Attachment 9

 

CONSULTATION COMMENTS & DETAILS

2006 – 2010 GOVERNANCE REVIEW

 

STANDING COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY-LAW           

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Joint Meeting:  A procedure should be developed.

Done – staff has developed a new procedure, which is attached to the Governance Report for Council’s consideration and accordingly, the Procedure By-law – Joint Meetings of Committee Section now contains a Subsection 80 (2)(b) to reflect the Procedure’s existence

 

Speaking Times: - Limited to 3 minutes at Council?

Based on benchmarking results (average is 5 minutes), staff is not recommending that the five-minute rule carried by Council on September 14, 2005 be changed to 3 minutes. 

 

In an effort to provide greater clarity to Section 46 [formerly Section 43], staff recommended that the motion previously approved during the 2005 Budget process become the standard interpretation for speaking times at all future Council meetings.  Therefore, it was recommended that Council add the following provision to the former Section 43: “No member shall be permitted to ask questions and / or speak to an item, for more than five minutes, excluding response time.” (Procedure By-law Mid-Term Review – ACS2005-CRS.SEC-0038). 

 

At the time the item was tabled some councillors expressed concern that their ability to speak to a matter would be negatively affected.  Although no such incidents have been reported, staff is of the belief that further limiting speaking times would negatively affect the gains made by establishing the five-minutes process.

 

Debating An Item: Can the practice of debating Standing Committee items in detail at council be reviewed?

As part of the decision making process it is sometimes necessary to revisit an item in detail that was debated at a Standing Committee.  By enabling this practice, Council members, who are not part of the Standing Committee, are given an opportunity to be made aware of the issues and concerns previously expressed.  In so doing, all members of Council are provided with a more in-depth understanding of an item before it is put to a vote. Therefore staff is not recommending a change to curtail the debate process at this time.

 

 

STANDING COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY LAW Cont’d:

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Voting: Mayor’s voting position be rotated from that of always being last?

In response to a request to rotate the Mayor’s voting order staff references Robert’s Rules of Order.  The Mayor at Council or CSED Committee and the other Chairs at their respective Standing Committees are sometimes also referred to as the “presiding officer.” As such, they therefore have traditionally been called last on the roll for voting purposes.  Accordingly, Section 44 of Robert’s Rules of Order supports staff’s position that the Mayor’s voting position (last) is appropriate.    Further, as the request to change the ‘presiding officer’s’ voting position, is not a widely shared request and a similar motion moved at the August 24, 2005 Council meeting lost on a vote of 2 to 18, staff is not proposing any further changes to Section 46 at this time. With that said, there is nothing to prevent a Member from moving a motion during the Governance Review to amend the present Rules of Procedure.

 

 

Shareholder Meetings:

Staff will be incorporating a new section within the procedure by-law to address the tabling of reports from Hydro Ottawa and OCHC  - wording will indicate that:

1.                  Shareholder Meetings

(1)        The Mayor and the City Clerk are authorized to sign a written resolution on behalf of the City of Ottawa as shareholders of the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation, the Annual General Report of either of the two aforementioned corporations will be considered within the context of a regularly-scheduled Council meeting in separate reports prepared using the City’s approved report format.

 

(2)        There is no need to move an adjournment of the Council meeting and move into a shareholders meeting when Council holds an annual or general meeting of each of the above two corporations.

 

Speaking Times at Committee Meetings - New Subsections 74 (9)

 

Due to an administrative oversight, Subsection (9) was erroneously deleted from the Procedure By-law Report ACS2005-CRS-SEC-0038 – (Procedure By-law Mid-Term Review) when it was tabled in September of 2005.  Subsection 74(9) indicates that:

 

(9) Notwithstanding Ss. (8) while at a Standing Committee Meeting if an Advisory Committee Chair, Vice Chair or member(s) designated by the Advisory Committee is asked to comment on – or asks to comment on a report or report item that is not related to the report submitted by the Advisory Committee, said Advisory Committee representative is then addressing the Standing Committee as a resident and shall therefore limit his or her comments to a total of up to 5 minutes on any one item;”

 

 

STANDING COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY LAW Cont’d:

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Committee Chair - Section 70 (3)

 

To enable the new term of Council to proceed with City business at the earliest possible time; sub-section 70(3) has been amended to allow for the election of Standing Committee Chairs & Vice-Chairs immediately following City Council’s inaugural meeting.  Specifically, subsection 72(3) now reads:

 

“(3) Subject to any such direction, the Clerk shall preside at the inaugural meeting of any Committee to conduct the election of the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee.  The inaugural meeting of standing committees will be held immediately following adjournment of the Council meeting in which the Nominating Committee Report was considered so as to elect the Standing Committee Chair and Vice-Chairs and to confirm the Standing Committee first meeting dates.”

