Owen Sound Committee - Service Review Implementation Ad Hoc Meeting Transcript — November 12, 2025

00:00:42 Speaker 01: Okay, it's nine a.m.

00:00:43 Speaker 01: I will call the meeting to order.

00:00:44 Speaker 01: This is Service Review Implementation Ad Hoc Committee of the City of Owen Sound.

00:00:49 Speaker 01: Today's date is November 12th, 2025.

00:00:51 Speaker 01: Is there any additional business?

00:00:56 Speaker 01: Seeing no hands going up.

00:00:58 Speaker 01: Declarations of interests.

00:01:01 Speaker 01: Seeing none.

00:01:02 Speaker 01: I just will note that we are all in attendance at this moment.

00:01:16 Speaker 01: So number four, confirmation of minutes from September 10th, 2025.

00:01:21 Speaker 01: Any questions?

00:01:23 Speaker 01: Any discussion?

00:01:25 Speaker 01: Motion, Councillor Capkey is moving confirmation of those minutes.

00:01:29 Speaker 01: All in favour?

00:01:31 Speaker 01: That is carried.

00:01:33 Speaker 01: At number five, we have no deputations.

00:01:35 Speaker 01: At number six, we have no public forum or no one to participate.

00:01:40 Speaker 01: At number seven, we have no correspondence items being presented for consideration.

00:01:45 Speaker 01: So at eight a, we're starting with the Senior Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Operational Effectiveness, with regard to a report on Organisational Project Management.

00:01:54 Speaker 01: Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

00:01:55 Speaker 01: So I'm very happy to bring this report forward.

00:02:04 Speaker 02: This is regarding Project 5A1, which was to implement a project management system, and this was really to replace the variety of Microsoft Excel-based processes, PDF forms,

00:02:16 Speaker 02: and Word documents that we currently use to move to a more comprehensive process.

00:02:21 Speaker 02: So back in April of 2024, staff had brought forward a report about that we were going to undergo a procurement process to select a system.

00:02:29 Speaker 02: We utilised a cross-functional team, and we awarded to Solution Guidance Corporation for a software solution called Project Team.

00:02:37 Speaker 02: Project Team is a cloud-based project management software, and it really enables a connected, collabourated model, allowing staff to be able to work in one shared system where permissions, workflow, and data definitions are standardized.

00:02:50 Speaker 02: And this allows us to consolidate information without rekeying.

00:02:55 Speaker 02: Since fall of 2024, staff have been working with SGC to customize the system to create digital versions of standard forms currently used, and these forms really reduce the duplication of information.

00:03:07 Speaker 02: The system also has automatic workflows to enable the sharing of information with team members and others throughout the organisation.

00:03:13 Speaker 02: We've also developed over twenty reports in order to pull information on both individual reports and multiple projects at one time.

00:03:21 Speaker 02: By streamlining into one system, staff estimate that they will save 100 hours on compiling alone data for reports.

00:03:30 Speaker 02: The Project Team system will house capital detail sheets, project charters, procurement plans, drawings, anything that relates to a project.

00:03:37 Speaker 02: Over the next month, we're going to shift into the implementation phase of the project.

00:03:42 Speaker 02: That phase is expected to go until June of next year, and we expect over the next two months that staff will really begin to fully use the system.

00:03:51 Speaker 02: That we're going to use the system to complement the creation of 2026 work plans, and this will enable the creation of an annual operational plan or business plan,

00:03:59 Speaker 02: which will provide a holistic view of all projects being undertaken by the city in 2026.

00:04:05 Speaker 02: Throughout the implementation phase, staff will continue to assess how the system is performing and making adjustments based on feedback from users.

00:04:12 Speaker 02: In addition, throughout the implementation phase, staff will be working to map out next steps to expand the utilization, including how we collabourate with our external entities like consultants and contractors on projects,

00:04:24 Speaker 02: as well as potential to integrate with other systems to create a unified system where data flows seamlessly between platforms, enhancing efficiency and reducing the risk of data inconsistency.

00:04:36 Speaker 02: I will say this implementation marks a milestone in modernizing our project management capabilities.

00:04:41 Speaker 02: By transitioning to this, the city is poised to improve collabouration, enhance quality, and accessibility of project data,

00:04:48 Speaker 02: and aligns with the current operational strategies that sets a foundation for efficient and effective service delivery that supports broad organisational goals.

00:04:57 Speaker 02: A continued focus on integration and collabouration with external partners will drive further efficiencies.

00:05:03 Speaker 02: I'm happy to take any questions you have at this time.

00:05:06 Speaker 02: Questions, Mary?

00:05:08 Speaker 02: Just a few comments.

00:05:11 Speaker 03: This is a wow thing to me.

00:05:14 Speaker 03: I just can't believe how technology comes ahead.

00:05:18 Speaker 03: Anyways, are we new at the?

00:05:20 Speaker 03: Are we one of the first people to grab onto something like this, or is it a worthy pilot at AMCTO or anything like that,

00:05:29 Speaker 03: or is it are we just kind of following along other municipalities?

00:05:35 Speaker 02: So, Mayor Boddy, I think it varies.

00:05:37 Speaker 02: We're definitely not one of the first to use a project management system.

00:05:40 Speaker 02: There's lots of various project management systems out there.

00:05:43 Speaker 02: Lots of different tools.

00:05:44 Speaker 02: A lot of municipalities, depending on size, mostly I would say larger municipalities utilise systems similar to this.

00:05:51 Speaker 02: Smaller municipalities, I'm not sure that as many of them use.

00:05:58 Speaker 04: I recall Barry developing their own about ten or twelve years ago, and they were going to peddle it out to other municipalities, but they never quite got there.

00:06:07 Speaker 04: So it's bigger municipalities have been ahead of us.

00:06:12 Speaker 04: Questions?

00:06:12 Speaker 04: Yep.

00:06:14 Speaker 04: Thanks, three mayor.

00:06:15 Speaker 04: Amazing!

00:06:17 Speaker 04: So happy that we're doing this.

00:06:19 Speaker 05: So beyond the savings that we're going to see in staff time, I see that there's going to be approximately 25,000 a year in cost, as far as operational costs.

00:06:29 Speaker 05: Are we retiring any other systems because we're bringing this in that we would be saving on the cost that we might have had a subscription for those?

00:06:37 Speaker 05: Do you know?

00:06:41 Speaker 02: Through your body, I would say at this point we're not retiring any other systems that we currently use because we currently, for project management, don't use a system.

00:06:51 Speaker 02: It's very manual.

00:06:53 Speaker 02: When I say manual, I mean we use digital PDFs and Word documents and Excel-based forms for that.

00:06:59 Speaker 02: So there really isn't another system that we're replacing with it to offset those operational dollars.

00:07:06 Speaker 02: I anticipate that as we move forward, you know, there's the current budgeting system implementation that's ongoing.

00:07:14 Speaker 02: There's also the upgrade to PURL from Worktech for our work order system.

00:07:20 Speaker 02: You know, I think as we move down the road and look at how our systems all integrate together, but I don't know that there will be savings based on user costs for licensing.

00:07:34 Speaker 06: No, my question is, I feel like you have.

00:07:36 Speaker 06: I feel like you haven't yet seen a whole lot of the savings in staff time because you're really targeting more the implementation in 2026.

00:07:45 Speaker 06: Could you just comment on what you've seen so far, or maybe what you expect to see, and when it's more expectant to see savings in staff time?

00:07:54 Speaker 06: Because, like, the councillor just said, it's a 25,000 dollar year subscription.

00:08:01 Speaker 06: I guess there's a vulnerability you come; you become very dependent on one software provider.

