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OTTAWA POLICE SERVICES BOARD COMMISSION DE SERVICES POLICIERS D’OTTAWA
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Working together for a safer community La sécurité de notre communauté, un travail d’équipe |
REPORT RAPPORT |
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DATE 19 January 2011
TO/DEST. Chair and Members, Ottawa Police Services Board
FROM/EXP. Executive Director, Ottawa Police Services Board
SUBJECT/OBJET POLICE SERVICES BOARD ACTIVITY, TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE – 2010 ANNUAL REPORT
RECOMMENDATION
That the Ottawa Police Services Board receive this report and forward it to City Council for information.
BACKGROUND
In December 2005 the Ottawa Police Services Board received a report from the City of Ottawa Auditor General on the Board’s governance practices. Among the Auditor General’s recommendations were the following:
a) That the Board specify training requirements and report annually (and publicly) on individual member training, and training of the Board as a whole.
b) That the Board determine performance evaluation measures and conduct a formal Board evaluation annually.
c) That the Board report the results of the performance evaluation in a board activity report … (including) information on such things as:
- number of board meetings held
- number of community meetings held
- ceremonial events attended
- number of Council presentations
- hours of commitment
- board training.
In March 2007 the first annual report on Board Activity and Training covering the period 1 January to 31 December 2006 was submitted to the Board and forwarded to City Council for information; a separate report on the results of the Board’s first formal performance review process was also submitted. At that time the Board decided to conduct comprehensive, formal evaluations at least once every four years and less formal evaluations in other years. In 2007 and 2008 reviews of the Board’s performance consisted of measuring the Board’s achievements against its work plan for those years. In 2009, another comprehensive, formal evaluation was undertaken and in 2010, performance was once again measured by what was accomplished from the Board’s work plan. The Policy & Governance Committee takes the lead in conducting these reviews.
This report and the data contained in Annex A constitute the fifth annual report on the Police Services Board’s Activity, Training and Performance, covering the period from 1 January to 31 December 2010. Also contained in this report is an overview of the Board’s recent performance evaluation conducted by the Policy & Governance Committee.
BOARD ACTIVITY
In 2006 the Board approved the following activity indicators to be tracked throughout the year and reported on in the annual report:
Activity Indicators
1. Board and Committee Meetings
The volume of work associated with board and committee meetings on a monthly basis demonstrated by:
· Number of meetings, including all board meetings (public and in camera), meetings of board’s standing committees (Complaints Committee, Finance & Audit Committee, Human Resources Committee, and Policy & Governance Committee), and other committees on which board members serve (Community Awards Selection Committee, Police Scholarship & Charitable Fund Board of Trustees, Thomas G. Flanagan Scholarship Award Selection Committee)
· Hours spent at meetings
· Number of items on agendas (public and in camera)
· Number of pages of agenda material reviewed.
2. Community Meetings
In accordance with the Auditor’s recommendations, the number of community meetings is identified separately from other board meetings and includes statistics on:
· Number of meetings
· Hours spent at meetings.
3. Other Functions & Events
Members of the Police Services Board attend a wide variety of other business functions and ceremonial events outside of board and committee meetings each year, such as: business meetings (OAPSB Board of Directors, Big 12 boards, meetings with city or provincial officials); collective bargaining and other meetings related to labour relations; Ottawa Police Association functions; Senior Officers’ Association functions; media conferences; briefings; police awards ceremonies; recruit badge ceremonies; community events; and meetings with other community partners. This category records the following statistical information related to these other functions:
· Number of events
· Hours spent at them.
Board Committees
Under the terms of the Board’s Committee Policy #GA-4, the Policy & Governance Committee and the Finance & Audit Committee are both required to meet a minimum of four times a year, while the Complaints Committee and Human Resources Committee meet on an as required basis. The number of times the committees met in 2010 was:
Complaints Committee: 1
Finance & Audit Committee: 2
Human Resources Committee: 4
Policy & Governance Committee: 4.
The Finance & Audit Committee did not meet throughout the fall as it normally does because of the delay in the budget process and changes in Board membership due to the municipal election.
Additional Workload for Board Chair
The indicators tracked and reported on in Annex A do not reflect the additional time the Chair of the Board spends dealing with emails and phone calls on matters related to the work of the Board outside of meetings. The Board Chair estimated that in 2010 an average of 12 hours per week was spent on emails, phone calls and media inquiries. Meetings attended by the Board Chair are captured in the statistics for “other functions and events” contained in Annex A.
BOARD TRAINING
The Auditor General’s report emphasized the importance of board member orientation and training as essential elements of good governance. To assist the Ottawa Police Board in ensuring its members make the commitment to ongoing learning, the Auditor General recommended that the Board specify training requirements for its members, and report annually and publicly on training for the Board as a whole and for individual members. The Board captured these recommendations in a Training Policy adopted in 2006, which is attached at Annex B. Statistics for training in 2010 are contained in Annex A.
Indicators pertaining to board training include:
· Ministry training attended by board members either individually or as a group
· Other training/education sessions attended by the Board as a group
· Other training/education sessions attended by each individual board member
· Hours spent in training by the Board as a whole and by individual board members.
