Report to/Rapport au :
Comité de l'urbanisme
and Council / et au Conseil
21 March 2012 / le 21 mars 2012
Submitted by/Soumis par : Nancy Schepers, Deputy City Manager, Directrice
municipale adjointe, Planning and Infrastructure/Urbanisme et Infrastructure
Contact
Person/Personne-ressource: Arlene
Grégoire, Director of Building Code Services and Chief Building
Official/Directrice des services du code du bâtiment et chef du service du code
de bâtiment, Planning and Growth Management/Urbanisme et Gestion de la
croissance (613) 580‑2424 x41425, Arlene.Gregoire@ottawa.ca
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OBJET : |
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
The Planning Committee
recommend that Council receive and approve:
1.
That the Building Official I position
#10031455 remain open; and
2.
That if any Building Official Intern, Building Official I, II, III, or
Specialist position remains open (vacant) for a period greater than two years
from the date that it last had an owner, or the original creation date, the
position not be declared as surplus to the Corporation’s needs and that the
budget allocation and FTE(s) associated with the position not be removed from
the corresponding departmental budget.
RECOMMANDATIONS DU
RAPPORT
Que le Comité de l'urbanisme recommande au Conseil d'approuver :
1.
que le
poste no 10031455 d'agent du bâtiment I demeure ouvert;
2.
qu'aucun
poste d'agent stagiaire, d'agent I, II ou III ou de spécialiste du bâtiment,
s'il demeure ouvert (vacant) pendant plus de deux ans après la date de départ
de son dernier titulaire ou de sa création initiale, ne soit déclaré
excédentaire et que l'affectation des crédits et ETP associés à ce poste ne
soit pas supprimée du budget du service municipal concerné.
BACKGROUND
On March 2, 2010 Council reviewed a report respecting vacant positions
(ACS2010-CMR-CSE-0011) and directed staff as follows:
- That if a position in the City remains
open (vacant) for a period of two years from the date that it last has an
Owner that the position be declared as surplus to the Corporation’s needs
and that the budget allocation and FTEs associated with the position be
removed from the corresponding departmental budget; and
- That should there be a substantive
reason that the position remain open that a staff report be brought before
the appropriate Standing Committee for their consideration with a reason
why the position is still needed and with a plan that will ensure that the
position is filled.
In addition, it was noted during the discussions that some positions
were held open for training purposes such as the training to advance building
officials and that a report detailing these particular positions would be
brought forward. This report provides
this information specific to Building Official positions and in addition addresses
one specific vacancy noted in Recommendation 1.
One Building Official position in the Building Code Services branch has
been vacant for 24 months and thus in accordance with the Council direction, a
report setting out the substantive reason why the position is still needed, and
a plan to ensure it will be filled, has been prepared for the Planning Committee’s
review and decision.
The Building Code Services Branch is the municipal authority in
Building Code knowledge, regulation and enforcement. The Building Code Act tasks the Council to appoint a Chief Building
Official and such inspectors as are necessary for the enforcement of the Act.
Accordingly, City Council has appointed a Chief Building Official,
Arlene Grégoire, and 90 other Building Officials comprising of Deputy Chief
Building Officials and Managers, Program Managers, Plan Examiners, Building
Inspectors, and Building Code Enforcement Officers. The Act
further requires that all direct and indirect costs be 100 per cent recovered
through building permit revenues to ensure the costs associated with servicing
building permits and enforcing the Act
and Code do not create a tax pressure.
Resources are allocated based on the service levels dictated by
provincial legislation, workloads associated with construction activities and
Council approved directions. As part of
the budget preparation process, branch management assesses the workloads, the
impact of new legislative requirements and new Code provisions, estimated
workloads that reflect expected construction activities, etc. to confirm
resource requirements for the next three years.
As of March 1, 2012, the Building Code Services branch had 19 vacant
Building Official FTEs. This represents
9.5 per cent of the total FTE complement of the branch. The percentage of vacancies was at its
highest in 2006 (22 per cent) prior to the introduction of a number of
strategies to address recruitment difficulties.
Corporately, the average annual vacancy rate is closer to 5 per cent.
Recruitment of qualified and Code competent Building Officials is difficult,
as the pool in Ottawa is limited, the requisite knowledge and experience is
technical and specialized by nature, and competition for people with these
skills is strong. The Building Code
Services branch experienced two specific challenges since 2001: i). that of recruiting senior Building
Officials (plan examiners, building inspectors, building code engineers,
program managers, and managers); and ii). that of recruiting graduates for the
entry level Building Official positions.
- Recruiting senior Building Officials is
the most difficult challenge for the following reasons:
·
Senior Building
Officials can only acquire the requisite knowledge and experience from working
in a municipal setting. Servicing building permits and enforcing the Building Code Act and Building Code is
solely a municipal responsibility. Thus
the pool of candidates is constrained.
·
Ottawa
requires candidates with knowledge and experience that reflects the
sophistication of the construction projects found in Ottawa – large and complex
buildings. Municipalities with similar construction projects are located in the
Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and potential candidates are not willing to move to
Ottawa despite comparable salaries. This is primarily due to the fact that
candidates with five to eight years experience are more often than not a parent
of young children and do not wish to uproot the family to seek promotional
opportunities when there are plenty in the GTA.
·
Promoting
from within relies on staff acquiring experience and knowledge over time.