00:08:08 Speaker 06: What kind of maneuverability might you have down the road if you had to switch gears per se?

00:08:17 Speaker 06: It's tough to get locked into the software providers, but yeah, like for 100 hours a week or 100 hours per year in savings,

00:08:29 Speaker 06: that's still quite a ways removed from 25,000 dollars a year in subscription fees,

00:08:35 Speaker 06: so if you could just comment a bit more when you think you'll really see those savings in terms of staff time and what it looks like, Michelle.

00:08:42 Speaker 06: Thanks.

00:08:44 Speaker 02: Sure.

00:08:44 Speaker 02: So, in terms of the 100 hours that we identified in the staff time and savings, that's purely when we compile for the capital project update.

00:08:52 Speaker 02: So, with our current practice, we have staff that create.

00:08:55 Speaker 02: There's a PDF form that we utilise, and for every capital project, a staff person goes in and creates the data within that PDF form, and then it goes to budget staff,

00:09:04 Speaker 02: and they compile all those forms into creating a presentation that comes to council.

00:09:09 Speaker 02: That's alone.

00:09:11 Speaker 02: Now we create that in the system, and for them, instead of compiling manually, they literally are pushing six buttons to pull that together.

00:09:20 Speaker 02: So we had hoped that we were going to implement about a month ago, and so that we would be able to use it for this December update for capital.

00:09:27 Speaker 02: We weren't ready with the configuring and with showing staff the overview of a system.

00:09:30 Speaker 02: It's a pretty big switch for staff, as you can imagine.

00:09:33 Speaker 02: It's a new system; it's a brand new way, even though it's the same data that they're dealing with.

00:09:38 Speaker 02: And making sure they have enough time to feel comfortable with that system—that we're not rushing them, and that we're allowing for that change management piece—is really important.

00:09:46 Speaker 02: So I expect that when we do the capital update in June, is where we'll really realize those savings on compiling those reports.

00:09:53 Speaker 02: But I think it goes broader and beyond that.

00:09:56 Speaker 02: The more we look at how the system can utilise workflows, so one example in the system is currently we have a change order on a project.

00:10:04 Speaker 02: I'll just walk through a simple example.

00:10:07 Speaker 02: We always have change orders on projects.

00:10:09 Speaker 02: Always you're decreasing, you're increasing.

00:10:11 Speaker 02: Currently, that's a very manual process.

00:10:13 Speaker 02: A contractor will submit to the consultant.

00:10:16 Speaker 02: The consultant submits to the project lead.

00:10:18 Speaker 02: That piece of paper then goes to a department head.

00:10:20 Speaker 02: That piece of paper then goes to procurement.

00:10:23 Speaker 02: They look then if it's within the procurement thresholds, whether they need to have a report come to council.

00:10:26 Speaker 02: Then it.

00:10:27 Speaker 02: The council, then it goes back.

00:10:29 Speaker 02: Then they do the report process if that's applicable.

00:10:31 Speaker 02: Then that piece of paper goes back.

00:10:33 Speaker 02: Then they have the vendor execute.

00:10:34 Speaker 02: Then they go back to the vendor.

00:10:36 Speaker 02: Lots of emails flying around.

00:10:38 Speaker 02: Lots of pieces of paper flying around.

00:10:40 Speaker 02: There's a lot of room for things to get missed with this system in the future because we're not having contractors in the system at this point.

00:10:47 Speaker 02: But this is one of the things we want to look at through the implementation phase.

00:10:50 Speaker 02: Is the contractors will actually submit?

00:10:53 Speaker 02: They do all the data entry for the change order in the system.

00:10:55 Speaker 02: Then there's an automatic workflow that flows that to the project lead for review.

00:11:00 Speaker 02: They approve it.

00:11:01 Speaker 02: They flow it to procurement.

00:11:03 Speaker 02: Procurement does that review.

00:11:04 Speaker 02: They automatically workflow that to the department head for approval.

00:11:08 Speaker 02: It stops if there's a report to council is needed because that's still a separate process.

00:11:12 Speaker 02: And then we automatically approve it and it goes to the vendor for notification.

00:11:16 Speaker 02: So just in terms of making sure we have accurate data flowing, I think is one of the big efficiencies with this system that we'll see.

00:11:26 Speaker 06: I think that's a great example because a few years ago I heard commented to me about the difference between the efficiency and change order approvals between Owen Sound and between another municipality not so greatly

00:11:41 Speaker 06: removed from us.

00:11:42 Speaker 06: So I think that's a terrific example that you just use in terms of enhancing maybe our level of competitiveness but just the efficiency because I know they.

00:11:52 Speaker 06: Because I know that software provider, it appears their roots are in engineering projects, right?

00:11:59 Speaker 06: So that's organically they've grown from major construction projects, and that's how they work.

00:12:08 Speaker 06: It's time is of the essence, and they look for ways to speed things up.

00:12:14 Speaker 06: So thanks, Michelle.

00:12:17 Speaker 02: If I could just add maybe one more point, I think this is a really good example too of things like as-built drawings.

00:12:25 Speaker 02: So with the system, the contractor would submit their as-built drawings through the system.

00:12:29 Speaker 02: We could mark up in the system, send back to them.

00:12:33 Speaker 02: As you think of now, how we're sending with emails and back and forth and chasing.

00:12:37 Speaker 02: It's a much more streamlined approach to project management.

00:12:40 Speaker 02: It is a good point.

00:12:42 Speaker 02: This system is built for construction projects.

00:12:45 Speaker 02: That is really what it was built for.

00:12:46 Speaker 02: So part of the reason why we spent the last year configuring is because we want to use it not only for construction projects; we want to use it for all projects.

00:12:54 Speaker 02: So, making sure the system can do that for us required some work.

00:13:00 Speaker 02: Okay, need a motion.

00:13:02 Speaker 02: I'll move the recommendation.

00:13:06 Speaker 02: Okay.

00:13:06 Speaker 02: Any other questions?

00:13:07 Speaker 04: Seeing none.

00:13:08 Speaker 04: Call the question on favour, and that is carried.

00:13:13 Speaker 04: Next is eight B from the Director of Community Services, being Park Service Levels Report 2: Draft River District Service Levels.

00:13:29 Speaker 04: Good morning.

00:13:36 Speaker 07: So, just to go back, Service Review had 49 initiatives, and this project falls under the third theme, examining service delivery, and the project is to undertake a review of the classification of parks,

00:13:50 Speaker 07: as well as the service levels for each.

00:13:55 Speaker 07: So, the scope of this project is large, and our approach has been to tackle it by dividing it into parts.

00:14:01 Speaker 07: So, recall that the first report last December updated the inventory and composition of the park classification, and you approved a 10-minute walking distance, about 800 metres,

00:14:14 Speaker 07: as a target offset for neighbourhood parks as well as playgrounds, so that will be formalized in the next update to the Rec Parks and Facilities Master Plan.

00:14:26 Speaker 07: So, with that update to park classification and park inventory data, we'd identified a bunch of next steps in that December report, and we talked about continuing to collect park infrastructure and tree-related data.

00:14:42 Speaker 07: Having that accurate inventory is really important.

00:14:45 Speaker 07: Integrating with asset management, carrying out plan condition assessments, as well as generating levels of service for key assets.

00:14:54 Speaker 07: So that sort of brings us to today.

00:14:59 Speaker 07: In terms of the park asset collection throughout 2025, we've been working hard on collecting park infrastructure and updating tree-related data.

00:15:08 Speaker 07: That was integrated into the asset management plan recently approved by council, so the tree inventory is nearly 75 percent complete.

