2004-11-10_Minutes--Procès-verbal
November 10, 2004
Minutes of the Portion of the Committee of the Whole Meeting Open to the Public
Wednesday, November 10, 2004, 7:00 o'clock a.m.
8th Floor Boardroom, City Hall
Present:
Mayor McFarlane,
Deputy Mayor Hooton and Councillors Chang, Chase, Court, Farren, Ferguson,
McGuire and Tait
- and -
1. Totten, City Manager; J. Nugent, City Solicitor; A. Beckett, Commissioner of
Finance and Corporate Services; P. Groody; Commissioner of Municipal
Operations; W. Edwards, Commissioner of Buildings and Inspection Services; R.
Simonds, Fire Chief; A. Bodechon, Chief of Police; P. Woods, Common Clerk
and Deputy City Manager and E. Gormley, Assistant Common Clerk.
1. MeetinQ Called To Order
The Mayor called the Committee of the Whole meeting to order.
2. 2005 OperatinQ BudQet - Municipal Operations
Mr. Groody introduced the Municipal Operations Budget and staff members present. He
proceeded to explain his Department's mission, and the divisions within his operations,
noting that they include 146 permanent staff. He elaborated on the functions of
Emergency Management, Administration, Service & Program Development, Engineering
and Growth, Traffic Engineering & Systems, Snow Control, Storm Drainage, Street
Cleaning, Residential Solid Waste and Street Maintenance, and presented a total 2005
budget of $18,257,726.
Referring to his slide presentation, Mr. Groody explained that there is not enough
budgeted dollars to provide the services requested noting particularly the money
allocated to drainage systems, and referred to the unpredictability of some of the
services such as snow clearance and removal. He listed some challenges as training
and performance evaluation of employees, sustainable infrastructure, adequate
maintenance, optimization of fleet and deployment adding that streets are a major
challenge. He also spoke about his Department's commitment to rationalize the
requirement for all pieces of equipment noting that they have reduced the fleet by 17%.
Mr. Groody advised that the number of professional engineers and investment in
maintenance of streets and storm drainage is lacking in the Department, which may be
able to be corrected somewhat with $300,000. additional funds to the budget.
Common Clerk