CAO Update Report

CAO UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the June 8, 2017 CAO Update Report 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

Suzanne Hervieux, an Archives volunteer, will be assisting for several weeks in the Archives area to advance the Archives’ digitization project. The digitization project will result in more readily accessible, searchable materials for those with an interest in View Royal’s past.

Also on the records management front, the Archivist/Corporate Records Assistant is working across all departments to revamp the local area network, aligning electronic record storage with the file conventions used for the Town’s paper records.

Town Hall Grade 2 student tours took place in May with two classes attending from View Royal Elementary School. While at Town Hall, the students received a presentation in Council Chambers on the role of local government; undertook a “look and listen” scavenger hunt; listened to a story in the Archives; and toured both Town Hall and the Parks Workshop area. As part of the tour, the diverse career opportunities available in local government are discussed.

During the week of May 29-June 4, several staff members participated in Bike to Work Week. On May 24, Mayor Screech and J. Davison (Planner) participated in the Commuter Challenge which is a friendly competition to see whether cars or bikes reach their destination faster. With the Mayor by car and the Planner on bike, they started their journey at Town Hall and finished at the corner of Fort and Blanshard Streets. The Planner completed the Challenge a full six minutes earlier than the Mayor.

The 2016 Annual Report is underway and will be presented to Council in late June. Property tax payments began the week of May 29, shortly after the notices were mailed out. This level of activity means that the front counter and phone lines are busy, though with other payment options available in the past few years – through one’s bank, online, or with monthly payments – the lineups at the front counter are manageable.

Administration staff continue to advance multiple real property, bylaw and policy initiatives. As well, staff are coordinating with the volunteer organizing team for the Canada 150 event set for July 1st at Craigflower Manor.

Finance:

The Finance Department welcomes its new Director of Finance, Manager of Accounting and Accounting Clerk 1. I am grateful to other staff for their initiative and hard work ensuring required activities/tasks were accomplished during the recent personnel shortage.

The following key performance indicators (KPIs) are useful to understand work load pressures and to monitor trends:

One of the first priorities for the new finance staff is to gain a full understanding of Council’s strategic plans, and to develop operational strategies for achieving the objectives outlined.

Development Services

Development Services has been working on several significant rezoning applications and is looking forward to public hearings before the summer break. Public Hearings for Glentana Road and 1342/52 TransCanada Highway were concluded last week. We anticipate other applications will be brought forward for public hearings before the summer break. These applications are generally consistent with the Official Community Plan. It is interesting to note the amount of rental housing being proposed in View Royal.

As per Council direction, Carbon Offsets were purchased from the Quadra Island Forestland Conservation Project before the June deadline for CARIP reporting. This means that the Town of View Royal will be officially carbon neutral in our corporate operations for the 4th year in a row. For a small community, this is a significant achievement!

Staff are working on the final segments of the Chilco Trails network. The coming park land dedication coincident with Phase 7 will facilitate a pedestrian connection to the bottom of the hill (at Lund Road). The developer will be building a stub trail from a new cul-de-sac to Lund Road and over the summer an RFP will be issued to connect this stub with the existing trail at Haagensen Court. Staff are working on arranging a site visit with the Parks, Recreation and Environment Advisory Committee for later in June.

A heritage workshop has been scheduled for Saturday October 7th at Town Hall. This is the Heritage Basics workshop offered by BC Heritage, and is intended to provide an opportunity for the community, advisory committees, volunteers and Council to find out more about the heritage tools that are available to municipalities in BC. More details will be available in September.

Engineering

January – May Calls for Service

Curbs have now been installed on Rudyard Road at Helmcken Road.

Under direction of the Engineering Technologist, the new GIS Student has been using the hand-held GPS unit to complete the pickup of sewer and drain infrastructure locations started by the 2016 summer student. The student has also started on the mapping of streetlights, to be followed by the mapping of parks furniture, irrigation boxes, and monuments. As data is collected, working with the GIS administrator, it is integrated into the existing GIS platform, which provides staff the ability to readily access information, allowing for better service to citizens, developers, business and other government agencies. The ultimate vision is that residents will be able to go to the Town website and query surrounding infrastructure located within their neighbourhoods.

The Eagle Creek Phase 2 agreement for trail development and construction is now in place, and a building permit is expected to be awarded by Mid-June. The trail is slated for completion by December 2017.

The off-site work for 14/24 Jedburgh Road is nearing completion. Two building permits have been issued for Jedstone Place. The last of the work to be completed includes installation of No Parking signs on the sidewalk, as well as the new streets lights, and final landscaping.

The Parks Department now has two new Seasonal employees on staff – welcome Ryan Carter and Andrea (Andy) Gillis!

Protective Services

The month of May was again busy for Protective Services. The Emergency Program organized and hosted the 10th Annual Emergency Preparedness fair at Juan De Fuca recreation Center. Countless hours of organizing by Troy Mollin and his ESS volunteers resulted in another successful event. As well, the Fire Prevention office is preparing for the Fire Department Annual Open House to be held June 10 at the Public Safety Building.

The party of 5 Fire Departments who signed onto the Regional Fire Services agreement recently added the City of Colwood as a signatory to the agreement. Currently Sidney is proceeding with review of the agreement in anticipation of also joining the group. Both the Building and Bylaw Divisions continue to be busy with ongoing issues and construction projects.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receive the June 8, 2017 CAO Update Report for information.

SUBMITTED BY: K. Anema, Chief Administrative Officer