 

STANDING COMMITTEE STRUCTURE ISSUES

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

 

I would suggest the merging of EPS with another Committee.

 

 

Staff is recommending that EPS be merged with HRSS to create the “Community and Protective Services Committee” in order to have a more balanced workload and to take advantage of the alignment with a single department.

 

A new Committee should be struck specifically to profile and discuss matters related to alternate modes of transportation (pedestrian, cycling, transit) and the environment.  The City's OP highlights the importance and priority of these alternate modes, yet all too often they are buried and disregarded in amongst the other matters under discussion.

Staff is recommending that the Transportation Committee be devolved in to two separate standing committees: Transit Committee and a Transportation Committee.  This way the committees can share both membership and meeting dates but have different Chairs to balance the workload and provide a separate focus to the Agendas.

 

Add an Audit Committee:  Support that the Auditor General’s annual report should be tabled directly with Council; do not support that CSED is the best committee to receive other Audit reports – believe the Audit Committee is required.

The City Clerk, working with the Auditor General is recommending that the Auditor General’s reports be tabled at City Council.  The new process will provide that, where Management agrees with the Auditor General’s recommendations, the report will be received and forwarded to the Audit Working Group.  Where Management disagrees with the Auditor General’s recommendations the report will be referred to the appropriate Standing Committee for discussion and recommendation to Council.  Once Council has made a decision, the disposition will be referred to the Audit Working Group.

 

 

 

 

STANDING COMMITTEE  - TERMS OF REFERENCES

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

 

All changes submitted or which may result from the 2006 – 2010 Governance Review Report will be tabled at the respective Standing Committee’s first meeting for its consideration.

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY-LAW 2003-600

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendations & Responses

Code of Conduct: Can sections (a), (h) and (i) be reworded to be less stringent

 

 

The below amendments were incorporated as suggested.

 

(a) Fulfils the mandate and mission statement of his or her Advisory Committee. Brings credibility and good will to the City of Ottawa and his or her respective Advisory Committee;

 

 

(i)   accepts and promotes the decisions of the Advisory Committee; and

 

(Per consultations with the Chairs and Vice Chairs on Sept. 7, 2006 – members supported the above-noted changes)

Code of Conduct may not be clear to all AC members.  I was present at a Standing Committee meeting when the Chair of an Advisory Committee spoke to an agenda item in which the AC Chair had a financial interest.  As it happened, the AC Chair spoke against the item as chair and then, later, spoke in favour of the item as a private citizen.  Members of the audience, myself included, believed that the AC Chair had a conflict of interest and that the AC Chair should not have spoken on behalf of the Advisory Committee regardless of the words spoken.  Therefore, the Code of Conduct may need clarification.

 

Once a member has indicated his or her conflict, they should abstain from speaking to the item.  The code of conduct was part of the September 7th meeting with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs Agenda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY-LAW 2003-600 Cont’d:

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendations & Responses

Chair & Vice-Chairs Duties:  As Chairs are so busy; Vice-Chairs should have duties assigned to them.

Per consultation with the Advisory Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs on Sept. 7, 2006 – members in attendance indicated they would not support a prescriptive process and that assigning duties to a Vice-Chair is something each committee (Committee Chair) can or cannot undertake.

Speaking Times:  How much time is a Chair allotted to speak at a Standing Committee?

A Chair has 10 minutes to speak to a Standing Committee on reports initiated by the Advisory Committee and during budget consultations.  On all other matters, the Chair has 5 minutes..

 

Due to an administrative error, the new Subsection 76 (9)(c) was omitted when the Mid-Term Governance Review Report/By-law was tabled before Council.  This is the section that more clearly indicated the above notation – that section has been reinstated into the by-law.

