Kimberley Kitteringham, City Clerk and Director of Legislative Services, introduced the Council-Staff Relations Policy to Committee and provided opening remarks. Ms. Kitteringham advised that under the Municipal Act, 2001, every municipality is required to adopt a Council-Staff Relations Policy and the purpose of the report is to recommend adoption of the stand-alone policy. Ms. Kitteringham provided a summary of the Council-Staff Relations Policy and noted that the Legislative Services Department will host a series of sessions to educate Members of Council and staff on the policy in addition to training opportunities in the future. Ms. Kitteringham advised that there is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section in the report which includes responses to 4 additional questions raised by a Member of Council for the purpose of providing clarity on the interpretation of the policy.
The Committee made the following inquiries and comments in relation to the Council-Staff Relations Policy:
- Whether staff resources can be used for Community Information Meetings (CIMs) related to a particular development application or will it require approval from Council.
- The difference between a CIM and a Ratepayers Association meeting and determining which type of meeting would require approval from Council to utilize staff resources.
- The status of the new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and the timeline for its implementation.
- The chain of command when dealing with an issue and whether there is a policy for response time on a matter.
- The ability to contact staff directly or escalate a matter to staff in the event of an after hours emergency that requires immediate attention.
- Whether Councillors and their assistants can input Active Citizen Requests (ACRs) using the current CRM and the improvement of ACR tracking in the new CRM.
- Clarified that Councillors would also like to see how the matter was handled or responded to in order to better communicate the response to the resident.
- Whether CIMs related to By-laws which may be a city-wide matter that has been heavily advertised and has staff participation requires Council approval.
- Request for protocols for emergency situations during after hours, weekends, and holidays similar to protocols that are in place for Bylaw Enforcement and Operations matters.
- Request for additional consultation of the policy prior to it being adopted including the opportunity to consult with members of public prior to adoption including aspects of the policy that impact a Councillor's ability to interact with residents.
- The purpose of requiring Council's pre-authorization for planning and engineering staff to be involved in the CIMs. Staff clarified that the authorization allows reporting managers to better handle staff workload and readjust priorities. Staff advised that this is also good for transparency and allows for additional information to be provided prior to the CIM.
- A situation where a resident did not agree with the response provided by junior Staff member. Staff advised the Council-Staff Relations policy codifies practices and procedures in place such as the chain of command. In this instance it would be appropriate to reach out to the Senior Executive to escalate this matter.
- A discussion on this policy being an internal policy and whether it can be shared with members of the public. Staff clarified that this not a confidential policy but an internal policy that governs relations between Council and staff and would be posted once adopted.
- Whether staff can continue to review the wording or information on a subject matter provided on the Councillor's newsletter prior to its publication.
- Request that the adoption of the policy specifically the interaction framework be deferred until the implementation of the new CRM. Staff clarified that this policy codifies existing polices and practices in place such as following the chain of command, inputting service request through the ACR process, and escalating a matter for follow up to the Senior Executive.