00:15:18 Speaker 07: We have the area in the northwest quadrant of the city, north of 16th Street West, left to do, and work has been done on condition assessments for trails, playgrounds, the Kwanascape Park,

00:15:31 Speaker 07: as well as Duncan McClellan, to help inform that eventual capital project.

00:15:40 Speaker 07: So parks are sort of big.

00:15:42 Speaker 07: There's 45 parks and 5,200 assets in those parks.

00:15:47 Speaker 07: So the approach to service levels was: we thought, how do we tackle this?

00:15:52 Speaker 07: Let's divide it into functional areas.

00:15:55 Speaker 07: So within parks, we've said we've got parks, and that's everything from turf to playground to washrooms to pools.

00:16:03 Speaker 07: And then there's winter control, arboriculture, or urban forestry, cemetrey services, and river districts.

00:16:09 Speaker 07: And River District.

00:16:10 Speaker 07: So our focus today is on River District.

00:16:17 Speaker 07: Parks is staffed with a manager who provides that operational and capital support, the strategic guidance to the operations, and then is the key person for implementing capital work.

00:16:29 Speaker 07: The supervisor who is there, our boots on the ground, visits staff every day, and then we also have the cemetrey administrator.

00:16:37 Speaker 07: Administrative person who really coordinates every aspect of that cemetrey business, including attending the interment services.

00:16:48 Speaker 07: So, a few key points in terms of the parks functional areas: we've got a lot of services that are offered in a big way in the summertime,

00:17:00 Speaker 07: and then scaled back during winter months to reflect not only our capacity but also our reduced need for service.

00:17:07 Speaker 07: So, for example, garbage.

00:17:10 Speaker 07: There's less garbage cans in parks, and so that can be scaled back.

00:17:14 Speaker 07: Facility cleaning.

00:17:15 Speaker 07: We simply have less washrooms to clean because they're closed in the winter.

00:17:20 Speaker 07: So, in most cases, there's five staff full time in parks.

00:17:28 Speaker 07: Two in the cemetrey.

00:17:31 Speaker 07: Of the five in parks, two work in forestry.

00:17:34 Speaker 07: One gardener, and then two parks labourers.

00:17:38 Speaker 07: So most of that staff, you know, thinking back to that list of the sort of the parks roles, don't get to be specialized in any one area.

00:17:50 Speaker 07: They work across the board, save and except the arborist, which we really try to keep focused with 100 percent of their time on forestry, given the backlog of work in that area.

00:18:07 Speaker 07: So the previous service review reports, the one that the City Manager prepared in the summertime, anticipated certain efficiencies and streamlining between Public Works and Parks.

00:18:20 Speaker 07: Recall the notion of those shared positions, and that will come forward as part of budget, and really this effort to maximize coordination and efficiency.

00:18:29 Speaker 07: So hopefully you see that today.

00:18:33 Speaker 07: So this report presents the draft service level for the River District,

00:18:38 Speaker 07: and your feedback on this first service area will allow for us to refine these service areas or this service area document and inform the remaining service areas.

00:18:51 Speaker 07: So some important things to think about for the River District: it was established by City Council in 1978 under the authority of the Municipal Act.

00:19:00 Speaker 07: So that's sort of the governance structure that we're working within.

00:19:05 Speaker 07: The mission of the River District is to develop a vibrant and sustainable business, cultural, and residential community by supporting initiatives that improve, beautify, and promote the River District.

00:19:16 Speaker 07: So the legislation is pretty clear on what a River District Board can do.

00:19:22 Speaker 07: Obviously, there's oversight by that nine-member board.

00:19:26 Speaker 07: We have the agreement between the city and the board, that partnership agreement that governs our relationship and outlines our responsibilities, and then we have the River District Action Plan.

00:19:40 Speaker 07: Those four pillars that really go back to the mission or the mandate of the board: branding, River District management, experience development, and then promotion.

00:19:52 Speaker 07: In terms of our current staffing, right now we divide responsibility between Parks and Public Works seasonally, so during the summer months, Parks provides most of the services.

00:20:04 Speaker 07: So seven days a week watering, five days a week litter picking, six to seven days of picking up improperly disposed of waste, the waste collection of the cans.

00:20:18 Speaker 07: There's 62 cans on the streets that's done five days a week June till September, and then three days a week other times of year.

00:20:26 Speaker 07: Within the River District, there's also 17 cans that Parks empties, and those are primarily in parks, the Queens Park area, Jervis Bay, and other places.

00:20:39 Speaker 07: So during the winter months, Public Works is then responsible from November 1st.

00:20:44 Speaker 07: So they do the snow removal at the corners, the mid-block crossings, snow removal in municipal lots, removing banks on the street as required, and then litter picking, weather permitting.

00:21:00 Speaker 07: The combined cost of that effort for staff time is one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars, and I think Kate, that was using two thousand and twenty-four, our last full year.

00:21:10 Speaker 07: Yeah.

00:21:12 Speaker 07: So the draft service level document for the River District is attached.

00:21:16 Speaker 07: It includes waste collection and litter control, street and sidewalk cleaning, beautification, general maintenance, safety and security, as well as what I would call reactive services.

00:21:27 Speaker 07: So each of the charts includes the task, the service level or frequency, and then who is responsible for that work.

00:21:39 Speaker 07: There's then a number of actions under four real themes to ensure the area is clean and beautiful and well maintained.

00:21:48 Speaker 07: So the first one: human resources, fleet resources, asset management, and then communication, education, and partnerships.

00:21:56 Speaker 07: So, the first, working with my colleague in Public Works and Engineering, we're recommending that we modify the Parks and Public Works responsibility.

00:22:06 Speaker 07: And rather than dividing the work seasonally among the groups, Public Works would be responsible for maintenance, including sidewalk area within the street, on a year-round basis.

00:22:16 Speaker 07: With Parks then responsible for horticulture, arboriculture, watering the planters, the baskets, and banners would be the responsibility of Parks.

00:22:29 Speaker 07: We've talked about the City Manager had presented the notion of revising the role of the River District project lead, and then also you'll see in the draft service level increasing the frequency of sidewalk washing.

00:22:44 Speaker 07: It's something that creates a lot of complaints, and if we do it each month, June till September, should be an improvement.

00:22:54 Speaker 07: In terms of fleet resources, this is really about making sure that we have the right tools for staff to do the jobs efficiently.

00:23:02 Speaker 07: In two thousand and twenty-five, we trialed a power sidewalk sweeper.

00:23:06 Speaker 07: It's like a street sweeper only; it's for sidewalks.

00:23:10 Speaker 07: It's one hundred and twenty thousand dollars approximately.

00:23:14 Speaker 07: And I'm certainly under no illusion that we don't need a full business case, and that that would need to be part of the overall fleet strategy and capital budget.

00:23:24 Speaker 07: But so that's something I think we need to study further.

00:23:27 Speaker 07: But making sure staff have the right equipment: power equipment, power sweepers, blowers, and vacuums that help them do the job efficiently.

00:23:38 Speaker 07: Asset management.

00:23:40 Speaker 07: Michelle talked about the Pearl WorkTech system, but integrating; mentioned there are 5,200 assets in Parks.

00:23:48 Speaker 07: Attachment one has the assets in the River District.

00:23:52 Speaker 07: There's an amazing number of them, and that doesn't include the linear infrastructure in that area.

00:23:58 Speaker 07: But ensuring regular inspection, generating work orders, and then maintenance of those assets to extend their life.

00:24:08 Speaker 07: So, in terms of communication, education, and partnerships, working with our communications advisors to have a consistent and reliable approach to tracking issues,

00:24:22 Speaker 07: so including the QR code that would take you to the report a concern function, perhaps in strategic locations within the area.

00:24:32 Speaker 07: Expanding the role of the public, so you know, just encouraging store owners to be part of the solution in terms of maintaining cleanliness.