 

Specifically:

 

“Notwithstanding Ss. (8) while at a Standing Committee Meeting if an Advisory Committee Chair, Vice Chair or member(s) designated by the Advisory Committee is asked to comment on – or asks to comment on a report or report item that is not related to the report submitted by the Advisory Committee, said Advisory Committee representative is then addressing the Standing Committee as a resident and shall therefore limit his or her comments to a total of up to 5 minutes on any one item; “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE PROCEDURE BY-LAW 2003-600 Cont’d:

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendations & Responses

Motions and Membership Duties and Makeup:

Advancement of Advisory Committee Motions

1. Motions made to Council Committees should bear the name of the originating author even if it has become a joint advisory motion.

 

Communications

2. Laptop connections should be available to all Advisory Committee participants as required.  All Advisory Committee members should be available via e-mail by January 1st, 2007.  (Any new members or members up for renewal should meet new standard).

 

Advisory Committee member’s Campaigning for Elected City Officials

3. Should Advisory Committee members be allowed to campaign for Council members or City Mayor?  If not, how is this to be policed?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vice Chair – Advisory Committees

4. Availability and responsibility – there is not much governance concerning Vice Chair.  We could add something here. (what happens in the absence of the Chair or Vice-Chair)

 

 

Ad hoc Meetings

5. Are they valid?  No agenda, no minutes, no record of outcome, etc. by city staff.  What is the actual use?

 

 

Seniors Advisory Committee – Representation

6. For Seniors Advisory Committee only – suggest two (2) represent each city ward.  One representative should be at least 60 years of age.  One male and one female from each city ward would be preferable.

 

 

Length of Term for membership on Advisory Committees

7. The duration of membership on any advisory committee should run the same time as the Council.  (i.e.  From Municipal election to municipal election).  Two terms maximum on any advisory committee in succession.

 

 

Chairperson on Seniors Advisory Committee

8. The Chairperson on the Seniors Advisory Committee must be a Senior Citizen (60 years of age).

 

 

 

1. Information can be included in the background of the report, if relevant to the item.

 

 

 

 

2. There are several issues involved in this matter.  There is, of course, the usual concern over costs.  However, of more concern is that the City cannot support a criterion (i.e. access to e-mail) that would disqualify City residents from applying to be an advisory committee member.

 

 

 

3.To respond to this question we should first look at whether there is authority by which a committee member's rights could be restricted in order to achieve the objective of no campaign activity.  On the face of it, there is no such authority in the Municipal Act or other applicable law. 

 

In the context of City policy, City staff are not allowed to campaign during their work-day, but they may participate in political activity on their own time.  This is part of the City's employer/employee relationship and is directed towards the objective of ensuring that public sector funds are not being used to support campaign activity.  

 

Committee members are not City employees and do not have access to City funds.  They have rights under the Charter, as do all citizens, of free speech and association.  A committee chair can use his/her authority to ensure that "campaigning" does not interfere with a committee meeting, but aside from that situation, there would appear to be no basis for restricting individual rights and in effect imposing a greater duty on a committee member than on any other citizen.

 

Since there is no authority to regulate, there is no scope for "policing".

 

 

 

 

4. The Vice-Chair is responsible for assuming all of the Chair’s duties in his or her absence.  In the absence of both the Chair and the Vice-Chair – the Committee may appoint a Committee Member to act as the Presiding Officer.

 

 

 

 

5. It is generally up to an attendee to keep notes of the meeting.  Some advisory committees make it a practice to update the full committee on these meetings at each regular meeting.  Distribution of these notes should be a requirement and will be suggesting such in the report.

 

 

6. There should be no restrictions with respect to age and gender for the composition of the committee, nor should there be a specific number of people from each ward on the committee.   It's important to have persons on the committee who are seniors, but age should not be defined.  We should not preclude the expertise that a person may bring who is not a senior. 

 

 

 

7. This is not felt to be a feasible option.  The rotation of members provides the committee with “memory” of issues that are still being considered by the Committee, as well as providing new blood and new ideas each year.  Based on past practice, and as is seen following each election, there is a gap of a few months between Councillor’s taking office and appointments being made.  This would result in periods of several months with either no committee members or with no stability on the committee since members would not be certain they would be continuing.

 

 

8. See above answer (Item 6)

Preamble:  Page 1- second Whereas: Unless there are instances in which Advisory Committees have members from beyond the borders of Ottawa, delete the word “largely”.

 

Third Whereas:  Delete the word “unique”.

