2016-07-18_Agenda Packet--Dossier de l'ordre du jourCity of Saint John
Common Council Special Meeting
AGENDA
Monday, July 18, 2016
5:00 P.M.
8th Floor Boardroom, City Hall
Call to Order
Pages
1.1 Board Appointments and Proposed Committee Structure 1-22
Po eta Sy:
COUNCIL REPORT
M&C No.
2016-194
Report Date
July 13, 2016
Meeting Date
July 18, 2016
Service Area
Corporate Services
His Worship Mayor Don Darling and Members of Common Council
SUBJECT: Board Appointments and Proposed Committee Structure
OPEN OR CLOSED SESSION
This matter is to be discussed in open session of Common Council.
AUTHORIZATION
Primary Author Commissioner/Dept. Head City Manager
Jeff Trail
RECOMMENDATION
Having been provided a briefing on governance followed by a discussion on
options related to appointments to agencies, boards and commissions and a
potential committee system for Council to consider, the City Manager
recommends that Council: 1) Directs the Nominating Committee to make
nominations to fill Councillor vacancies on Boards where required by law,
regulation or bylaw. 2) Directs the Nominating Committee to make nominations
to fill any existing vacancies on remaining Boards. 3) Directs the Nominating
Committee to establish two Committees (Finance and Growth) as a 6 month
pilot project, commencing September 2016. 4) Continue to schedule regular
reporting from agencies, boards and commissions with significant financial or
operational linkage with the City. 5) Directs the City Manager to schedule a
review of the Committee structure in March 2017 following six months of
assessment and 6) Directs staff to make recommendations to simplify, where
possible, the structure of City controlled agencies, boards and commissions. .
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Prior to the appointments of Councillors to Agencies, Boards and Commissions, it
is worthy of discussion of governance best practices and the relationships which
exist or could exist between the City and its ABCs. These appointments can
continue to occur with some adjustments and definition of roles, with an
enhancement in clarity of the expectations, the role definition of individual
Board members and a mechanism to hold ABC's accountable, where it is
appropriate. In other cases, where the functions of an ABC are ancillary to the
core function of the City government, appointments should be allowed to
proceed without delay.
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PREVIOUS RESOLUTION
N/A
STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
This set of recommendations is intended to improve the governance process for
agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs), provide additional clarity to ABCs on
Council's expectations, improve the definition of roles between ABCs and
Council, and to encourage a greater level of accountability. In turn, this will
strengthen the role of Common Council, as a body of government, to provide
strategic leadership to the agencies, boards and commissions.
REPORT
Board Appointments
The current structure of Agencies, Boards and Commissions (ABCs) includes a
wide variety of different entities. These ABCs are not all equal in terms of impact
on service delivery or exposure to financial consequences for the City, and as
such, do not and should not interact with the City of Saint John in the same
fashion. In some cases, ABCs provide direct service delivery to the residents (e.g.
Police, Transit, Parking) and in other cases, Common Council is provided with an
opportunity to nominate a member of a Board to represent it's interests or the
interests of the community at large (e.g. Saint John Airport, Heritage
Development Board).
There are currently twelve (12) 'significant ABCs' (i.e. ABCs with significant
financial and operational linkage with the City of Saint John), including: SJ
Transit, SJ Parking, SJ Board of Police Commissioners, SJ Industrial Parks, SJ
Energy, Planning Advisory Committee, SJ Aquatic Centre, Discover SJ, Harbour
Station, SJ Development Corp (Waterfront), Trade and Convention Centre
Oversight and the Safe, Clean Drinking Water Project Steering Committee. The
Mayor is required to sit on five of the eleven in an ex -officio capacity and one
Councillor is required to sit on the SCDWP Steering Committee. No other
Councillors are required by legislation, regulation or by-law to sit on any of these
ABCs. This term "significant ABC" is used throughout the body of the report and
refers explicitly to this list.
There are eleven (11) other ABCs and two (2) Committees of Council on which
either Mayor or Councillors are required to sit. They are Canada Games
Foundation, Cities Association of NB, Federation of Canadian Municipalities,
Heritage Development Board, Regional Facilities Oversight, PRO Kids, Emergency
Measures, SJ Non-profit Housing, Fundy Region Service Commission, Taxi
Advisory, Community Grants, Finance Committee and Nominating Committee.
2
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Finally, there are eleven (11) ABCs where Council is allowed to appoint at least
one member and in some cases, a majority of the members. They are Carleton
Community Centre, Shared Risk Pension, Fort LaTour Development, Imperial
Theatre, Lord Beaverbrook Rink, Rockwood Park Endowment, Saint John Airport,
SJ Community Arts Board, SJ Free Public Library, Substandard Property Appeals
and Uptown SJ.
Recommended Direction (Best Practice
In the interests of good governance, Common Council should consider some best
practices such as providing or approving a position description for each Board
appointment for the significant ABCs. Each of the Boards should be asked to
provide input to the nomination process, including a skills matrix of an ideal
Board composition and the apparent skills vacancies at that point in time. The
primary objective of the Nominating Committee should be to identify the best
possible appointees to each of the significant ABCs.
Additional direction should be given from Common Council to the significant
ABCs which indicates what goals are to be accomplished. Each significant ABC
should be given a mandate letter from Common Council on a regular basis in
order to clarify the roles and expectations. The Boards of the significant ABCs
should be charged with identifying how they will accomplish those mandates
and report regularly on their progress.
