Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCLD-004-14 Clarington REPORT CLERK'S DEPARTMENT Meeting: GENERAL PURPOSE AND ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE Date: January 20, 2014 Resolution#: - 4 -111 By-law#: Report#: CLD-004-14 File#: Subject: MUNICIPAL LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICE LEVELS RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that the General Purpose and Administration Committee recommend to Council the following: 1. THAT Report CLD-004-14 be received for information. Submitted by: Reviewed by: � r P ' ' le, CO Franklin Wu, Municipal Clerk Chief Administrative Officer PLB/Ic CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 2 1. BACKGROUND On October 7, 2013 the General Purpose and Administration Committee passed Resolution GPA-489-13, which stated: "THAT the Municipal Clerk's Department provide a report on By-law Enforcement including parking enforcement with information on overtime costs, potential for hiring additional staff or contracting out, and detailing areas of major concern including the number of open cases, number of calls, and subject matter." Generally speaking, Municipal Law Enforcement is reactive, responding to calls for service from the community. Much of their activity is based on the principle of maintaining or improving the prevailing community standards and tolerances for various activities while Parking handles a mix of reactive and proactive issues. The Division is composed of seven officers, a clerk and the Manager. Of the seven officers, four are Municipal Law Enforcement Officers (MLEOs), two are full time Parking Enforcement Officers (PEOs), one is a part time Parking Enforcement Officer. The clerk provides clerical support to the Division. The Manager oversees the operations of the Division. Currently there is no on-site supervisor for either the MLEOs or the PEOs during evening, night or weekend hours. The Division Manager can be contacted by phone in an emergency. After hours dispatch is done through a patch directly to the MLEO's cell phone. This method of dispatch will be reviewed as part of the 2014 Communication Strategy Initiative. The Municipal Law Enforcement Division, as a whole, is part of the Inside Collective Agreement and the Division has traditionally operated Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm during the fall winter and spring months and 8:00 am to 4:00 pm in the summer months. In late 2012 Council authorized the expansion of this level of service and increased the number of MLEOs. In accordance with the limits of the Inside Collective Agreement the Division expanded and added a new MLEO in January 2013. The officer was hired with the intent that they would work an afternoon shift from noon to 8:00 pm from Tuesday to Friday and 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on Saturdays. Schedule B of the Inside Collective Agreement stipulates that "scheduled overtime will be offered and distributed equitably to employees who normally perform the work." This officer, therefore would respond to calls and investigate matters as they relate to general by-law issues rather than ongoing parking issues during the evenings and weekends. Ongoing or regularly occurring parking issues cannot be handled by the MLEO on duty over the weekend and must be handled by a PEO. If there is a one-time specific parking problem, the MLEO does investigate and take action. REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 3 2. CURRENT DEMANDS FOR SERVICE Over the last 6 years the Division has had an annual average of 1,982 calls for service representing, among other things, 476 property calls, 408 parking calls and 364 zoning calls. Each call can represent anything from one hour to several days to resolve. Where the call involves matters that come before a court or hearing of some form, that time can extend into several weeks, months or in a few cases, years. At present, staff are dealing with 295 open general enforcement files and 66 parking files. This translates into 57 open files per MLEO and 22 parking files per PEO. Of the files currently under investigation the top 4 categories are: Property Standards and maintenance issues (80), Zoning (64), site alteration (33), and noise (20). With a physical area of more than 610 square kilometres, travel time to and from complaints can consume a considerable amount of time; however enforcement is not just time out on the road inspecting and investigating. It also involves periods in the office collecting information and interviewing parties over the phone and in person. Daily routine requires the officers to spend approximately 30% of their time in the office addressing these issues as well as processing emails, phone and counter enquiries. At least twice each month two of the Parking Officers begin work at 2:30 am. and enforce the overnight prohibition from 3:00 am to 5:00 am. They then continue on working until 2:30 pm. By that time they have worked a total of 12 hours and reached the maximum time that can work in a given day. They have also accumulated 6 hours of overtime for that day. This can be taken in pay or accumulated Time-in-Lieu. In 2013, the PEOs accumulated 153 hours of overtime as a result of the overnight enforcement (maximum of 21.8 days off or $6,784.02 payout). 