Building Code Services has an aggressive training and development program to
ensure staff gain the technical qualifications and experience for promotional
opportunities – to become a Building Official II, then Building Official
Specialist or Building Official III, then possibly moving into management. The branch is also developing a management
training and development program similar to the program developed by Public
Works to address succession pressures.
- Recruiting graduates for the entry level
positions:
·
In 2006,
following years of experiencing recruitment difficulties and in view of new
provincial mandatory qualification requirements for Building Officials,
management concluded that the best and only way to address the branch’s needs
was to establish an internal program to develop qualified Code competent Building
Officials. Management further concluded
that the most effective way to address the vacancies was to recruit and train
candidates to fill level entry positions and then provide ongoing training and
development opportunities to promote the Building Officials through the various
levels.
·
In 2010,
the branch formalized the Building Official Internship Program (see
ACS2010-ICS-PGM-0064), a first of its kind for municipalities in Ontario. The program is designed to provide the
training necessary to qualify technologist graduates (building sciences, architecture
or engineering) in terms of the minimum qualifications standards set by the
Province and more importantly, in terms of qualifying for the City’s entry-level
Building Official positions. The program
provides training over a maximum period of 24 months and has eliminated the
recruitment difficulties for entry level positions.
·
To date
there have been 16 graduates of the program with 10 more candidates currently
progressing through the Program. Of the
10 current Interns, seven will be ready to graduate in the fall of 2012 and three
in 2013.
·
The Building
Official I position subject of Recommendation 1 was earmarked for one of the
Interns scheduled to graduate in 2012.
Figure 1 illustrates the time intervals required for development and
progression of Code competent Building Officials.
DISCUSSION
Recommendation 1:
Reason why the position is still needed:
The position subject of Recommendation 1 is earmarked for one of the
Interns scheduled to graduate in 2012.
The position continues to be needed to provide a position into which the
graduate Intern can be placed following competition per the collective
agreement. Without the position, there
is a higher risk that the Intern will seek employment elsewhere, which means
that the City will have lost its investment in the training and development of
the Intern.
In addition, the branch reviews on an ongoing basis, workload demands, resource
capacity and, as part of the budget process, the confirmation or adjustment of
FTEs to ensure compliance with the Building
Code Act. As part of the 2012
budget, it was determined that there was a need for four additional Building Officials to address new
legislative responsibilities, particularly with regards to new mandatory
inspections related to the conservation building standards. Workloads continue to be challenging and it
is not anticipated that there will be a slowdown in construction activity in
2012 and 2013 that would occasion a reduction in resource requirements.
What is the plan that will ensure the position will be filled?
The Building Official Internship Program was established to train and
develop candidates that would be qualified to compete for the entry level
positions and address difficulties the branch experienced in recruiting
qualified candidates. The Program
requires a maximum of 24 months to be completed and thus FTEs earmarked for the
graduates may remain vacant beyond the threshold specified in the March 2, 2010
report entitled “Vacant Positions” (ACS2010-CMR-CSE-0011). Therefore although a plan is in place, vacant
positions will continue to exceed the threshold specified in the report due to
the factors set out above.
Recommendation 2:
In view of the lengthy and detailed training and development programs
for Interns and Building Officials, vacant positions will continue to exceed 24
months and thereby trigger the requirement to report back to the Planning Committee
for each vacant Building Official position.
Positions are earmarked for Interns who are progressing through the
Internship Program as they advance through the required levels of
proficiency. Vacancies are also held to
allow for the time intervals necessary for more junior Building Officials to
gain experience and qualifications to move through the more senior positions.
It is recommended that the Building Official positions be exempted from
the requirement to report back to the Planning Committee on an individual basis.
This is because the training and development programs for these positions will
continue to exceed the 24 months threshold, vacant Building Official positions
are earmarked for graduates, and that a resource analysis is completed annually
with resource requirements adjusted accordingly.
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no rural implications associated with this report
CONSULTATION
As this is an administrative report, public consultation was not undertaken.
COMMENTS BY THE WARD COUNCILLOR(S)
City-Wide - Not Applicable
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no legal implications associated with this report.
RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS
There are no risk management implications associated with this report.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
These positions are fully funded through building permit revenues; there are no direct financial implications to maintaining these positions. Should the recommendations not be carried, any resulting compensation budget reductions would be offset by building permit revenue budget reductions.
ACCESSIBILITY IMPACT
There are no accessibility impact implications associated with this report.
TECHNOLOGY IMPLICATIONS
There are no direct technical implications associated with this report.
CITY STRATEGIC PLAN
This report is consistent with the City’s strategic priorities, strategic objectives and strategic initiatives that are to be achieved during the Term of Council, facilitating and improving operational performance, delivering municipal services to Ottawa residents.
SE1 Provide consistent and high-quality information and services to residents, visitors and enterprises and improve clients’ interactions with the City by ensuring services are timely and coordinated, easy to find and access, and delivered in a way that respects residents’ needs.
SE2 Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery to reach targets that have been approved by Council and communicated to residents and staff.
GP2 Integrate planning and performance processes at the City to strengthen decision-making, improve transparency and accountability, align operations with Council priorities, enhance governance, and improve local decision-making while allowing Council and City management to focus on citywide challenges.
EE2 Implement strategies to attract diverse people with the right skills and fit to the organization.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
Not Applicable
DISPOSITION
Not Applicable