00:24:43 Speaker 07: Engaging volunteer groups, using our carts, and other initiatives around stewardship, education on who to call, so making sure people know who it is to call and how to get a hold of someone.

00:24:59 Speaker 07: So staff are working on that currently.

00:25:02 Speaker 07: Updating bylaw enforcement and the regulatory framework, so Council will make a decision at the time of budget about additional staffing for bylaw, but also updating several bylaws to improve enforceability and compliance.

00:25:20 Speaker 07: Continuing to work and support partnerships, so Police Services plays a really big role in terms of having a visible presence and contributing to a safe and thriving downtown.

00:25:35 Speaker 07: But other social services, Grey County, and the recent launch of the Social Navigator will be a real positive, and looking forward to sort of the review of that project.

00:25:48 Speaker 07: And then, lastly, in that theme or bucket, updating the River District Action Plan.

00:25:54 Speaker 07: And there's a report to River District later this month on the sort of approach and methodology for updating that plan, but that will be done by staff.

00:26:03 Speaker 07: So the recommendation is really that you receive the report, the draft service level.

00:26:09 Speaker 07: Is there?

00:26:09 Speaker 07: Happy to have your feedback on.

00:26:12 Speaker 07: This is not what I thought a service level might look like.

00:26:15 Speaker 07: For the next one, we'd like it to include something else.

00:26:19 Speaker 07: Certainly happy for that feedback as this is the first of several of these.

00:26:25 Speaker 03: Council, Marian, question on the banners and the no-ma-lights.

00:26:31 Speaker 03: Who currently puts those up and takes them down, and is that continuing?

00:26:38 Speaker 07: Through you, Your Worship, the banners and lights are put up by Parks staff, and yes, that would continue.

00:26:43 Speaker 07: It is part of our agreement with the River District Board, and Parks would continue to do that.

00:26:50 Speaker 03: But they need to borrow the equipment from Works.

00:26:52 Speaker 03: Is that correct?

00:26:55 Speaker 07: With ours, it used to be that we used the bucket truck to do that.

00:26:59 Speaker 07: But if we tally up the number of days of the year where the bucket truck was doing other things and that staff...

00:27:04 Speaker 07: Things in that staff, with the backlog of trees, we've really been focused on letting the two qualified and skilled arborists work in that area.

00:27:14 Speaker 07: So we use a scissor lift to do those banners.

00:27:17 Speaker 07: We do usually do a media release and do sort of roll enclosures throughout the week, first thing in the morning.

00:27:24 Speaker 07: But no, we don't have to borrow any equipment.

00:27:27 Speaker 07: It, it... we do rent a piece of equipment, but the City doesn't have a scissor lift.

00:27:36 Speaker 05: Thank you, through your Worship.

00:27:37 Speaker 05: So basically, this report is just telling us what the service levels are and have been traditionally going forward.

00:27:46 Speaker 05: Like, there's no changes identified in this service report.

00:27:50 Speaker 05: Is that right?

00:27:52 Speaker 07: Through your Worship, there are some changes in terms of staff responsibilities and efficiencies.

00:27:59 Speaker 07: I would say there are some changes in the street washing.

00:28:03 Speaker 07: The other sort of the four buckets of recommendations, those are things that we're either doing or we hope to have in place to have a positive impact on the River District.

00:28:18 Speaker 07: The service level tried to articulate what are the assets we have to maintain and how do we look after them, but for the most part, for the River District,

00:28:30 Speaker 07: and I think you'll start to see as more areas come forward where we can modify service levels, or have you weigh in on well, is that really what we want to do?

00:28:48 Speaker 07: Can we cut the grass less often on a Class C sports field versus an A?

00:28:54 Speaker 07: But given the agreements and the expectation around the River District, it's hard to really recommend reductions in that service as opposed to enhancements.

00:29:05 Speaker 05: Definitely, and that was going to be my question.

00:29:08 Speaker 05: My primary thought is on the garbage that builds up over the weekend in the summer.

00:29:15 Speaker 05: So I'm assuming that the five days a week garbage service is happening Monday to Friday.

00:29:21 Speaker 05: Is that correct?

00:29:25 Speaker 07: Through you, Your Worship, the garbage is right now picked up Monday to Friday.

00:29:32 Speaker 07: If there was a Saturday special event, we put out the red Parks cans, and we make sure Parks will pick those up on a Saturday or a Sunday.

00:29:41 Speaker 07: But for the most part, the Miller pickup is Monday to Friday.

00:29:48 Speaker 05: And those cans that are downtown, I can't remember if they have like bags in them or not, or like, are they do they pick up the can and dump it?

00:29:56 Speaker 05: Like, how does that process work?

00:29:57 Speaker 05: Is it something that could be done differently or manually to increase the service, maybe to six days a week, but not have an increased huge cost associated?

00:30:07 Speaker 05: Or is that not a thing?

00:30:10 Speaker 07: I think the City's Environmental Supervisor is looking at options in terms of waste collection in the River District, and we could cost out.

00:30:22 Speaker 07: You know, maybe Monday doesn't happen, but there's a Saturday pickup or something.

00:30:26 Speaker 07: But we can work with the director and the environmental supervisor on that if it's the wish of council.

00:30:39 Speaker 05: Okay, yeah, I think like my mom came in the summer and she was like so happy to see all the flowers and she thought our downtown was beautiful.

00:30:50 Speaker 05: So I think we're doing a good job.

00:30:52 Speaker 05: I think that there's always going to be challenges that we're faced with, like the garbage pickup.

00:30:57 Speaker 05: But I commend staff for the work that they do, and I'm happy to move the report.

00:31:09 Speaker 06: Just a couple thoughts, and I like there is so much information in this report, and I read through it and I'm like it's a nice update,

00:31:18 Speaker 06: but is the only thing that I'm taking away from this the fact that of this, the fact that we're just moving the responsibility for the summer months—spring, summer, fall—to Public Works instead of Parks.

00:31:32 Speaker 06: My only fear is the continuation of trying to do more and more and more and enhancing the level of service downtown, as it's no different than enhancing the level of service all across the city.

00:31:48 Speaker 06: If it's something we can't afford, it's something we can't afford.

00:31:52 Speaker 06: So, if Public Works undertakes it year round and it frees up Parks time, can I be certain that we are not going to undertake more banner switches, more light exchanges,

00:32:11 Speaker 06: things that then increase the workload on the other department on Parks because now Public Works is doing it over here?

00:32:19 Speaker 06: I do agree.

00:32:21 Speaker 06: Like we have, you staff are already responsive to special events in the downtown.

00:32:27 Speaker 06: But certainly, there's the occasional street party on Ninth Street last summer.

00:32:33 Speaker 06: I mean, I remember going by in the Sunday morning and being like, oh, they smoked.

00:32:36 Speaker 06: Everybody just go home at eleven o'clock when they decided they were tired and left it.

00:32:40 Speaker 06: Like it was awful.

00:32:42 Speaker 06: So there's the occasional incident where we need to respond more so.

00:32:50 Speaker 06: I'm just concerned with increasing the level of service, increasing the expectation more so.

00:32:58 Speaker 06: I'll just say it right here, Monday morning, so it's on the record.

00:33:03 Speaker 06: I personally don't think that sidewalk snowplow should be treating the streets after 8:30 in the morning when there's people going in and out of store doors, and I see it at 10 or 10:30.

00:33:15 Speaker 06: At ten or ten thirty, I think that is a tremendous danger and risk that should be avoided.

00:33:22 Speaker 06: So that's on the record.

00:33:26 Speaker 06: But that's an example too.