3. OPERATIONAL OBSERVATIONS Council had directed that a new MLEO be added in 2012 in order to better respond to the needs of the public. The conditions and limitations in the Collective Agreement mean that the MLEO cannot do work that would take overtime away from other union staff, in particular the PEOs. Initially this was not perceived to be a problem. The ability of the officers to conduct routine enforcement is severely restricted by the time of day and available light. Nighttime renders it near impossible to conduct adequate exterior inspections. Added to this are the possible mistakes in identity and the public perceiving an officer conducting a nighttime property inspection for a thief or burglar and it poses a potential safety risk to have the officers conducting any form of property inspection. This leaves the enforcement of licencing for taxis and noise issues, many of which may require police assistance and of course parking issues which have occurred over the course of the evening. In the months since the commencement of the new extended MLEO hours 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm, staff have noticed a disconnect between the MLEO position and the actual needs of the public. The general impression is that since its inception earlier last year, staff have received fewer than a half dozen actual calls for service that were within the REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 4 scope of the MLEO officer. The vast majority of the calls received were for Parking matters. In order to determine the accuracy of this anecdotal perception, in October 2013, staff began to track incoming calls for service received by the MLEO between 4:30 pm and 8:00 pm. A total of 22 calls for service with only 2 non-parking related issues (concerns over snow clearing bills) were received. The remaining 20 have all been issues which would be the responsibility of the PEOs. 4. COMPARISONS ACROSS THE AREA Staff have looked at the practices of various municipalities across the province but concentrated on common approaches, if any, within Durham Region and the surrounding area. MUNICIPALITY AFTERNOON NIGHTS WEEKEND DURATION DISPATCH DUTIES Winter Night shift, Own dispatch 4 pm to only Noise OSHAWA midnight noon to winter only service plus enforcement, 2 Officers g pm Afternoon, all some help from parking 2 MLEO year DRPS No dispatch, WHITBY Private Private Year round cell phones to Parking only security security their office only Call out is at 2 officers the discretion 12:30 pm to Week days of the Manager Only serious AJAX 8:30 pm. only, issues of health Monday to until 8:30 pm. All calls are and safety. Friday screened by him. 1 MLEO Parking Saturday 1 MLEO until 8 at least 1 Until 8 pm, pm. 1 PEO Year-Round Dispatch Parking and PICKERING 1 PEO until 10 overnight Saturday service general by-law pm Sunday and to Friday Sunday overnight Until 6 Every other Until 6am. Self PETERBOROUGH Yes am weekend during winter dispatched and Parking issues Private Private months through police security Security Police and Overnight COBOURG security Police Police during winter Through police Parking only months Saturday BELLEVILLE Police Police and Year Round Cell phone General by-law Sunday 9 and parking amto4 pm Saturday QUINTE WEST Police Police Sunday 9 Year Round Police dispatch Parking, noise amto4 pm REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 5 The survey of the nearby municipalities reveals that no other municipality in the area offers 24/7 full enforcement. The real need across the Region appears to be for Parking Enforcement beyond the traditional hours of 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. 5. CONTRACTING OUT At present, all full time inside and outside workers are part of CUPE Local 74. The current Collective Agreement speaks to the subject of contracting out in section 28, "The Municipality will contract out for the provision of security related services." Contracting out MLEO or PEO services to provide expanded service would require entering into discussions with CUPE to come to an agreement in protocol. Article 17.3 of the CUPE Collective Agreement states; "No employee in the employ of the Municipality shall be laid off as the result of contracting, leasing, assigning or conveying work to another person or employer." The municipality does allow private property owners to contract out on their own to have a person or persons enforcing the private property provisions using municipal parking tickets. This is at no cost to the Municipality and operates outside of our direct influence. Outsourcing to replace current staff would not result in instant savings. Existing staff would have to be either grandfathered, as happened when the 4t" MLEO was hired, or provided with another position at the same salary level. The Town of Whitby uses private security to provide parking services during afternoon and evening hours. Their annual budget for 2013 was approximately $25,000. This amount provided a maximum of 20 hours per week evening and overnight. This cost does not include any additional office space, necessary equipment for the job, or any ancillary costs for equipment which would have to be arranged with the supplier. At present Clarington's part-time PEO earns $26,660 for the same number of hours. While contracting out the service may have initial economic benefits there are other serious considerations which staff would have to address. In the end the potential risk to the integrity of our records and our ability to properly respond to complaints may be compromised. 