CAO UPDATE

CAO UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated March 5, 2020 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:

Administration staff continue to be involved in the hiring process for an Engineering Technologist position and are assisting the Finance Department in the delivery of the Citizen Budget online engagement tool.

The 2019 – 2022 Strategic Plan was approved in principle at the February Committee of the Whole meeting and subsequently posted on the Town’s website for public information. Budget deliberations have resulted in some minor revisions to the Strategic Plan. Those revisions, along with input received from the community, will be brought back to elected officials in April.

Appointments and reappointments to both advisory committees were made by Council on February 18, 2020. A joint orientation meeting, including an overview of the Strategic Plan 2019 – 2022, will be held on March 24, 2020 for the advisory committees.

The current Archives display in the Town Hall foyer features original businesses and industries in View Royal. Many people are likely not aware that an airport, oyster farm, sawmill and greenhouse have all operated in the area. Two more volunteers joined the Archives in February bringing the number to eight volunteers. Projects that have been waiting for a helping hand can now be reinvigorated, including building the accession register database and expanding our metadata for the digital repository.

View Royal Businesses & Industries – 1847-1967

The downstairs records storage room reorganization is approximately 75% complete. Many boxes have been merged, emptied or moved into recycled lateral filing - freeing up much needed space. Departments have been assigned shelving to better manage records lifecycles and future space planning. The goal is to avoid off-site storage for as long as possible. The storage room location guide has been refreshed and updated, with an ‘easy search’ function in the works to ensure readily retrievable records handling.

Finance:

Council and staff collaborated over the course of four budget workshops in February to finalize a proposed 2020-2024 Financial Plan. Next steps are for the Plan to be made public on March 13th with the launch of the interactive Citizen Budget online engagement tool. Results and feedback from this tool will be reported to the Committee in April.

Staff have been developing communications to inform the public of expanded online services whereby residents can sign up for sewer utility and property tax e-billing. This information will also advise Council’s decision to move the CRD sewer charge from the annual property tax bill to yearly sewer utility invoice.

Development Services:

Development Services is working on an exciting variety of projects. Ongoing projects include the Housing Gaps and Needs Study (coming to the Committee in April), the View Royal Park Master Plan (Open House set for March 19th), and the Precinct Land Economics Study.

With the majority of the budget process concluded, staff are turning attention to preparing terms of reference and background information packages for some of the other projects we are looking forward to. Information about the Official Community Plan will be coming to the Committee in April and we are looking forward to initiating work on a Climate Action Strategy for the Town as well. Requests for proposals for both of these projects will be posted in the coming months. After launching these projects, our attention will shift to the wayfinding and signage project for parks and the Helmcken Centennial Park Master Plan.

The projects at Burnside Road West/Helmcken Road and at 9 Erskine Lane are both indicative that View Royal is on track with respect to realizing some of the development and housing objectives of our current Official Community Plan and that it is time to turn our attention to the next ten years and to how View Royal will continue to mature.

On the staff front, the Director of Development Services will be co-presenting a session on professional ethics at the National Planning Conference in July. The Director has also been invited to host the national planning awards ceremonies at the conference.

Engineering:

Winter storm season clean-up continued well into February. While the Town fared well overall, we did lose a tree along Lund Road. This tree will be replaced with two new trees later in the Spring.

Coincidental with the opening of the TransCanada Highway/McKenzie Interchange in late 2019, staff have noticed a decrease in traffic complaints. While there is limited pre-McKenzie Interchange historical data for volume comparison, staff have set up a schedule for traffic data collection using the Town-owned data collector when it is not in use for neighbourhood traffic calming data collection. Areas to be monitored in coming months include Helmcken Road, Burnside Road, and Six Mile Road. Staff will continue to monitor these areas on a rotational basis.

The staircase replacement project into Portage Park (located off the Town Hall lower parking lot) is underway. The old staircase has been removed and construction of the new one has begun. The old stairs were definitely showing their age and in need of replacement. As this staircase is heavily travelled by park users, the new staircase will be wider than the original to allow for pedestrians to pass by each other more comfortably. Other improvements will be benches along the staircase, upper and lower handrails for adults and small children, as well as the existing non-slip expanded aluminum treads. Construction will be almost identical to the Portage Park East staircase replacement at the Glentana Road entrance pathway completed in 2019.

**Looking down into Portage Park – Old staircase**

**Looking up towards Town Hall – Old staircase removed**

Protective Services:

In February, the Fire Department, as well as Colwood Fire Rescue, made the transition to the new CREST P2500 radio system with no major issues. Shortly after this, Langford Fire Rescue followed, completing the transition for all of the Town’s mutual aid partners in the region.

The Department recruited four new volunteer firefighters for our 2020 recruit class. March 5 marks their first night of training.

The Emergency Support Services Director (ESSD) has submitted their resignation as ESSD effective March 31. They will be remaining with the Team to assist with public education and in an advisory role. We thank them for their leadership and unwavering commitment to serving View Royal and Colwood over the past eleven years as Director. The new ESSD, from Colwood, will be promoted from Deputy ESSD to ESSD.

The replacement rescue truck is in mid-production with an anticipated delivery to View Royal in July 2020.

Dispatch services from Surrey continue to improve with changes to technology and infrastructure to ensure compatibility with Next Generation 911. As well, Surrey is implementing an Active Incident Viewer (A.I.V.) which will allow View Royal to see other partners in the region on a map and geolocate their calls, showing truck positions and response.

This month the Fire Department signed a partner agreement with Wounded Warriors and were the first agency in Canada to put their logos on our fleet.

The association finished off their campaign to raise money for the BC Lung Association as well as the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. These campaigns were combined with two firefighter stairclimb events, one in Vancouver and one in Seattle. View Royal finished third overall in fundraising.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated March 5, 2020 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer