TAMRMS#: B06
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Emergent FTE Request - Legislative Services
Presented by: Chris Belke, Chief legislative Officer
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RECOMMENDATION(S)
recommendation
That 1.0 FTE be added to the Legislative Services Department for a Manager, Records and Privacy position, and that $29,000 be transferred from the Council Contingency Fund to fund this position for the last 4 months of 2017, and that the following postponed motion be approved:
PM-06-2018
"That $87,000 be added to the 2018 operating budget for the annualized funding for the Manager, Records and Privacy to be funded through taxes."
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PURPOSE OF REPORT
This report is presented to Council to request approval to add 1.0 FTE to the Legislative Services Department to address emergent needs and to approve 4 months funding for the position for 2017.
COUNCIL DIRECTION
N/A
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Since starting with the City in January 2017, the City Manager has observed an inconsistency between the workload and the staffing compliment of the Legislative Services Department.
The City’s Legislative Services Department provides core services to internal stakeholders, including Council, Senior Administration and operational staff and external stakeholders, which includes the public and local media. Some of these services are needed to comply with legislated requirements. Core services delivered by Legislative Servicers include legislative research, analysis and advice to Council and Administration, conducting elections and censuses, operation of the City’s corporate records program, all responsibilities under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) Act, administrative support to City boards and committees, operation of the City’s Assessment Review Boards (ARBs) and Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB) and management of the St. Albert Municipal Cemetery. Also, with the addition of new Council Committees that will start in 2018, there will be additional support required from Legislative Services starting next year.
Addition of 1 FTE to allow for the hiring of a Manager, Records and Privacy will provide additional capacity to better distribute workloads and allow more proactive approaches to the City’s FOIP and Records programs and better integration the two programs. Adding an FTE as a direct report to the Chief Legislative Officer (CLO) will create an opportunity to delegate some of the CLO’s responsibilities and workload. Currently, the only management/supervisory position reporting to the CLO is the Deputy City Clerk who already has a very challenging workload. Over each of the past three years, the CLO has worked more than 170 hours of unpaid overtime and due to work and scheduling demands, has not taken all of his earned vacation time.
Staffing levels of the City of St. Albert’s Legislative Services Department have been compared to the Legislative Services Department or City Clerk’s Office of some other Alberta municipalities. Note that the duties and responsibilities of Legislative Services departments vary somewhat from municipality to municipality - notable differences have been identified.
City of St. Albert
The City’s Legislative Services Department currently has 8.0 FTEs.
Strathcona County
Strathcona’s Legislative Services Department has 8.5 FTEs, however this does not include 7 FTEs in their records program, which is located in their IT Services department. Strathcona receives fewer FOIP requests than St. Albert, approximately 10% as many SDAB hearings as St. Albert, and approximately the same number of ARB appeals.
City of Red Deer
Red Deer’s Legislative Services Department has 12.5 FTEs which does not include 5 FTEs, located in their IT Department, that run their records program. Red Deer receives less than half as many FOIP requests as St. Albert, approximately 5% of St. Albert’s volume of SDAB appeals, but more than 4 times as many ARB appeals.
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB)
RMWB underwent a substantial overall reduction of the number of staff in early 2017. After this reorganization, the Legislative Services Department currently has 14 permanent FTEs and 1 term FTE.
RMWB deals with a similar volume of agenda reports, substantially fewer SDAB hearings, almost half as many FOIP requests, but substantially more ARB hearings.
STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATIONS OR ENGAGEMENT
N/A
IMPLICATIONS OF RECOMMENDATION(S)
Financial:
Approval of the Recommendation will reduce the balance of the Council Contingency Fund by $29,000. Annualized funding for 2018 and beyond will be addressed when the 2018 operating base budget is amended to reflect approved postponed motions.
Legal / Risk:
N/A
Program or Service:
The additional FTE will improve the operational capacity of the Legislative Services Department which will allow a more proactive approach and an enhanced quality of service in the delivery of some key City services, such as the City’s FOIP program and Corporate Records program.
Organizational:
The additional FTE will provide capacity to the Legislative Services Department at the supervisory/management level and will create some flexibility in scheduling and delegation of responsibilities to better distribute some of the workloads of the CLO and Deputy City Clerk. This has not been possible with the current staffing level.
If the Recommendation is approved, the Legislative Services Department would be structured as per the Organizational Chart below:
ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS CONSIDERED
If Council does not approve the Recommendation, this FTE will be presented to Council as an Operating Business Case for the 2018 Budget.
STRATEGIC CONNECTIONS
N/A
Report Date: July 10, 2017
Author(s): Chris Belke
Committee/Department: Legislative Services
General Manager: Kevin Scoble
City Manager: Kevin Scoble