 

 

There are instances where an Advisory Committee member may not be from the City of Ottawa but rather they own a residential property or business in the City (example, members of the City’s Business Advisory Committee have this criteria added as an exception due to the unique nature of the Committee.  (Per consultation meeting of Sept. 7, 2006 with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs – it is agreed the word “unique” will be removed.)

 

 

Within this preamble, the word citizen speaks to the fact that Advisory Committee membership is made up of volunteer citizens from communities within the City of Ottawa – to emphasize the difference in composition from Standing Committees, which are comprised of elected official citizens from the City of Ottawa. (Per consultation meeting of Sept. 7, 2006 with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs – it is agreed the word “unique” will be removed.)

 

 

Recorded Vote:  Page 10 - Part II - Section 17 Recorded Vote:  It is not clear whether the names of those voting Yea and the names of those voting Nay need to be recorded, or just the number of each Yea and Nay.  Please clarify in the bylaw.

 

A recorded vote means recording each member’s vote by name in the Minutes.

 

E-Meeting Policy: EAC is supportive of an E-meeting policy, under certain conditions, which staff stated that they are now studying.

Per consultation meeting of Sept. 7, 2006 with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs –no new amendments are forthcoming at this time to the current E-Meeting policy.

 

End-Time:  Advisory Committee’s require a majority vote to go beyond 10:30 p.m. – can this be changed to unanimous vote?

Per consultation meeting of Sept. 7, 2006 with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs – the majority of those members in attendance continue to support a majority vote.

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE – TERMS OF REFERENCE

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation/Response Cont’d

Councillor Liaisons: Make it voluntary versus mandatory?

Per consultation meeting of Sept. 7, 2006 with the Chairs & Vice-Chairs indicated they would prefer this be a voluntary membership not mandatory.  It was then argued that the Councillors who are interested in the Committee’s mandate and/or an item the Committee is considering can be invited as required.  This cannot occur now as the committee feels limited to only working with their appointed council liaison – who due to other work commitments often cannot make the Advisory Committee meetings.

 

 

All changes submitted or which may result from the 2006 – 2010 Governance Review Report will be tabled at the respective Standing Committee’s first meeting for its consideration.

 

 

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE – COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation/Response

 

Aboriginal Advisory Committee:  Create one

 

The Community and Protective Services Department in agreement with the Ottawa Urban Aboriginal Coalition have established an Aboriginal Working Committee to identify, prioritize and develop solutions to address emerging issues that impact the Aboriginal community.  At this time, staff is not recommending the creation of a new Advisory Committee due to the Department’s recent progress and commitment to begin addressing Aboriginal issues that would be brought to an Advisory Committee.

 

 (SEE APPENDIX A FOR DETAILS ON BACKGROUND)

 

Disband /Revise Mandates: Need to decrease number of Advisory Committees to zero and/or apply a stricter adherence to their mandates.

Staff is not supporting the recommendation to disband Advisory Committees but will review mandates within the Terms of Reference Reports.

AHCAC:  Needs to be divided back into two separate committees.

The Arts, Heritage and Culture Advisory Committee presently has a membership of 20 members.  The larger membership was due to merging of the two advisory committees in December 2003.  The size has led to quorum difficulties and is hampering equal participation by all members.  Staff recommends that the membership of the committee be reduced to 18 to more closely align with the membership of other Advisory Committees.

 

(SEE APPENDIX B FOR DETAILS ON BACKGROUND)

 

Transit & Transportation Advisory Committee and the Roads & Cycling Advisory Committees: Need to be divided back into two separate committees.

On De At its December 3, 2003, Council approved the Transportation Advisory Committee be divided to create the Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee and the Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee and that these committees “not cost more than the single Transportation Advisory Committee”.  Staff was directed to complete a one-year review to evaluate whether the methodology is cumbersome and a more effective approach could be established.  The one-year review provided five options and changes were referred to further examination as part of the 2006-2010 governance review process.  A review of the two advisory committees concluded that the current practice continues to function adequately and satisfies budget requirements.

 

 

 

 

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT POLICY

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Selection Process:  Are Francophones well represented on various Advisory committees or Boards?

A letter was sent to the City’s Francophone associations, community groups, etc.  Specifically requesting input on the City’s Governance process.  No responses were submitted.

 

(SEE APPENDIX C)

 

Selection Panel  A new subsection is required to Section 4.8 that stipulates that staff cannot sit on the Selection Panel

That section has been amended:

 

City of Ottawa staff, including departmental liaisons are not eligible to serve on the Selection Panel.

