2003-03-31_Minutes--Procès-verbal
2003-4
At a Public Committee of the Whole meeting of Common Council, held at the City Hall in
The City of Saint John, on Monday, the thirty-first day of March A.D. 2003, at 5:00
o'clock p.m.
present
Councillor Chase, Chairperson
Mayor McAlary, Deputy Mayor White and Councillors Ball, Court,
Desmond, Fitzgerald, Teed and Titus
- and -
Messrs. 1. Totten, City Manager; J. Nugent, City Solicitor; A.
Beckett, Commissioner of Finance and Commissioner of
Corporate Services; and Ms. C. Mosher, Assistant Common
Clerk.
Other staff members present during the meeting were Messrs. P. Groody, Commissioner
of Municipal Operations; J. Baird, Commissioner of Planning and Development; B.
Morrison, Director of Recreation and Parks; and Ms. S. Garnett, Human Resources.
1. MeetinQ Called To Order
Councillor Chase called the meeting to order, Councillor Titus having voted "nay" to the
motion to meet in this forum on the basis that the Council members should have
received copies of the presentations to be made under agenda items 2 and 3 prior to the
meeting.
Mayor McAlary noted that the Council Procedural By-law applied to only regular
meetings of Council in open session, and Council had set no procedures or rules for
Public Committee of the Whole meetings other than that they were for the purpose of
teach-ins on City departments at the last meeting of the month to give information only.
Councillor Chase recognized Councillor Desmond who spoke briefly on the 2003 Alpine
Saint John Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner to be held June 4 for inductees Ron
Fulton - Athlete (Handball), Charles O'Brien - Builder (Softball), Ralph McLenaghan -
Athlete (Curling), Dr. Carolyn Savoie - Builder (Basketball), David Barry - Athlete
(Basketball), and Milton Downey - Builder (Harness Racing).
2. Teach-in On Future Of Community Centres
Consideration was given to a report from the City Manager advising that, having agreed
during discussion of the 2003 Operating Budget that staff would make a presentation to
Council with respect to the issue of community centres, he and department heads heard
a comprehensive presentation this past week prepared by staff of Community Services,
and the future level of services provided at community centres, without a significant
injection of financial and human resources, will be almost totally dependent on the City's
ability to identify partners who can deliver programs at the City facilities, with City staff to
facilitate these partnerships but no longer being able to deliver programs as in the past.
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Public Committee of the Whole
March 31, 2003
Community Services staff Mmes. S. Roy, J. Henneberry, H. Bridgeo, and Mr. R. Walsh,
as well as UNBSJ student Ms. S. Pollock who assisted in the preparation of the
presentation and Community Services Survey (copies of which were distributed to the
Council members at this meeting), were in attendance at the meeting.
Community Services Coordinator S. Fitzpatrick addressed the meeting, focusing on
recreation and community centres in reviewing the role, history and benefits of, as well
as challenges faced by, the Recreation and Parks Division, referencing the 1992 Open
Space Strategy. Through a computer-aided presentation, Ms. Fitzpatrick highlighted the
2002 community centre programs and attendance statistics for the North End, South
End, Somerset, Carleton, Forest Glen and Millidgeville Community Centres, and
provided a projected attendance for 2003 and an overview of the budget allocation for
community centres from 1993 to 2003. Ms. Fitzpatrick pointed out the location in the
City of community centres operated by community groups as well as the six City-
operated community centres, and related statistics on staffing, population by age within
a 30-minute or 2-kilometre walk and current registration in the age group of 5 to 17
years, noting the partnership arrangement at the Millidgeville Community Centre with the
Canada Games Aquatic Centre and the South End Community Centre with the Boys and
Girls Club. Ms. Fitzpatrick highlighted the response to an across-Canada survey of
community centres, as well as a Recreation and Parks survey of people in the
community, expressed the view that the City's Recreation and Parks Division should
provide recreation opportunities to the broad spectrum of citizens and this could be
fulfilled only by implementing needs assessments; and commented on the options of
status quo, closing centre(s), and redesigning programs based on specific community
needs in moving forward.
In terms of refocusing and doing a needs assessment, Mr. Totten expressed the view
that the City could not continue in the current manner in the long term with four people in
four centres trying to get part-time staff, thus the City would have to rely very heavily on
staff's ingenuity to come up with new methods and partnerships, otherwise it would have
to move to the option of closing centres. The Council members spoke in turn on the
issue during which time there was reference to Councillor Fitzgerald's efforts to pursue
employment grants, student or otherwise, for community centres.