6. ENFORCEMENT OPTIONS The following details various options for expanding service levels. These figures show what is needed to cover the existing level of Municipal Law coverage or to extend Parking Enforcement to match that level. There are several options for creating an extended hour work schedule. The 2013 budget for the Division was $635,335.00 with staffing related costs of $530,893. REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 6 6.1 FULL COVERAGE 24 HOURS PER DAY 7 DAYS PER WEEK This program would involve the creation of full day and night enforcement 7 days per week. This is not a short term approach as it requires a complete rethinking of the duties and obligations of the Division along with a renegotiation of the Collective Agreement and the creation of 4 squads working 12 hour shifts from 7 am to 7 pm and 7 pmto7am. In order to offer a consistent level of service regardless of the Squad working, there would need to be 3 MLEOs, 3 PEOs and a shift supervisor per squad. These officers would replicate the level of service currently provided. Day shift would also have the Manager. Total Division manpower would increase to 1 Manager, 4 Supervisors, 12 MLEOs and 12 PEOs. Total annual operating budget for the Division would rise to approximately $3,331,600.00. This approach to staffing is most often seen in municipalities which host large colleges or universities. The calls for service are of such volume that they cannot be handled adequately by a day shift alone and the local police often require the assistance of a dedicated municipal enforcement unit. Clarington does not currently have the necessary volume of calls to justify this approach. 6.2 EXPANSION OF CURRENT LEVEL OF SERVICE This option envisions having a night shift that operates in conjunction with the existing scheduled afternoon shift. A night shift could be created to run from 8:00 pm until 4:00 am. This approach would require the hiring of one new MLEO for the night shift, two PEOs (one afternoon and one night) and a Shift Supervisor. Additional cost to the budget would be $329,960.00. Some savings can be realized in this process because there would be no need for each night shift officer to have their own vehicle. Where possible, equipment such as vehicles, computers and ticketing printers can be shared. The anticipated annual budget for the Division would rise to approximately $965,300.00. This approach also requires more staff and expands to a level of service that is in excess of the current demands for service. Staff review of 2012 and 2013 statistics indicate that this is not a necessary increase. The approach also carries the same challenges of nighttime enforcement as full 24/7 deployment would have for the MLEOs. 6.3 INCREASED PRESENCE AT CURRENT HOURS The option envisages the extension of the hours of operation for Parking Enforcement to match those of the MLEO until 8:00 pm, or later. This allows for two officers to be working, thus increasing the margin of safety for the officers themselves while at the same time responding to the public's demands for service. REPORT NO.: CLD-004-14 PAGE 7 This option would require the hiring of a third full-time Parking Officer for the afternoon shift while at the same time retaining the part-time PEO to monitor and enforce the downtown areas of Bowmanviile, Newcastle and Orono. The Division's annual operating budget would rise from $635,335.00 to approximately $702,360.00. This estimate includes training requirements, equipment, uniforms and the shift premium of $6.00 per day. This option provides for the most appropriate, timely and efficient approach to meeting the needs of the community. 7.0 CONCLUSION Given the concerns highlighted above regarding access to property during hours of darkness, consideration will be given to moving the current afternoon shift MLEO to the day shift for the late fall, winter and early spring. The officer's effectiveness and ability to respond to her other duties will not be hindered. As stated previously, the demonstrated need is for an increased Parking Enforcement presence, which could be accommodated by the addition of a third full-time PEO. Unlike the MLEOs duties, PEO investigations can be successfully conducted after dark, as the 3 am to 5 am enforcement has demonstrated. This approach could be easily accommodated within the provisions of the current Collective Agreement while, at the same time, providing a more timely response to demands for service. The foregoing is presented for Council's information. 8.0 CONCURRENCE: Not Applicable CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN — Not Applicable Staff Contact: Len Creamer, Manager, Municipal Law Enforcement