Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-014-20Clarington Staff Report If this information is required in an alternate accessible format, please contact the Accessibility Coordinator at 905-623-3379 ext. 2131. Report To: General Government Committee Date of Meeting: June 1, 2020 Reviewed By: Andrew C. Allison, CAO File Number: Report Number: CAO-014-20 By-law Number: Resolution#: GG-171-20 Report Subject: Service Delivery Review Update — Animal Shelter Services Recommendation: 1. That Report CAO-014-20 be received for information. Municipality of Clarington Page 2 Report CAO-014-20 Report Overview Animal Shelter Service Delivery Review was completed in 2017 and presented to Council in Report CAO-001-18. This report provides an update on the status of all the recommendations approved by Council in that Report as well as other service improvements undertaken within Animal Services. 1. Background 1.1 The Animal Shelter Service Delivery Review was completed by WSCS Consulting Services (WSCS) in the fourth quarter of 2017. Report CAO-001-18 presented WSCS's findings and recommended a phased approached to implementation of the consultant's recommendations. This report provides Council with a summary of the status of all 17 recommendations put forward by WSCS as well as other service improvements that have been undertaken within Animal Services. 1.2 The Municipality underwent an Organizational Structure Review in late 2019 and early 2020 which was funded through the Provincial Audit and Accountability Fund. The firm of Grant Thornton was retained to assist with that review. Recommendation #8 in Grant Thornton's report was to outsource Animal Services. When considering the range of reorganizational possibilities discussed in Report CAO-006-20, Council decided that Animal Services would not be outsourced. 2. Service Improvements 2.1 Through Resolution #GG-046-18 passed on February 5, 2018, Council endorsed a phased approach to implementation of the recommendations contained in WSCS's report because of resource constraints. Recommendations 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 15 were identified as having priority. Staff were also directed to continue to consider opportunities for continuous improvement within Animal Services. WSCS Recommendations 2.2 Recommendation 1: Explore partnership opportunities with neighbouring municipalities. Status: Ongoing The Clarington Animal Shelter does work with other shelters within the Region on the adoption of animals. At times, animals are moved between shelters due to space or length of stay issues. A change in location can also increase the chance of adoption. Staff have reached out to Oshawa Animal Services to discuss their long-term capital plans for adding a second shelter. Oshawa is currently renovating its existing building. There are no plans at this point for a second shelter. Municipality of Clarington Page 3 Report CAO-014-20 In Clarington's Development Charge study, there is a plan to replace the Animal Shelter building as part of a new building for Operations at some point in the future. Staff will monitor the future plans of neighbouring municipalities and explore potential partnerships. As development continues to grow in the northern areas of Clarington and Oshawa, there may be opportunities for a shared facility north of Taunton Road. 2.3 Recommendation 2: Undertake a strategic planning session to fully explore the goals and outcomes as well as performance indicators to assess client expectations. Status: Ongoing Performance goals for Animal Services have been established by the Animal Service Supervisor through her Performance Management Review. They include building the volunteer program, reintroducing the elementary school program, pro -actively inviting groups for tours of the shelter, and investigating the policy concerns surrounding spay/neuter of dogs adopted through the shelter (consistent with the policy for cats). Performance indicators are discussed under Recommendations 14, 16 and 17 below. 2.4 Recommendation 3: Undertake a client survey on a regular and transactional basis. Status: Ongoing Animal Services staff will be working with Communications staff to undertake customer surveys starting in the fourth quarter of 2020 (assuming pandemic restrictions have been lifted). Staff anticipate that this client survey will ultimately tie into the corporate wide client feedback process which will align with the KPI initiative. 2.5 Recommendation 4: As part of the strategic planning process, update activities and review the need for patrolling parks. Status: Completed With the restructuring of shelter services and enforcement functions, staff reviewed some of the activities including the need for patrolling parks. Staff have revised the patrolling of parks by By-law Officers and a more effective strategy and use of staff time has been implemented. As well, the adoption hours at the shelter have been revised to allow staff to more efficiently care for the animals in the morning before the shelter opens for adoptions. Adoption hours are also extended to Saturdays. 2.6 Recommendation 5: Transfer this responsibility to all municipal law enforcement officers and set up municipal patrol areas. Recommendation 8: Move the Animal Services Officers to municipal law enforcement offices and standardize the roles but allow for specialty skill sets as a transition. Status: Completed Through the Service Delivery Review, and Recommendations 5 and 8 in particular, a clear separation was made between enforcement and animal sheltering services. In May 2018, Animal Services Officers were moved to the Municipal Law Enforcement offices and are now responsible for the enforcement of all by-law matters. This change Municipality of Clarington Report CAO-014-20 Page 4 clarified the roles of the Animal Service Officers in enforcement and the Animal Care Attendants in the care and maintenance of the animal shelter. 2.7 Recommendation 6: Advertise the Municipality's complaint line/email/services at various locations to allow citizens to easily report infractions via mobile. Status: Completed Clarington's website has been updated and includes a page where people can report a complaint or service request for several issues including those relating to animals within the Municipality (see Customer Service and Service Requests - Clarington). 2.8 Recommendation 7: Reclassify the Animal Services Manager to a supervisor reporting to the Manager of Municipal Law Enforcement. Status: Completed This recommendation was completed in 2018. It was a logical step given the transfer of the Animal Services Officers to Municipal Law Enforcement. 2.9 Recommendation 9: Utilize the savings from the reclassification of the manager position to implement a volunteer program. Status: Completed The volunteer program has been expanded and training has been increased. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the volunteer program has been suspended. In May 2019, 10 volunteers were trained. Many volunteers have a desire to work with dogs but most animals at the shelter are cats so retention can be a challenge. At the beginning of 2020, half of the volunteers were still assisting at the shelter. Staff will continue to look for volunteers and provide training to protect the volunteers and the animals. 