Staff Report: CAO Update

CAO UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated June 6, 2019 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with information from the Office of the CAO regarding material events and happenings at Town Hall.

BACKGROUND:

An Administrator’s report for the Committee of the Whole meeting to apprise Council of the highlights of significant activities of the Town.

INFORMATION:

Administration:

The Town is gearing up to co-host the annual Canada Day celebration at Craigflower Manor. Volunteer View Royal, Administration and Parks staff, along with co-host – Highland Games Society – are in the final planning stages. Our View Royal Archives will have an interactive display with a “Then and Now” theme using historical artists’ renderings, maps and photos to show the origins and changes of Craigflower Manor at this event.

New in the Town Hall foyer is the updated Capital Regional District Bike Map available for pick up. With increased visitors to Town Hall over the coming weeks due to property tax payments, these CRD Bike Maps are likely to be well-subscribed.

Suzanne Hervieux, Archives volunteer, will once again be working in the Archives for several weeks over the summer months on Phase 2 of the Archives’ digitization project. She will be focused on adding key descriptions to the internal register in preparation for uploading image files and contextual data to the online repository.

Finance:

May was a busy month as usual for Finance. Staff prepared and mailed 4,116 tax notices, with an informational brochure to help taxpayers understand their tax notice and how to claim the home owner’s grant and make sure their taxes are paid before the July 2 due date.

Staff also wrapped up the 2018 year-end reporting cycle with finalizing the financial statements and completing statutory Provincial reporting requirements by the May 15 due date.

We continue our efforts to encourage vendors to sign up for electronic funds transfers (EFTs) through our accounts payable system. In 2018, we managed to achieve an average of 67% of all payments made by EFT, with a high of 78% in February, just shy of our 80% target.

[Chart: 2018 EFT vs cheque payments stacked bar chart by month]

[Chart: 2019 EFT vs Cheque payments stacked bar chart from January to May]

To date in 2019, the average of 67% EFT utilization persists, indicating that continued efforts are required to encourage higher subscription to this service to increase security and streamline processing.

The Office 365 implementation project Phase 1 is nearly complete with the migration of Council’s iPads scheduled for June 11. Staff is at various stages of planning and implementation of the other budgeted IT projects. The utility billing module and secondary suite online renewal projects were the initial focus in May.

Development Services:

The annual Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program (CARIP) report has been filed with the Province. By measuring and reporting on the Town’s 2018 greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations, the Town will receive a CARIP grant. The amount will be $3046.61, which is the amount of carbon taxes from energy expenditures last year.

68 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in carbon credits have been purchased to offset the 2018 greenhouse gas emissions from municipal operations. This means the Town will achieve carbon neutral status for the 2018 reporting year. The Town has achieved carbon neutral status consistently since 2013. Official recognition from the Province is expected in a few months.

On June 4, the Deputy Approving Officer signed the subdivision plan for 1938 West Park Lane (former Thetis Lake Campground) to subdivide the parcel into two lots. Development permits were recently approved to permit the subdivision, to clear land, and for the form and character of 152 units of below-market housing in two six-storey buildings on one of the lots.

The Town is required by the Province to complete a Housing Needs Reports by April 2022, and every five years thereafter. Application for $20,000 worth of funding from UBCM to assist with this project was made on May 30th, which would go a long way to reducing the Town’s contribution to the $45,000 project.

The 25th Annual Greater Victoria Bike to Work Week was held May 27-June 2. The Town had nine riders and logged 1,020km during the week in 54 trips and accounting for 30,612 calories burned and 221kg of greenhouse gases saved over driving the same distance. Better still, the Town participated in a friendly challenge between Langford, Metchosin, Highlands and Colwood based on kilometres ridden per full-time employee. As you can see below, it wasn’t even close. The Town has a thriving cycling culture that is an example for the region.

Engineering & Parks:

Engineering Department staff continue to coordinate capital works projects including the tender award for the Burnett Road pedestrian safety improvement project, coordinating dates for the Shoreline Kayak Launch project, Watkiss Way at Burnside Rd W beautification, View Royal Bike Park design, as well as working with the students to update the GIS schema.

On Wednesday May 29th, due to part failures, we had an air relief valve and check ball valve replaced at our Helmcken Bay pump station. In order to complete the replacement, confined space procedures were required. This involved two pump trucks to bypass the station during the work. As you can see in the pictures, a safety tripod is setup over the wet well access so the worker can be retrieved in an emergency. Also, fresh air is pumped into the wet well chamber during the work. This work was completed successfully in 4.5 hrs.

As part of the Town’s tree replacement program staff have installed trees throughout the Town, including a variety of trees to fit certain neighbourhoods. The spring planting season has concluded with the following locations receiving new trees:

• Watkiss Way at Talcott Rd
• Chilco Rd at Lund Rd
• Chilco Rd at Six Mile Rd
• Chilco Rd at Massey Pl

West Park Lane Subdivision: The new water main on Six Mile Road is installed and live. The curb has been installed and sidewalk construction on Six Mile Road is underway, and it is likely it will be complete 11 June. Paving Six Mile is planned for the week of June 10th.

In the past month, Chris Junck, the Town’s Invasive Species Coordinator has been doing some spectacular work at various locations around the Town.

The upper Chilco area was recently the focus with Robin Hill Park and Edwards Park being the targeted areas. These two parks have their fair share of invasive species of which Scotch Broom and Blackberries are quite prominent. After volunteering at a few events, a local resident in the area, Simon Buck, has taken it upon himself to perform some “Broom Harvesting” and he has managed to gather quite a significant amount. To cap things off, the Greater Victoria Green Team crew came out and worked their magic as well.

The outcome from this was 750 kg (1700 lbs) of invasive material removed and disposed of. This is a great result of a lot of hard work by Chris and the volunteers and proves that the funding Council has provided to do this work is showing positive results.

Protective Services:

Bylaw enforcement initiatives and complaints continue to keep this division busy. Homeless camps and parking issues are the most prevalent files that are being managed.

Although the pace of building projects in the Town has slowed, the Building Department is working on bylaw updates as well as working with the Finance Department on improving permit and licensing payments systems in VADIM.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated June 6, 2019 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer