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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCD-08-99 " UNFINISHED BUSINESS THE CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON REPORT Meeting: COUNCIL Date: February 8, 1999 CD-08-99 File # Co3.c.o Res. #\:. - 117 - '7'7 Report #: By-law # Subject: FORMAT OF COUNCIL AGENDAS. OUR FILE: C03.CO It is respectfully recommended to Council: THAT Report CD-08-99 be received for information; THAT the correspondence dated December 9, 1998 from Mrs. L. Gasser regarding the Council agenda format be lifted from the table and received for information; and THAT a copy of Report CD-08-99 be forwarded to Mrs. L. Gasser. BACKGROUND At its meeting on December 14,1998 Council considered correspondence from Linda Gasser regarding the format of the Council agendas. At that time, the correspondence was tabled until February 8,1999 to allow for the new procedures undertaken by the Clerk's Department to take effect. A copy of Mrs. Gasser's correspondence is attached hereto as Schedule" A" . Mrs. Gasser's letter was as a result of the actions taken with respect to Report CD-45-98 in adopting a new format for the Council agendas. This change resulted in a ' Summary of Correspondence" and a , Summary of By-laws" being prepared and included in the agenda, rather than each individual item being reproduced; the listing of correspondence on the agenda page and the inclusion of the General Purpose and Administration Committee minutes being discontinued. This format was adopted from the format which has been used for the Regional Council agendas for many years. Mrs. Gasser's letter states that at the Region the correspondence has been dealt with by the four main committees and has been included in their agendas in its entirety. This statement is not quite accurate. When correspondence is received by the Regional Clerk, it is summarized and then directed to the various departments. The correspondence is not reproduced in the Council agenda; however, there are exceptions, which are at the discretion of the Regional Clerk. Items of correspondence which have been referred to a standing committee, are sometimes reproduced in the agenda for the committee meeting at which it is being considered. This is the same procedure which was adopted by Council in the fall. Mrs. Gasser's concems include the fact that staff is now summarizing the pieces of correspondence rather than reproducing each individual item; staff is, sometimes, put in the position of summarizing complicated and detailed pieces of correspondence which should be read in their entirety by all councillors. Also, staff time is spent summarizing less complicated pieces of correspondence, which could be easily skimmed by councillors. t Report CD-08-99 .2- February 8, 1999 Mrs. Gasser's comment with respect to complicated and detailed pieces of correspondence is valid. However, when this occurs, the item of correspondence is duplicated in its entirety in the agenda. As for staff time being spent summarizing less complicated pieces of correspondence, the time presently being spent is still less than the amount of time which was spent duplicating the item previously. A second concern is the fact that the agenda pages no longer list each item of correspondence, thereby not allowing the public to identify various items which Council is dealing with. Prior to receiving Mrs. Gasser's letter, staff began reproducing the "Summary of Correspondence' for the public in attendance at the meeting and also for the Municipality's web site on the Internet. During discussion of Mrs. Gasser's letter on December 14, 1998, it became evident that listing the correspondence would be helpful. Accordingly, commencing with the agenda of January 11, 1999, the individual items were listed on the agenda page once again. Since that time, copies of both the agenda page and the" Summary of Correspondence' have been made available for the public attending the meetings, and the agenda page has been posted on the Internet. The reason for the change in format was an attempt to reduce the amount of paper which was being used in the production of the Council agendas. Prior to altering the format, the average agenda was 185 pages in length, compared to an average of 64 pages following the change. With 41 copies of the Council agenda being produced, this results in a saving of approximately 5,000 sheets of paper per agenda. With 21 agendas per year, the new format saves 1 05,000 sheets of paper annually. At a cost of $31.45 for a case of 5,000 sheets of paper, the dollar saving on paper alone is $660.45. Although more staff time is involved in preparing the Summary of Correspondence, less time is spent in the reproduction of the agenda. By comparison, the time saved with reproduction is greater than the increase in the preparation of the Summary. CONCLUSION Since the change in format in October, some modifications have been made which allow for more information being made available to the