 

Application Wording:  The introductory paragraph refers to the “participation expense policy”

 

The paragraph has been amended to read: “The ‘appointment policy’ applies only to Council appointed voting members . . .”

 

Policy Requirements: Section 1.1: Should include “or owns a property or business in the City of Ottawa.”

The paragraph has been accordingly amended:

“All members of City advisory committees, boards and task forces, as well as external boards, commissions and authorities must be residents of the City of Ottawa with the exception of the Business Advisory Committee, in which case members may be residents of the City of Ottawa or must own a property or business within the City of Ottawa.  As applicable, committee members and must maintain one of these this qualifications during their term of office.”

 

Definition of External Board, etc: Rewrite – lacks form and difficult to follow.

The section has been reformatted to read as follows:

 

o        External local boards, commissions and authorities are entities which:

o             are cCreated by and operated under provincial legislation, legal agreement or by-law;

o             have dDecision-making powers

o             mMay have Council member(s) or citizen appointments approved by Council serving as the City representation, or

o             mMay or may not report to City Council for certain matters (i.e. budget)

o             Examples include the Ottawa Police Services Board, Ottawa Municipal Campsite Authority, Pineview Municipal Golf Course Board of Management, conservation authorities, various economic, research, health, social and cultural agencies

 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT POLICY Cont’d:

 

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Definition: Departmental Consultative Groups: Update to determine what exists.

 

To avoid having to consistently update the list of ‘exceptions’ staff has amended the section as follows:

 

o             “Do not have Council members (with few exceptions e.g. the Health Dangers of the Urban Use of Pesticides Working Group provides advice to the Public Health and Long Term Care Branch of People Services, and has a Council representative)”

 

Definitions – Departmental Consultative Groups:  Do not capitalize “department” or “departmental”

Amended as requested.

 

 

Recruitment:  Change time-line from September to January

Per consultation with Committee Members on September 7th, 2006, staff is recommending a winter recruitment/spring appointment process.

 

Information Sessions:  Delete this section

Per consultation with Committee Members on September 7th, 2006, Advisory Committee members advised that they see this as being helpful and necessary.  Staff is now implementing suggested changes from the Advisory Committee members. (If required – the items may be revisited during the mid-term governance review)

 

 

Attendance: re-jig newly revised section (to provide a warning mechanism for the 30% rule (and to separate it out from the miss three you are out rule).

A new Subsection 5.2 has been added to speak to the 30% rule.  It reads as follows:

 

“52.A registered letter will be sent by the City Clerk’s office, during the third quarter of the year, to any member of an Advisory Committee, excluding LACAC members, who is absent from 30% of all the scheduled meetings for a year to advise her or his membership will be terminated, except in those instances where the Advisory Committee has*certified such absences.”

 

 

Sub-Committees:  Re-word to better outline who is a sub-committee member, who can sit on the sub-committee, how is a sub-committee member ratified, etc.

City advisory committees, boards and task forces may create subcommittees to work on specific areas of their mandate.  Subcommittee membership can include ‘non-members’ - meaning members of the public who are not currently serving on an Advisory Committee, task force or board however:

a.      the subcommittee must have a minimum of one-third of the members as voting committee members of the main committee, board or task force;

 

b.      the subcommittee shall be guided by the City’s Procedural By-law and Code of Conduct for Committees.

c.      non-members must be invited by the Advisory Committee to participate in an Advisory Committee Sub-Committee for his or her unique set of skills or expertise, which otherwise do not exist within the current Committee’s complement.  (These members are eligible for reimbursement of disabled persons expenses).

d.      sub-committee membership must be approved/confirmed by the Advisory Committee at a regular meeting,

e.      since sub-committee memberships are often confirmed only at the time the sub-committee is formed, it is suggested that the Advisory Committee periodically review its sub-committees and membership lists so as to maintain current membership lists.  Where sub-committee attrition no longer maintains the one-third rule, that sub-committee must be reviewed. 

f.        a member of the Advisory Committee should be noted as the ‘lead’ to act as central contact, since staff support is limited for subcommittees (see Section 6.2)

 

Legislative Reference Section:  Update it

The latest report has been added (i.e. Advisory Committee Mid-Term Review Report)

 

S. 5.3 – Attendance:  Clarify based on how quorum is defined (i.e. at appointment vs. quorum is adjusted as members resign)

Quorum is based on 50% plus 1 of the total membership of the committee not of the seats occupied

Policy Requirements – S. 1.0 Qualification of Members Nepotism  - should it be addressed.