00:33:29 Speaker 06: Over time, we've added that level of service downtown.

00:33:34 Speaker 06: The recommendation has been removed, but one of the attachments is we're going to target a five percent improvement per year in bag tie compliance.

00:33:42 Speaker 06: Well, if our bag tie compliance is like thirteen percent or fourteen percent right now.

00:33:48 Speaker 06: We've set a timetable that is almost akin to the federal government's timetable to remove the deficit.

00:33:58 Speaker 06: Like, so we'll be at a whopping fourteen point seven percent next year.

00:34:03 Speaker 06: Like, I'm just wondering, can we be a little bit more aggressive with some of these items?

00:34:10 Speaker 06: And that one, when I'm reading through it, I'm like, I'm not sure why it's even there.

00:34:15 Speaker 06: If we have the resources in here, and we're looking at increasing our bylaw contingent, sometimes you get a response by just communicating.

00:34:26 Speaker 06: Finally, getting a hold of the landlords and really communicating well what the needs and the expectations are.

00:34:34 Speaker 06: So I guess throughout all this, my only concern was: Is there anything here that is still heightening our response to the downtown and increasing levels of service?

00:34:47 Speaker 06: It's tough to afford it.

00:34:50 Speaker 06: I'm with Melanie.

00:34:51 Speaker 06: I had a lady come in to our business Thanksgiving weekend.

00:34:56 Speaker 06: She was from Toronto and Thornberry came downtown to Owen Sound.

00:34:59 Speaker 06: She's never been here before, and she commented, "You have a beautiful downtown."

00:35:06 Speaker 06: So we hear all we hear lots of flack, but that's the flip side.

00:35:10 Speaker 06: That's what I constantly hear: is the public and the visitors to our community are very, very much recognize the hard work of parks and public works in maintaining what is a very desirable downtown.

00:35:26 Speaker 06: For the most part, the socio-economic issues are prevalent everywhere.

00:35:31 Speaker 06: But you do already do a strong job.

00:35:34 Speaker 06: I just want to make sure it's clear that that's recognized, and we're not placing an expectation on staff that you need to go 15 or 20 percent beyond that yet.

00:35:45 Speaker 06: Because a, I don't think we can afford it, and b, the silent majority sometimes needs to be recognized, and often there's, I think a lot of majority when they visit our community,

00:35:58 Speaker 06: recognize it for what it is, and that's a really wonderful asset.

00:36:02 Speaker 06: Oh, and one other thing, if Christina could go back to page eight in that slide deck or one more,

00:36:15 Speaker 06: I think that exhibits why a tree belongs on the liability side of the balance sheet and not the asset side of the column.

00:36:25 Speaker 06: Right there, yeah, that's not done for a hundred dollars.

00:36:34 Speaker 06: Those are my comments.

00:36:42 Speaker 07: And certainly, I appreciate the positive comments and reflections on the river district.

00:36:48 Speaker 07: Our goal, I think, between the director of public works and engineering and mine, in terms of clarifying the responsibilities, we would have public works and parks in the summer picking up stuff, mattresses,

00:37:03 Speaker 07: big things off the street.

00:37:04 Speaker 07: That so this will give clear responsibility to one group.

00:37:09 Speaker 07: So we're not going to have two groups chasing their tail.

00:37:12 Speaker 07: Staff will know who to refer the complaints to.

00:37:15 Speaker 07: There won't be: Is it after November first, or is it who's in charge?

00:37:19 Speaker 07: You know who's responsible.

00:37:24 Speaker 07: I also understand and certainly appreciate the resource issue having less maintenance for parks to do won't mean we're doing more things.

00:37:36 Speaker 07: It will, and I think this will become clearer.

00:37:39 Speaker 07: I hope as the other service levels.

00:37:41 Speaker 07: And I wish we could have brought you twenty of these all at once, but it's just it's a large body of work to get these ready to bring forward.

00:37:49 Speaker 07: But I think you'll see that theme that it will allow us to get to some things that we're maybe missing right now that are a concern.

00:37:57 Speaker 03: So on these reports, we used to get identification of who was on the team that worked on this, and I'm just curious to know if there were park staff and work staff on this.

00:38:14 Speaker 07: That's a great question.

00:38:16 Speaker 07: So, Laura and I worked on this together on a couple of the service levels that you don't have here.

00:38:23 Speaker 07: We've met with cemetrey staff.

00:38:25 Speaker 07: We met with the Arbors and Eckert Pastrik, our manager of Parks and Open Space, has been working on this project along with myself and Lara.

00:38:41 Speaker 08: Thank you.

00:38:41 Speaker 08: Through you, Mayor.

00:38:43 Speaker 08: Yeah, the director just sort of took some of my words as one of the main things about this service level is clarity of role identification.

00:38:51 Speaker 08: Because no fault I don't think of any particular staff or manager or director, but people change, and when you have conversations at maybe it's a superintendent or a lead hand or staff that, oh,

00:39:06 Speaker 08: we'll just run down and pick that up, and that all of a sudden then becomes sort of a service level.

00:39:10 Speaker 08: But having this clarity should bring a lot of efficiency to things also.

00:39:14 Speaker 08: And as far as I don't disagree, Deputy Mayor, with improving the metric of you know five percent improvement in bag tags, if we're at twelve or thirteen percent.

00:39:26 Speaker 08: now, that's going to take a few years.

00:39:28 Speaker 08: But I just remind this committee, as we talk about not enhancing, not potentially enhancing services,

00:39:36 Speaker 08: like our operations committee later this month is going to have a tough conversation around recycling and a $65,000 potential price tag for offering that just for the downtown.

00:39:45 Speaker 08: So again, when you talk about looking at the full picture of things, there's a river district service level that's being proposed, but again,

00:39:54 Speaker 08: there's other side things that will go to operations committee again about recycling, which the province has put us into that position.

00:40:01 Speaker 08: It wasn't.

00:40:02 Speaker 08: This is not a self-inflicted wound.

00:40:03 Speaker 08: This is a provincial decision that is now being layered onto every municipality in the province.

00:40:09 Speaker 08: And in our situation, we're going to be dealing with a sixty-five thousand dollar issue just for the downtown,

00:40:16 Speaker 08: or a hundred and twenty thousand dollar recycling issue across the whole city that will go nowhere except to the bottom line of the budget.

00:40:24 Speaker 08: So anyhow, just keeping that in mind for the committee.

00:40:30 Speaker 03: I had one more.

00:40:31 Speaker 03: Sorry, I forgot.

00:40:32 Speaker 03: Are we dealing with two different unions with parks and public works?

00:40:37 Speaker 03: Are they all the same union?

00:40:39 Speaker 03: Same.

00:40:39 Speaker 03: Thanks.

00:40:43 Speaker 06: And just quickly, probably Councillor Dodd would ask this question because in the previous lifetime he had worked on some of those River Precinct DIA jobs.

00:40:52 Speaker 06: Can you just speak to what role the River Precinct still contributes beyond that one sole staff resource that they're paying for?

00:41:02 Speaker 06: That's mentioned in this report because there's a history there.

00:41:07 Speaker 07: Yeah, that's a great question, and the agreement that I referenced.

00:41:12 Speaker 07: I think just off the top of my head, the River District budget allocates about twenty-five thousand five hundred dollars.

00:41:21 Speaker 07: to maintenance beautification.

00:41:23 Speaker 07: So they pay for part of the flowers, they support the watering and the maintenance, and the total of that support, real dollars, is twenty-five thousand five hundred dollars.

00:41:37 Speaker 06: Are you able to leverage that resource in any way to recognize that?

00:41:45 Speaker 06: I mean, if we onboard summer students, it's a lower cost on the hour than full-time staff.

