would manage conflicts of interests with Sadleir House tenants, as she heard that “a number of folks who are going to be elected are also tenants in the House.” 

David King, a PRCSA board member voted in during the AGM, is the only tenant of the House out of the six new members.

In response, orzechowski cited the recent rent increase as an example where tenants would have been asked to refrain from voting, stating that “nobody was happy with the rent increases.” 

According to Office Manager Sam MacAndrew, rent increased in 2019 and again in 2023 for the first time since 2012. The 2019 rent increase was only for levy groups and not private tenants, with the 2019 increase being small levy $2.12 to $2.44 per square foot, medium levy from $3.28 to $3.66 per square foot, and large levy from $5.30 to $6.10 per square foot.

Dwayne Collins, a past member of the PRCSA, spoke briefly on the decision to allow tenants on the board, stating that it was a previous “unofficial rule” that tenants could not serve as board members. 

Secretary of the PRCSA, Evan Robins in response proposed an amendment that tenants allowed on the board be fewer than quorum, so as to not affect voting turnout. orzechowski agreed, and suggested it be further discussed at the next board meeting. 

In addition to the amendment, orzechowski also suggested a tenant committee outside of the board “some point between now and September” following Koyanagi’s concerns over lack of board consultation on in-House matters such as rent increases.

He also shared that in retrospect, rent shouldn’t have been increased in one large sum and the board has since resolved to increase rent gradually by small increments each year. 

Importantly, orzechowski also shared that the PRCSA has been looking for ways to diversify revenue to shift away from their reliance on student levy fees. 

“This is just a reality check. If we lost our levies, the house would go down to one part time staff, all programming would stop, and the house would begin to crumble,” he shared, citing the 2019 Student Choice Initiative (SCI) as a main motivator behind this plan to shift funding away from levy fees. 

“The Student Choice Initiative was really scary for everybody. It was a time when a whole bunch of groups doing really good work were in danger of having their funding slashed, and there was a serious discussion on the side of the board as to what would happen if those levies went away. And the reality of it is we would be shut down, for the most part, possibly be sold,” he said.

In response to Collins’ question regarding other ways the House was looking to diversify their revenue outside from rental increases, orzechowski shared that Sadleir House has already started to diversify their revenues by taking 15% from ticket sales made at shows held in the House. He added that artists working with Sadleir House have “found it to be reasonable.”

Additionally, orzechowski mentioned purchasing additional property around Sadleir House to “create affordable housing.” However, the plan to purchase additional properties fell through, and is currently not an option being explored as orzechowski would later clarify after Koyanagi voiced concerns about the ethics of owning more properties.

“Think about what is realistic,” she said. “We [OPIRG] wouldn’t start charging people to use our services … to me it sounds like purchasing a house is to be a landlord,” Koyanagi then urged the board to consider the “consequences” of their actions, and how it would impact their relationship with other groups in the house.

orzechowski followed up with Koyanagi’s concern of acquisition of additional property, re-stating that it was all a speculatory idea that did not even reach board level. He also reminded the room that the house has to charge for its services, as it is a physical building with unavoidable costs such as utilities, mortgage, and maintenance. 

“It’s not an apples to apples comparison,” he said.

A public complaint from OPIRG Peterborough regarding House accessibility to OPIRG’s office lies in the key card access to enter the building. On the conversation of the locked doors, former Sadleir House staff member Molly Stubbs stated that the locked doors and limited access made her feel safe while alone in the house at night, and that she has never known anyone to turn someone away from the house who rang the doorbell without a student card.

As talks of PRCSA better implementing consultation outside of the board continued, Stubbs also shared that she felt that student staff “have a weird middle position” in the House, and hopes in the future they will be consulted on board decisions that affect the House. 

“Sometimes it feels like we don’t always get that opportunity here,” she said.

orzechowski again thanked Stubbs, and mentioned past conversations of a student/board liaison committee which has not yet been brought to a vote, but something orzechowski stated he is interested in pursuing. 

Collins then spoke directly to the conflict between OPIRG Peterborough and Sadleir House, citing it as the “elephant in the room.” He reminded the board that Sadleir House was born out of a place of collegial governance during a time of political unrest, and is worried that consultation outside of the board “has not been the strongest.”

As a former long-time member of the PRCSA, Collins gave a “reminder from the past'' that decisions made without consultation cause unrest and further urged the board to consider adding more community consultation in future decisions such as the purchasing of additional property.

Again speaking to the “elephant in the room” orzechowski shared that “nobody in this room is our enemies.” 

“I think we are all more oddly politically aligned and the biggest issue, you know, is making sure that we’re not just aligned in the heart of general politics, but also in the way that we see ourselves moving forward,” he continued before adding that a tenants’ committee is a great way to bring in more community consultation in addition to a town hall meeting, which was suggested by OPIRG Peterborough.

During adjournment, orzechowski thanked the members of OPIRG Peterborough for being in attendance and stated that he hopes Sadleir House and OPIRG Peterborough can “move forward in spirit of that, rather than an adversarial relationship.”

“We are here because we share at least one thing in common, which is that we all really fucking love this place,” he said.

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Editor's Note: This article was updated on May 2nd to include Sadleir House rent increases from 2012 to 2023.