If the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services offered no training in the year being reported on, the Activity Report will indicate that. Similarly, if there were no members serving their first year on the board in the year being reported on, the report will indicate that the required orientation training for new members was not applicable for that year. In 2010, one new member joined the Board in mid-September, and two members joined in mid-December. Ministry training has not yet been offered to these members, but they have all participated in a two-hour orientation briefing delivered by the Board Solicitor and Executive Director. This training is captured in Annex A.
A recommendation arising from the 2009 performance evaluation and accepted by the Board is to acknowledge in this annual report that failure to engage in appropriate training and development opportunities limits a board member’s ability to participate effectively as a board member.
Another recommendation approved by the Board on 1 February 2010 was that on an annual basis, each member of the Board shall be asked to read and sign the “Police Services Board Code of Conduct” contained in Police Services Act regulation, and that the names of members signing the affirmation form be recorded in the Annual Report on Activity, Training and Performance. The following members have signed and submitted their form for 2011, thereby signifying their review of the Code and their re-commitment to it: E. El‑Chantiry, D. Guilmet-Harris, J. Harder, H. Jensen, J. MacEwen, C. Nicholson and J. Watson.
Board Training as a Whole
On 20 January 2010 the Board was invited to attend a presentation by Professor David Tanovich, Director, Law Enforcement and Accountability Project, University of Windsor, on the subject of Racial Profiling. The Board also hosted two Public Interest Meetings that were learning opportunities for Board members as well as the public. The subjects covered by the special meetings in 2010 were: Child and Youth Mental Health; and Racial Profiling.
BOARD PERFORMANCE
2010 Work Plan Achievements
The Policy & Governance Committee measured the Board’s performance in 2010 by comparing its achievements against its approved work plan for the year. The Board’s 2010 work plan and the status of all items at year-end are set out in Annex C. The Policy & Governance Committee reviewed this material at a meeting on 2 December 2010 and the comments provided below are the result of the Committee’s review. All tasks were completed with the exception of the following (item numbers correspond to Annex C):
Tasks Related to Establishing Expectations:
- #4 – Meeting with targeted community partners. In 2008 and 2009 as part of the Board’s Community Engagement Strategy, the Board identified specific community partners that it wished to personally meet or work with, such as the school boards, Council on Aging of Ottawa, the Lebanese-Arab Social Services Agency (LASSA), Crime Prevention Ottawa, and the business improvement associations. In 2010 this objective was not achieved but in 2011 increased emphasis will be placed on fulfilling this important opportunity to build relationships with key partners.
- #6 – Develop a protocol between the Board and the Ottawa Police Association (OPA). The Board completed a draft “Guidelines for a Positive Relationship between the Ottawa Police Services Board and the Ottawa Police Association” in February 2010. As part of the process of developing the guidelines, Chair El-Chantiry and Executive Director Fedec met with members of the OPA and Mr. Paul Gardner, Chair of the Ontario Police Arbitration Commission and his colleague, Mr. Sig Walter, to take advantage of their expertise and advice in matters related to the maintenance of good working relationships between boards and police associations. This meeting was held in December 2009 and was very helpful in clarifying for both parties the kind of information that would be useful to include in the document to be drafted. Upon completion of the draft in February 2010 it was sent to the OPA for review and comment. To date, no response has been received despite several follow-up attempts. The Committee recommends that this item be dropped from the 2011 work plan and replaced with an ongoing commitment to maintaining positive relations with both police associations.
- #10 – Develop a policy on Accessibility Standards for Customer Service. Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, police services boards are required to have a policy on this subject in place by 2012. Given other work priorities in 2010, this task was not completed but will be added to the 2011 work plan.
- #18 – Review and approve 2011 OPS budget. Completion of this task was dependent on the schedule set by City Council for review of the annual budget. Due to the municipal election the budget review schedule was delayed until first quarter 2011.
Tasks Related to Evaluating & Monitoring Performance:
- #24 - Review annual report on Public Consultation Policy. Due to OPS staffing changes, this report was not completed this year.
- #25 – Review annual report on Workforce Management Policy CR-7. Due to staffing and workload issues this report was not completed in December but will be submitted in Q1 2011.
- #28 – Review annual report on Executive Succession Planning. Due to workload issues this report was not completed in December but will be submitted in January 2011.
CONSULTATION
Consultation was not applicable in the preparation of this report.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no costs directly associated with this report.
CONCLUSION
This report meets the City of Ottawa Auditor General’s 2005 recommendation to report annually and publicly on the activities, training and performance of the Ottawa Police Services Board. Statistical information was collected throughout 2010 on the number of meetings and other functions attended by Board members and the hours spent at them, as well as training or educational opportunities in which Board members participated. The report also provides a summary of the Board’s performance in meeting its approved work plan in 2010. The Board successfully achieved its 2010 work plan with the exception of the items noted earlier in the report; most are scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2011.
In accordance with the Auditor General’s recommendation, this report will be forwarded to City Council for information.
(Original signed by)
Wendy Fedec
Executive Director
Attach. (3)