public. It is the opinion of staff that the savings in both time and cost for the reproduction of the Council agenda is worthy of continuing with the new format. Reviewed by d ra-.JLQ~Wl0 Franklin Wu, M.C.l.P, R.P.P., Chief Administrative Officer Interested party to be advised of Council's decision: Mrs. L. Gasser P.O. Box 399 Orono, Ontario LOB 1MO I COUNCIL DIRECTION P.O. BOX 399. ORONO, ONT. lOB 1 MO TEL: (90S) 983.5249 I FAX: (905) 983-6416 SCHEDULE "A" D-14 ViiI" F'A-)< - 6 d- Y/~ 'i December 9, 1998. Municipality of Clarington 40 Temperance Street Bowmanvi1le. Ontario II C 3A6 Attention: Mavor and All Members of Council Re: Corresoondence' Communications for InformatIon & Direction Soma time in the autumn of 199B, it appears that Councillor Mutton brought forward the suggestion that instead of municipal correspondence appearing in Council agendas in its entirety, that instead, staff summarize the individual pieces of correspondence and include only the summary in Council agendas. I wasn't present at that maeting but it seems that seems that saving councillors' time and saving paper were the reasons put forth for his suggestion. It appears that because this was the method he saw usad at the Region, he thought it should be applied hare. Councillor Mutton should keep in mind that at tha Region, the bulk of the correspondence has been daalt with by the four main committees and has been included in their agendas in its entirety. Committee members review the correspondence and then make recommendations to Regional Council. This is quite different from having Clarington councillors vote on summeries having never seen the original documant. In my view, Council's decision to epprove this suggestion was flawed lor the following reasons. 1. Clerk's Cept. staff time is spent summarizing correspondence. Often, staff are put in the position of summarizing as best they can complicatad and datailed pieces of correspondence which should be raad in their entirety by all councillors. In some instances summaries cannot adequately convey the message of the originel piece of correspondence. As well, time is still spant summariling less com~licated pieces 01 correspondence which could easily be skimmed by councillors if they didn't wish to read these closely. Also, if you have the piece of correspondence, you can always rafer to it at a later date should that be required. Through no fault of theirs, Clerk's Dept. stalfmay miss important points bacausa they may not be familiar with tha history and context of a piece 01 correspondence. If they miss it, certainly Council will be unable to deal with it. I want to be certain that my Council reprasentatives have access to ell municipal correspondence. If they choose not to read it or iltney feal they don't have enough time to read all the correspondence, they will do whet we all do in tha real world, they will maka their DEe 09 '98 11:07 GASSER {. . 1 905 983 6416 TO: 9056234169 P02 l. . 2 choices and live with the consequences. Members of the pUblic should not be denied the opportunity to be informed simply because some councillors might not went to teke the time to rsad all municipel correspondence. 2. The listing of correspondence on the cover pages of the Council end public egendas no longer occurs. Neither councinors nor the public have any hope 01 knowing what correspondence was dealt with on any particular data without reading the minutes of each and every meeting. In the past, the cover pages 01 the aganda, which is all thet is availabla to mosl members of the public at Town Hall end on Ihe Inlernet, would list correspondence itllllls for information end direction, Members of tha public could choose to attend a particular council meeting if an item they were interested in was on the agenda for the next week. This is no longer pouible. For those of us with an ongoing mterest in municipal issues, il is Impossible to detarmine which issues will be deall with at tha upcoming meeting arising out 01 municipal correspondence. 3. Two councillors have told me that they go regularly to the Clerk's Dip!. to obtain the underlying documents In their entirety. I regularly go to the Clerk's Dept. to get copies 01 the underlying documents that relate to perticular Issuas that I have an interest in even when I have been able to obtain one of the three copies 01 the agenda available to the public. All of this is an unnecessary waste of time for the Clerk's Dept. I formally request that Council consider going beck to the original format for Council agendas and the cover pages, i.e., the agenda cover pages list the corraspondenca items for informalion and direction, under "Communications., and the public agenda copies and Council agenda copies include copies of correspondence in their entirety. Yours sin ce. relY~ C~,. /: ~- , ... '::3:'1> ----.~ Lind. Gasser cc: Clerk's Dep!. . Patti Barrie /;;5 ^ 4(Lu.r.)l / lJ{Mcl2c/LJ P.S. Please include this letter in Its entirety in the Council egenda of December 14198. {Jy!/)~MS Co 3, Co