00:41:53 Speaker 06: Full-time staff are also if you're probably needing their resources in the weekend, you're maybe risking incurring overtime or scheduling challenges.

00:42:04 Speaker 06: Are you able to leverage like the summertime student to support those weekend needs where there's concerns and the report of concern is overflowing as much as the garbage bins may be,

00:42:17 Speaker 06: and utilise that as a resource at a lesser cost?

00:42:22 Speaker 07: I wonder if my colleague wants to talk about her approach to the maintenance staffing.

00:42:27 Speaker 07: But I would just note that the watering and that is done by students and seasonals, so that allows us that flexibility for weekend work.

00:42:39 Speaker 07: Through the mayor, could you repeat the question?

00:42:47 Speaker 09: I just want to make sure that I address exactly what you were asking.

00:42:52 Speaker 06: Well, the question essentially was: Have you resources at twenty-three dollars an hour, as opposed to thirty-nine or forty-two dollars an hour, that could respond to these weekend concerns?

00:43:07 Speaker 06: I just wouldn't want to have you set up to be always needing the thirty-nine or forty-two dollars an hour.

00:43:13 Speaker 06: Forty-two dollars an hour or more, if you're risking overtime to respond to some of those concerns, if it can be done at lower cost.

00:43:23 Speaker 06: Thank you for that, through the chair.

00:43:27 Speaker 09: We don't.

00:43:29 Speaker 09: Public Works traditionally does not get summer students.

00:43:34 Speaker 09: We do have a summer on-call rotation.

00:43:39 Speaker 09: Granted, there are so many events during the summer that there are often reasons for that for that on-call person to be on duty during the course of the weekend anyway.

00:43:50 Speaker 09: So, some of these things could be you know if there's a call after that they could I don't know quickly go and look at certain things.

00:44:01 Speaker 09: We haven't really fleshed that out yet.

00:44:03 Speaker 09: That being said, to directly answer your question, we do not have summer students.

00:44:07 Speaker 09: That doesn't mean that we couldn't look at that, but that is not a resource that we have in our department.

00:44:19 Speaker 01: My comments are similar to August.

00:44:21 Speaker 01: Everyone's but but Scott's transferring city responsibility between one department and another is fine.

00:44:33 Speaker 01: There's a heck of a lot of responsibility that used to be the building owners and the store owners that we keep.

00:44:40 Speaker 01: They're not doing it.

00:44:43 Speaker 01: We pick it up.

00:44:45 Speaker 01: Clearly, our core, our downtown area, our river district, is important.

00:44:51 Speaker 01: Like when you look at other municipalities, like downtown London, that we've been in for Amos, that is gone.

00:45:01 Speaker 01: Places like Sudbury, places like Barry, that are calling emergencies to deal with their downtown.

00:45:09 Speaker 01: We're in great shape because we put in such an effort, and it's important to put in that effort.

00:45:14 Speaker 01: It's important to keep our downtown beautiful.

00:45:16 Speaker 01: It's important because, contrary to what you might read in social media, we're doing extremely well.

00:45:23 Speaker 01: As you say, you've had people in the store, you've had people in the store that say that.

00:45:28 Speaker 01: So I'm, I get why we do what we do and why it's important, but somehow we need to push back onto the business owners, their responsibility.

00:45:40 Speaker 01: I've said this a hundred times.

00:45:42 Speaker 01: When I was growing up, my dad's store.

00:45:43 Speaker 01: We had to clean the front of the store every morning.

00:45:46 Speaker 01: We swept the street.

00:45:47 Speaker 01: Every Saturday morning, we washed windows and washed the street.

00:45:50 Speaker 01: The next door neighbour was out of business.

00:45:53 Speaker 01: We washed his windows and cleaned the street because it reflected on us.

00:46:00 Speaker 01: And when we're seeing couches and mattresses and stuff heading.

00:46:04 Speaker 01: And stuff hitting Main Street, hitting Second Avenue.

00:46:10 Speaker 01: There's somebody that's being irresponsible there, and we're trying to pick up the cost of it.

00:46:16 Speaker 01: We are picking up the cost, but to pick it up, to be responsible for their irresponsibility.

00:46:22 Speaker 01: There's at some point we need to put that pressure back on the building owners to look after it.

00:46:28 Speaker 01: If they're going to put out garbage, at least couldn't they put it out in First Avenue at the back door?

00:46:32 Speaker 01: And I guess that's sort of stupid.

00:46:33 Speaker 01: After we've just put millions of dollars into cleaning up the back, what I'm still calling the back alley, but First Avenue.

00:46:42 Speaker 01: But right now, there's still more traffic on Second Avenue on Main Street, and that's where we're seeing all the garbage coming out.

00:46:50 Speaker 01: At some point, I think the landlords need to become responsible for that cost if we're going to add that service.

00:46:57 Speaker 01: A few years ago, because we had a lot of vacancies on Main Street, absentee building owners that weren't cleaning up the street, they weren't hiring somebody.

00:47:13 Speaker 01: Instead of finding them, we decided that we'd run the plow down Main Street.

00:47:17 Speaker 01: Now we've got a lot of those storefronts that are filled back in.

00:47:20 Speaker 01: That some of them could be more responsible.

00:47:22 Speaker 01: I know you tried to give out brooms this year to get people.

00:47:26 Speaker 01: And there's times even at the park across from Tim Hortons where some of them were cleaning it up and then the brooms kept disappearing.

00:47:33 Speaker 01: They went wherever they went, went for a flight, perhaps.

00:47:38 Speaker 01: I'm just with Scott that I'm concerned that we keep adding services that we can't take back,

00:47:45 Speaker 01: and we're adding costs that we can't take back to be responsible for things that other people should be responsible for.

00:47:53 Speaker 01: But anyway, with regard to transfer between one department and the other, it makes sense.

00:47:58 Speaker 01: I'm just always concerned that we enhance services when we shouldn't.

00:48:02 Speaker 01: Mary.

00:48:04 Speaker 03: Further to your point, Your Worship, at what time do we add the expense of things back onto the taxpayer in those areas?

00:48:15 Speaker 07: The snow removal.

00:48:16 Speaker 07: So whether they're doing sidewalks on Fifth Street or in the River District, that's part of the city's tax-supported operations.

00:48:26 Speaker 07: You're right.

00:48:26 Speaker 07: I think it was around two thousand and eighteen.

00:48:29 Speaker 07: The sidewalk plow didn't used to come downtown, and then there was the arrangement with the River District that it would make one pass early in the morning.

00:48:39 Speaker 07: With that, it didn't relieve the store owners from the responsibility.

00:48:44 Speaker 07: And as the mayor pointed out, there's stores like Fullfords, Coats and Best, Inside Ideas.

00:48:50 Speaker 07: They're out there every morning, sweeping off the space, doing the snow lawns.

00:48:56 Speaker 07: Lawsons—they do a tremendous job of snow removal.

00:48:59 Speaker 07: But in the theme around communication, education, and partnerships, this is exactly what we're talking about: trying to leverage the enthusiasm and support of the people who live down here,

00:49:12 Speaker 07: but also own buildings and have stores to be part of that solution.

00:49:17 Speaker 07: And then we talk about in here on bylaw enforcement.

00:49:20 Speaker 07: So the bylaw requires stores to maintain those cutthroats and maintain the sidewalks.

00:49:26 Speaker 07: So a little, I'll call it maybe an enhanced education around what those requirements are, followed by some active enforcement.

00:49:38 Speaker 03: So the owners of the properties, at what point do we charge them on their taxes for things we have to do over and above?

00:49:52 Speaker 07: That through the mayor, it would be a great question for bylaw.