Not an issue therefore does not warrant creating an independent policy – per meeting with Governance Team and consultations with Advisory Committee Chairs & Vice-Chairs on September 7, 2006.

 

Sub-Committees – S. 6.2: Purpose it be re-written to read as follows:

 

Administrative support to subcommittees is limited to booking rooms and providing material as necessary.  The Participation Expense Policy applies only to Council appointed voting members of Advisory Committees with the exception of disabled person’s expenses”

 

 

 

Done

ADVISORY COMMITTEE PARTICIPATION EXPENSE POLICY

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Participation Expense Policy be available for reserve members who are active and attend meetings like full member.

Due to the City’s financial situation, staff cannot recommend adding this further cost to its Advisory Committee operating budget.

 

Amend S. 1.1 to provide that Minutes are an acceptable proof of

payment for the purposes of reimbursement.

The new section 1.1.4 states:

 

“1.1.4  a meeting where a motion and/or minutes exist(s) that show the member was specifically requested to attend on behalf of the Committee on a day and time outside of a regularly scheduled Advisory Committee meeting..”

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES                             

Issue/Inquiry

Staff Recommendation

Community Input:  How can community groups participate in the Governance Review

 

Staff is recommending the adoption of a “White Paper” process that would focus on ensuring consultations are undertaken in major, new policy initiatives, before the policy is drafted.

 

 

 

In order to promote conditions of equality and diversity, the work of All Advisory Committees needs to embody specific principles.  Some of the principles are currently embedded in the Code of Conduct and Terms of Reference; others we recommend adding. These principles need to be visibly and consistently applied in all the work of the committees from recruitment, work plan development, discussion and deliberation, to annual reporting to Council. (CAWI)

 

 

 

 

 

(SEE APPENDIX D FOR DETAILS ON BACKGROUND)

 

Budget Identification Process:  The intent of the ‘budget’ lines within the various Standing Committee Terms’ of References is to provide that staff, prior to submitting a report, has had FSU sign-off on all financial information – in particular – any attempts by staff to self-identify where budget dollars should come from when they do not exist within the departmental budget

This is a report writing/vetting issue – not a governance issue.  Item was addressed by the Chief Corporate Services Officer, in an e-mail dated May 11, 2006, which was sent to various city staff who would have jurisdiction over reports, including City Clerk’s Committee Coordinators.  E-mail will be reissued to appropriate staff.

Self-Assessment Tools: Can a self-assessment tool for Advisory Committee members be developed?

Per consultation meeting with Advisory Committee Chairs & Vice-Chairs on September 7, 2006 – members did not see nor support the need to introduce such a tool.

 

Annual expense budget for Advisory Committees with greater flexibility in the uses of funds.

Per consultation meeting with Advisory Committee Chairs & Vice-Chairs no change recommended.

 

Recruitment Process: What happens when one or more members step down from a committee – recruitment does not occur again until the fall – meanwhile committee has to pick up the extra work created by the vacancy.

All Advisory Committees have reserve members from which they can draw extra resources.  Notwithstanding that, staff does appreciate that in some instances, full membership was only achieved by having drawn from the reserve list.  In this instance, as indicated, the Committee is not operating at its full membership level.  With that said, although staff understands the request, the current recruitment process is quite thorough and uses many venues to attract applications.  Running a second advertisement campaign would not likely lead to better results.  Further, running a second campaign or initiating an on-going process would far exceed the resources available to the Council & Committees office in costs, and only increase the workload pressure on staff, Council Members and Committee Members who serve on Selection Panels.  For these reasons, staff is not recommending a change to the practice.

 

Reports: Motion moved at PEC – April 11, 2006:  “That a policy be established that all reports that are appropriate for Advisory Committee (to) comment be circulated early in their conception for input.”

Staff cannot release reports to Advisory Committees in advance of Council receiving them However, staff is recommending the adoption of a “White Paper” process that would focus on ensuring consultations are undertaken in major, new policy initiatives, before the policy is drafted   In addition: support for the initiative indicated at the September 7 Advisory Consultation meeting.  As well, the majority of Members in attendance indicated they would prefer to receive a ‘final’ report late; then to be given advance copies of a report that would likely under several changes up to print.