3. Saint John Board Of Police Commissioners
Overview Of Police Force Operations And Service Deliverv
Read a letter from Edward W. Keyes, Chairman of the Saint John Board of Police
Commissioners, advising the intent to appear at this meeting to deliver a power point
presentation on the operations of the Saint John Police Force.
Mr. Keyes, in noting the intent to provide an overview of the Police Force and budget
profile and impacts, recognized the presence at the meeting of Commission Vice-
Chairman W. Farren, and Chief of Police C. Cogswell, Deputy Chief of Police A.
Bodechon, Staff Sergeant W. Reid, Civilian Executive Officer M. Corscadden, and
Manager of Planning and Policy B. Malone, and acknowledged the Mayor and Councillor
Court as Commission members, as well as the presence at the meeting of Local 61
President K. Phillips. Mr. Keyes advised that, while copies of the presentation were not
available for the Council members at this time, they could be provided later.
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Public Committee of the Whole
March 31, 2003
Through a computer-aided presentation, Deputy Chief Bodechon provided an
organizational profile of the Saint John Police Force in terms of the total number of
sworn officers, police managers, civilian members and civilian managers, and advised
the staffing and structure of Patrol Services, Support Services, Criminal Investigations
and Administration, and also that it was anticipated that an audit of the entire
organization would commence in January 2004 to ensure that the resources were being
used as efficiently as possible. Deputy Chief Bodechon commented on services
provided to the Force by the City's Human Resources Division, and compared staffing in
terms of the 26 civilian / 162 police ratio in the Saint John Police Force to other cities in
Atlantic Canada, referring to a chart (copies of which were distributed to the Council
members at this time). Mr. Bodechon compared the current rank structure to that in the
late 1980s, and explained the need for more civilian positions in bringing different skill
sets to the Force and being more cost effective, and advised that, if the Board were to
direct the Chief of Police to reduce civilian positions, police officers would then have to
be put into the civilian positions, the only area that could possibly be reduced being in
reception services if the Force had its own building.
Chief Cogswell addressed the changes in the structure, programs, services and needs
of the Force, particularly in the last few years in response to legislation, case law,
community needs and crime trends, and commented on the inadequacy of the "pop-to-
cop" ratio in determining an area's policing needs. Chief Cogswell compared the current
police officer profile with that of over ten ago, as well as crime trends in Saint John to
crime trends in Canada from 1977 to 2001, with Staff Sergeant Reid providing a phase-
by-phase overview of the procedure involved in an assault case from the time a
complaint was received, whether dispatched by the Public Safety Communications
Centre or by a 911 call, illustrating the amount of effort and time involved in, and how
labourious, a case has become compared to 1993 when the front-line officer would
receive the complaint and pass the information on to a specific unit, where currently the
officer would receive and investigate the complaint fully, up to and including the final
disposition in court. Chief Cogswell noted the breakdown of the Police Force budget of
approximately 82% and 18% for salary and benefits and goods and services
respectively; and reviewed the process undertaken when asked to see how cuts could
be made. In relating the impacts of budget cuts, Chief Cogswell advised that the only
practical opportunity to reduce the 2003 budget by approximately $1/2 million was to
look at a reduction in police officers through attrition and, as for 2004 and beyond,
indicated that the Force was at the minimum projected Establishment strength at 160
and the cumulative impact of budget reductions in 2001-2002-2003 has exceeded the
capacity to accommodate additional reductions in that, while to this point in time
reductions were made in areas other than investigations and patrol, any further
reductions would undoubtedly result in reductions in these mission-critical areas.
During discussion Chief Cogswell advised that work was still being done to determine
the impact of the 2003 budget reduction, although the Establishment was down four
positions from last year and two others were being looked at through attrition, and Mr.
Keyes added that the four vacant positions were at the Patrol level which was the last
level at which the Board wanted reductions, so management was in the process of
identifying from where at the upper levels of the organization those four positions and
possibly two others could come to meet the reduction in the budget. Mr. Keyes advised
that, knowing the Police budget was on the table to be reduced by another $500,000
next year, one of the things that would not be known until the end of the year was the
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Public Committee of the Whole
March 31, 2003
overtime cost which was expected to increase significantly because reductions in the
Special Investigation Units meant that people there have had to work overtime in order
to draw investigations to a close.
On motion, the meeting adjourned at 9:00 o'clock p.m.
Assistant Common Clerk