00:49:55 Speaker 07: I don't know, you know, if Briana were here, she would be able to speak to that.

00:49:59 Speaker 07: I don't know at what point they get sort of a warning if we have to go out and shovel.

00:50:04 Speaker 07: I don't know, Kate, if you want to comment, but can those costs be added to the person's taxes?

00:50:13 Speaker 01: I just add one more comment, Pam.

00:50:14 Speaker 01: We had that meeting at the Harmony Centre this summer that was really more on the social issues downtown, but Town,

00:50:21 Speaker 01: but the big thing that I took out of that meeting was I kept hearing we need to, not you need to, we need to,

00:50:30 Speaker 01: and so there is a community feel to that that they get that if we can build on that.

00:50:36 Speaker 01: You moved the report.

00:50:38 Speaker 01: Any other comments before?

00:50:39 Speaker 01: Okay, so I'll call the question.

00:50:40 Speaker 01: All in favour?

00:50:42 Speaker 01: That's carried.

00:50:43 Speaker 01: Thanks, Pam, for that, and everybody that helped.

00:50:46 Speaker 01: And the next one I think is H.C. Eight C from the city manager: optimizing resources, financial and operational impacts of service review.

00:50:57 Speaker 08: Thank you, Mayor, and good morning, and thank you, committee.

00:50:59 Speaker 08: And this report is in front of you this morning, just for information purposes.

00:51:03 Speaker 08: Also, to me, it's sort of a tale of two reports.

00:51:07 Speaker 08: We're not quite at our two-year mark of service review committee meeting, but I thought in an opportune time to bring this before the year end, instead of waiting till the February meeting.

00:51:18 Speaker 08: Until the February meeting, and be just sort of give greater insight to what's happening across service review.

00:51:25 Speaker 08: I think there's a number of questions of, hey, how is service review impacting the overall corporate operational model?

00:51:33 Speaker 08: And so, why I call it the tale of two reports is, thus far through our software enhancements and new revenue streams, the city is achieving more than a million dollars in savings, efficiencies,

00:51:47 Speaker 08: and new revenue.

00:51:48 Speaker 08: And when you start to compound that, because they're not single one-time savings or efficiencies or revenue, will exceed a two million dollar target set that we anticipated when we started on this journey together.

00:52:02 Speaker 08: When those numbers start to compound annually, and that's a key part of that when it's compounded annually.

00:52:07 Speaker 08: I'm not saying that we are set at here's today's value of just over a million dollars.

00:52:13 Speaker 08: I would hope that continues to increase.

00:52:15 Speaker 08: We hope it increases.

00:52:16 Speaker 08: We're working toward increasing that, but again, when you start to compound those savings and efficiencies annually, we more than surpass two million dollars as years go by.

00:52:26 Speaker 08: The other side to that coin, though, is in that I mentioned in this report, it's taking a heavy toll on staff.

00:52:33 Speaker 08: The cost of change and staff capacity is stretched and needs support.

00:52:38 Speaker 08: And I'm not talking about necessarily, hey, we need to continue to add staff, full-time employees.

00:52:44 Speaker 08: I mentioned in here.

00:52:45 Speaker 08: Since service review has started, we have held to no net new positions.

00:52:49 Speaker 08: We do are using flexibility though.

00:52:51 Speaker 08: When a position does become vacant, not simply eliminating it, but we look at are there additional needs within the city that we can realign those resources to.

00:53:02 Speaker 08: So instead of that full-time role, we realign.

00:53:05 Speaker 08: We look for a different position, whether it's enhancing a role or creating a new position.

00:53:10 Speaker 08: But we're not coming back and adding new headcount to the overall corporate organisation, but staff all of these service review projects, and I think this morning's a great example of the two

01:05:27 Speaker 08: So, with that, I'll leave the report for any questions.

01:05:32 Speaker 08: And again, I think again, as I mentioned, it's a very positive report, but it's a tale of two reports.

01:05:37 Speaker 08: With this, is coming some stress and some operational challenges within the corporation.

01:05:42 Speaker 08: But as far as savings, efficiencies, and new revenue, I think service review has been great.

01:05:47 Speaker 08: I believe this committee and the prior committee members—it's—it's a committee that gets probably the most insight, pulling the curtains back on things and being able to ask the questions and see how the city operates.

01:05:59 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:06:01 Speaker 08: Comments?

01:06:01 Speaker 08: Questions?

01:06:03 Speaker 08: Go ahead.

01:06:05 Speaker 08: Thank you, Your Worship.

01:06:07 Speaker 05: Thank you for the report.

01:06:10 Speaker 05: I, I think that this process certainly has been transformational.

01:06:16 Speaker 05: It has not been easy.

01:06:17 Speaker 05: I commend staff.

01:06:18 Speaker 05: Nobody likes change.

01:06:20 Speaker 05: I hate getting a new cell phone because that just means I have to learn new things, and I don't like doing it.

01:06:24 Speaker 05: So, I can't imagine having to learn all new software systems and doing things differently.

01:06:31 Speaker 05: It's a process that you guys are working through, and in the end, I'm hoping that it will give us what we've been waiting for: the decrease in staff time,

01:06:47 Speaker 05: the efficiencies that we've been looking for.

01:06:49 Speaker 05: That it will, in the end, make their jobs easier.

01:06:52 Speaker 05: So, I think you know, getting over the hump and getting into where things are actually working, and we see the results will be very important.

01:07:04 Speaker 05: But picking up on what you were saying about service levels, I was going to say something in the previous report, but because it was strictly focusing on River District,

01:07:18 Speaker 05: I didn't know if it was the right thing.

01:07:20 Speaker 05: But reading that report on our Parks Division, it is ginormous.

01:07:24 Speaker 05: Like, it is ginormous.

01:07:26 Speaker 05: We have forty-something parks and we have sports fields, and we have a gazillion benches that we need to put in all of the parks, and all of these things.

01:07:36 Speaker 05: Like it is just, it is a behemoth, and I think that maybe we need to take the approach to do more with less.

01:07:45 Speaker 05: Maybe we don't have forty-two parks or however many we have.

01:07:49 Speaker 05: Maybe we have twenty-five or thirty, but we focus more on the ones that we really want to focus on, like Kelso and Harrison Park, and we have our marquee places in town,

01:08:02 Speaker 05: like the River District, that we focus on, that people see, and like the lights that they've been putting up in the River District, like making huge transformations.

01:08:13 Speaker 05: People commenting on how nice it is.

01:08:15 Speaker 05: Just small little things that will make a bigger difference in specific areas of the city where we have to scale down on some other areas to be able to do these things,

01:08:27 Speaker 05: but I think it would make a bigger difference to focus on key areas.

01:08:32 Speaker 05: Do away with some of the other things that we'll need to do to have the money to do that, because we just can't keep increasing the tax base to do these things.

01:08:41 Speaker 05: But that's my feeling.

01:08:46 Speaker 06: Well, I'll move the report for information purposes, and I will point out on page seven.

01:08:54 Speaker 06: There's a component of a paragraph here that states: Cloud Permit has saved two hundred and fifty admin hours annually, while Virtual City Halls has automated certificate generation, saving ten hours per week,

01:09:07 Speaker 06: and one hundred hours per year in manual inquiries and account updates.

01:09:12 Speaker 06: That type of information is just terrific to see the results of two hundred and fifty admin hours annually.

01:09:20 Speaker 06: That's two months of a position right there in one department.

01:09:27 Speaker 06: These are some great parts in this report to see that type of efficiency and savings created.

01:09:35 Speaker 06: Question on that one is one jumps out, and it might not be pervasive, but it may be mirrored in some of the other investments we've made.

01:09:46 Speaker 06: What does the other side think of that investment?