Reporting from each of the ABCs has already been organized to provide
opportunities to hear from and provide input to the highest priority entities and
this reporting, either written or verbal will come currently to full Council,
generally in open session.
An issue which requires clarification is that of the role of Common Council
members or City employees on Boards of significant ABCs. Again, in the interests
of good governance and accountability, the assignment of Councillors and
Employees to Boards should be done selectively. Where it is deemed practical to
appoint a Councillor or Employee to a Board, the appointee should not be
eligible to Chair the Board, unless otherwise stipulated in legislation, regulation
or by-law. Councillors and employees shall not be financially compensated for
participation on any ABC and finally, Councillors and employees shall always
ensure that their primary fiduciary duties are aligned with the interests of the
City.
,C]
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Proposed Committee Structure
The concept of a Committee structure for Common Council has been considered
several times in the past and it is related directly to the appointments to ABCs
insofar as the work being contemplated by ABCs may be of primary interest to
the Common Council or individual Councillors.
The work of many of the ABCs can be grouped into particular categories or
themes which are logical and interrelated. A potential structure could include
committees comprised of Councillors for Growth, Finance, Community Services,
Public Safety, Transportation and Infrastructure and External Relations.
Growth - Responsible for growth of the economy and tax base with
linkage to Enterprise SJ, Waterfront development, Industrial parks,
Tourism development, and Heritage preservation. Linked primarily to the
Department of Growth and Community Development Services.
Finance - Responsible for fiscal management, audit, budget development,
resource allocation, continuous improvement, open data and information
management. Linked primarily to Finance and Administrative Services
and Strategic Services within the City Manager's office.
Community Services - Responsible for implementation of PlaySJ,
recreation, parks, trails, gardens, community development and poverty
reduction — linked primarily to Recreation and Leisure Services Division
within Transportation and Environment.
Public Safety - Responsible for oversight of public safety services,
including police, fire, building code, by-law enforcement and EMO.
Linked primarily to Fire/EMO Services with reporting from Board of Police
Commissioners.
Transportation and Infrastructure - Responsible for capital investment
prioritization, implementation and operation of Safe Clean Drinking
Water, road and sidewalk programs, water and wastewater, storm water,
parking and transit services. Linked primarily with Transportation and
Environment services and SJ Water.
External Relations - Responsible for intergovernmental relationships,
Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Cities Association of NB, NB
Municipal Association, and key liaison with provincial and federal
governments. Linked primarily with City Manager's Office.
At this time, because of the significant change of practice, it would be advisable
to take an incremental approach and implement a couple of Committees
(Growth and Finance), pause after six months and evaluate. At that time,
El
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Common Council can decide whether to proceed with further Committee
development or return to past practice.
Each Committee would be comprised of five Council members, including a Chair
and Vice Chair. The Mayor would be invited to sit ex -officio and non-voting on
both of the pilot Committees. If the structure is later adopted, the Mayor would
Chair the External Affairs Committee. Meetings of Committees would be held
primarily in open session following the rules set out in legislation and would be
one to two hours in duration on a monthly basis. Staff support would be
required to develop the agenda and materials in advance and all meetings would
be communicated in advance as per current procedure. Committees would not
have decision-making authority, but would provide recommendations for
consideration by Common Council. Presentations by applicable ABC's would be
scheduled in Committee where appropriate and would form a large portion of
the agenda. Membership of Committees would rotate on a regular basis, likely
every two years.
Key relationships for the Committees would be grouped as follows:
Growth — Planning Advisory Committee, Saint John Development
Corporation, Saint John Industrial Parks, Uptown Saint John, Enterprise
Saint John*, Discover SJ, Heritage Development Board, Saint John Port
Authority, SJ Sub -standard Properties Appeal Committee, Trade and
Convention Oversight Committee
Finance - SJ Shared Risk Pension Board
Community Services — SJ Aquatic Centre Commission, Canada Games
Foundation, Carleton Community Centre Advisory Committee, Lord
Beaverbrook Rink, PRO Kids, SJ Community Arts Board, SJ Free Public
Library, SJ Non-profit Housing, LivingSJ*, Imperial Theatre Inc. , Harbour
Station Commission, Fort LaTour Development Authority, Rockwood Park
Endowment Fund, Community Grants Evaluation Committee
Public Safety — Saint John Emergency Management Advisory Committee,
Saint John Board of Police Commissioners
External Relations —Regional Facilities Commission, Federation of
Canadian Municipalities*, Cities Association of NB
Transportation and Infrastructure — Power Commission of the City of
Saint John, Saint John Airport, Saint John Parking Commission, Saint John
Transit Commission, Taxicab Advisory Committee, Solid Waste/Fundy
Region Services Commission, Safe Clean Drinking Water Project Steering
5
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SERVICE AND FINANCIAL OUTCOMES
The Committee structure is expected to enhance the governance of the City,
allowing individual Councillors to become more familiar over time with related
fields, such as Growth or Finance. Clarification of the roles between Council and
documenting expectations and then providing regular reporting would result in a
better overall governance system and take a meaningful step toward a higher
functioning organizational structure where dialogue would be centered on goals,
expectations and challenges or barriers. In turn, this will strengthen the role of
Common Council, as a body of government, to provide strategic leadership to
the agencies, boards and commissions.
INPUT FROM OTHER SERVICE AREAS AND STAKEHOLDERS
N/A
ATTACHMENTS
Presentation format of this same material is provided as an attachment to be
used in the meeting.
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