2.10 Recommendation 10: Undertake a fee study to determine the true cost of adoption and licensing and a policy on the amount of subsidization. Status: Ongoing A study will be conducted in the third quarter of 2020 on the Animal Services fees and licences, factoring in pricing of area shelters, direct costs for services and other inputs such as veterinarian costs. 2.11 Recommendation 11: Review the licensing program and at minimum, introduce automated renewals and welcome packages. Status: Completed This recommendation has been implemented. Animal licenses can now be set to have automatic renewal on the licensing program if chosen by the pet owner. The system does send out a reminder email for those who have not chosen this option. When an animal license is purchased, a welcome package is sent to the pet owner. Included in the annual licence renewal package are gift cards from willing participant businesses such as PetSmart and Rens. Municipality of Clarington Page 5 Report CAO-014-20 2.12 Recommendation 12: Review and expand the use of technology to improve processes, record keeping and workload management in the Animal Shelter as well as investigate mobile technology for the Animal Services Officers. Status: Partially Completed The Animal Shelter now has a computer in the intake room which is used regularly by the Animal Attendants as well as the By-law Officers when an animal is impounded or surrendered. Staff continue to investigate options to improve daily record keeping on individual animals. The mobile application for Municipal Law Enforcement Officers is currently being explored through a larger corporate wide mobile application. 2.13 Recommendation 13: Develop a communication and outreach strategy in line with the strategic plan on a regional basis. Status: Ongoing In the past, Animal Services did have an outreach program. Due to increasing demands over the years, the program has lapsed. Staff anticipate reinstituting the program in 2021. It will be delivered to various groups throughout the Municipality with a view to reducing the need to Animal Shelter services through more responsible pet ownership. 2.14 Recommendation 14: Improve client relationship management through tracking and service quality standards. AND Recommendation 16: Implement activity -based costing, tracking of animal care, medications and performance measures/standards. AND Recommendation 17: Develop a change management program. Status: In Progress Recommendations 14, 16 and 17 are tools to improve processes. Staff continually look at process improvement and change management. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are very useful to evaluate processes and service levels. As part of the broader Organizational Structure Review by Grant Thornton, one important recommendation was to implement KPIs. As noted in Report CAO-006-20, the Municipality intends to move forward with this project on a corporate wide basis which will help all Municipal services. The Municipality will be applying to the Audit and Accountability Fund (if it still exists post COVID-19) to retain expert services to create a corporate wide KPI system that builds on the Organizational Structure Review. If there is no funding available under that Program, Council did include funding in the 2020 budget within the CAO's budget to ensure this important corporate wide work is initiated. All departments will have input on this project. 2.15 Recommendation 15: Develop a donation campaign with online, automated receipts. Track all donations and determine the true cost of operations. Status: Ongoing There are several rescue and non-profit organizations that support the work of Clarington's Animal Shelter. These organizations are important partnerships in animal shelter services. Recommendation 15 talks about a donation campaign for the municipal animal shelter. The Clarington Animal Shelter does receive donations from Municipality of Clarington Page 6 Report CAO-014-20 the public in the form of pet food, toys, blankets, other supplies and cash. As seen in the picture below, the donations received last Christmas season show the level of support from the community. Charitable organizations are all vying for public donations and many depend on these donations to sustain their activities. The Municipality will look to establish a formal donation campaign when we are closer to determining a firm timeline for the construction of a new animal shelter. Other Service Delivery Improvements 2.16 In addition to the services improvements achieved through the implementation of the recommendations from WSCS, staff have made other improvements, some of which are the result of continuous improvement that is promoted through the Lean Sigma Six program. Some examples are set out below. 2.17 As noted earlier, shelter service hours have been adjusted to accommodate cleaning hours. This allows Animal Care Attendants to do the routine and feeding without interruption. Staff can then conduct the adoption process more efficiently which creates an improved customer service experience. 2.18 Livestock claims and shift scheduling processes have been streamlined. Municipality of Clarington Page 7 Report CAO-014-20 2.19 Rooms in the Animal Shelter are designated for specific functions. There are rooms for dog adoptions, stray cats, quarantine and intake to name a few. Previously. animal and cleaning supplies were centrally located. A system has been implemented where each room has a cart with the required supplies which is colour coded for easy identification. This allows for a more efficient process for cleaning the rooms and caring for the animals. This also prevents cross contamination between the various areas. 2.20 Staff have been working on improving record keeping processes at the shelter. In the past, records were paper driven and kept in binders. Now all documents are scanned and stored in their system. This includes veterinarian reports, adoptions records and spay/neuter redemptions. Currently the animal licencing is done through Docupet system. This system maintains all the animal licencing data. Some process that are labour intensive still rely on paper record keeping such as cleaning and feeding of animals as it is the most efficient method for the staff. As noted earlier, the intake process is now entered directly into the system for both the animal shelter staff and enforcement staff records. 3. Concurrence 3.1 This report has been reviewed by the Municipal Clerk who concurs with the recommendation. 4. Conclusion 4.1 Animal Services staff have worked diligently to implement operational improvements. They will continue to look at ways to improve service delivery. 4.2 It is respectfully recommended that this update report be received for information. Staff Contact: MaryJane Bacon, Animal Shelter Supervisor, 905-623-3379 extension 2127 or mbacon@clarington.net There are no interested parties to be notified of Council's decision.