01:09:51 Speaker 06: Is it user-friendly for people on the outside?

01:09:53 Speaker 06: Do people like using Cloud Permit?

01:09:57 Speaker 06: Has there been any initiatives that we've engaged in that staff have seen a little bit of pushback, or that hasn't been customer-friendly from the other side?

01:10:12 Speaker 08: I'll jump in.

01:10:13 Speaker 08: I haven't heard directly.

01:10:16 Speaker 08: Some of the information I've heard with Cloud Permit, a few of them have had a few issues.

01:10:22 Speaker 08: A few of the builders or developers or people that use it.

01:10:25 Speaker 08: I think the larger developer or builder, the more sophisticated they have a team in-house that can do it.

01:10:31 Speaker 08: The smaller one-offs have had a little bit more trouble getting set up, but I think once they get into it, it's fairly intuitive.

01:10:38 Speaker 08: Staff have spent you know again back to targeted savings.

01:10:41 Speaker 08: They've probably also spent more time, but it's focused time with those people that call in and say, "I'm not getting this to register.

01:10:48 Speaker 08: I'm not getting that button," or something's not done.

01:10:51 Speaker 08: So it's focused conversation with those folks.

01:10:55 Speaker 08: That's on Cloud Permit.

01:10:56 Speaker 08: I think overall, though, because it's not unique to Owen Sound, it's something used everywhere.

01:11:01 Speaker 08: That we have it.

01:11:03 Speaker 08: We do know from our developers that are from outside of the city that have used it in other municipalities.

01:11:09 Speaker 08: When they come to Owen Sound's Cloud Permit, they don't have to set up a unique username and password for Owen Sound.

01:11:15 Speaker 08: Their Cloud Permit username is good for anywhere they're using Cloud Permit, whatever municipality.

01:11:20 Speaker 08: So for them and their staff, they're just hopping into it, logging in, and being able to upload you know the drawings and everything else into it.

01:11:27 Speaker 08: So it's been good.

01:11:28 Speaker 08: I don't know, Kate, if you've heard from Christine or anybody like on DocuPet, something as simple as that where the general public have to do it instead of having to come into City Hall,

01:11:38 Speaker 08: they can do it through DocuPet.

01:11:40 Speaker 08: But I certainly don't have any negative feedback to share.

01:11:46 Speaker 10: Only that it's a change, so that adoption rate is not instantaneous.

01:11:52 Speaker 10: Especially with virtual City Hall, we're almost setting people up one at a time, so it's taking some time to get that adoption or implementation underway.

01:12:08 Speaker 01: So, Marion Scott, myself, Kate, will remember the last service review we did,

01:12:19 Speaker 01: and it was basically done off the side of the desk of the directors while they were doing everything else that they had to do daily.

01:12:31 Speaker 01: It wasn't.

01:12:33 Speaker 01: Kate, did the last service review go much deeper into staff than the directors?

01:12:40 Speaker 01: Do you remember?

01:12:45 Speaker 10: I don't really remember.

01:12:48 Speaker 10: I remember we did provide staffing comparisons with the three comparators that we used at the time.

01:12:56 Speaker 01: Yeah, I meant participation.

01:12:58 Speaker 01: That I think a lot of the reports seem to come from directors, compared to this one, where we've gone down to the toenails of staff to get feedback and get ideas.

01:13:09 Speaker 10: Certainly, there were a few managers, and at the time I was a manager, so I was contributing to it with supporting it.

01:13:21 Speaker 10: But you're right.

01:13:22 Speaker 10: As far as leading the projects, it was a much more top-layer, director-driven exercise.

01:13:31 Speaker 10: While you were doing everything else, you got to do that.

01:13:36 Speaker 01: So having the right staff in the right place, staff in the right places to be able to do these things that we want to do, do them properly.

01:13:44 Speaker 01: You know, Michelle, etc., is important to do it right.

01:13:54 Speaker 01: The overwhelming amount of information that we've seen, this committee, to me is mind-boggling.

01:14:02 Speaker 01: I don't remember half the stuff.

01:14:04 Speaker 01: Some of the interviews that I've done with the councillors on budget?

01:14:10 Speaker 01: Some of these things were coming up on things that I realize that have already come through this committee, or are still coming, or in process.

01:14:19 Speaker 01: And so, you know, it's been overwhelming.

01:14:21 Speaker 01: I think just for Council that aren't on this committee, some that would have been when it came back.

01:14:34 Speaker 01: We're making major changes.

01:14:37 Speaker 01: That's going to set the City up for the next ten or fifteen years of how we do things.

01:14:41 Speaker 01: Modernization, using those software things that you're talking about—that was—it's mind-boggling what they can do.

01:14:47 Speaker 01: And you know, look at my 27-year-old kid and what he can do at the computer compared to me at 39 or whatever age I'm at.

01:15:00 Speaker 01: But it's—it's overwhelming.

01:15:02 Speaker 01: So as the City moves forward in the next.

01:15:02 Speaker 01: The City moves forward, and the next generation comes in.

01:15:05 Speaker 01: They're going to be more used to it, and we can't stay in the dark ages as we maybe could have.

01:15:13 Speaker 01: So, I think everything that's been going on has been positive.

01:15:18 Speaker 01: Sometimes we look for bottom lines and only bottom lines, and don't look at that thing as you just pointed out.

01:15:25 Speaker 01: Some of this data that's in there that's kind of important or really important.

01:15:30 Speaker 01: So, I. So, thanks to the report, Tim.

01:15:34 Speaker 01: I think this is great, Marion.

01:15:38 Speaker 03: Thank you, Worship.

01:15:39 Speaker 03: You just brought back a lot of memories for me.

01:15:42 Speaker 03: I was here when they did the very first OSHaRE programmememe, in the 1990s, I believe it was.

01:15:47 Speaker 03: And then they did the so OSHaRE was Owen Sound Can Achieve Real Savings, particularly looking for where we can save money.

01:15:57 Speaker 03: One of the ideas I remember is rather than having printing envelopes with addresses on, they use window envelopes.

01:16:06 Speaker 03: Simple little things like that that save bundles of dollars.

01:16:10 Speaker 03: And then they went to the second programmememe, OSHaRE II, and again focused on saving money.

01:16:17 Speaker 03: And then the one that you're talking about, it too, I think, was more focusing on saving money.

01:16:25 Speaker 03: Got into a little bit of efficiencies, but this programmememe, to me, seems like a living document, and it's focusing more on the whole corporation, everyone's job,

01:16:37 Speaker 03: all the little things they do that may not be necessary or have never been accounted for.

01:16:44 Speaker 03: It's taking into everything, and I'm so appreciative that we're doing that deep dive into this.

01:16:50 Speaker 03: Okay.

01:16:52 Speaker 03: Any other comments?

01:16:53 Speaker 01: You moved report, so I'll just call the question all in favour.

01:16:56 Speaker 01: That's carried.

01:16:56 Speaker 01: Aye, that's carried.

01:17:00 Speaker 01: So that gets us through all of eight, which is the main business.

01:17:04 Speaker 01: Number nine, we have no matters postponed.

01:17:06 Speaker 01: Number ten, we have no notices or motions that were notice was previously given.

01:17:13 Speaker 01: Eleven, we have no correspondence presented for information.

01:17:18 Speaker 01: Discussion of additional business didn't have any notice of motions.

01:17:22 Speaker 01: No one's bringing a motion.

01:17:24 Speaker 01: So if that were our business is completed.

01:17:27 Speaker 01: It's 10:17.

01:17:29 Speaker 01: We're adjourned.

01:17:29 Speaker 01: Thanks, everybody.

01:17:30 Speaker 01: Thanks, your staff.