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Home My WebLink AboutCLD-015-14 Clarington REPORT CLERK'S DEPARTMENT Meeting: General Purpose and Administration Committee Date: June 9, 2014 Resolution#: By-law#: Report#: CLD-015-14 File#: Subject: HIRING OF A PART-TIME PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER RECOMMENDATIONS: It is respectfully recommended that Council approve the following: 1. THAT Report CLD-015-14 be received for information. Or 1. THAT Report CLD-015-14 be received; and 2. THAT staff be authorized to proceed to hire one new Part-Time Parking Officer. Submitted by: - ° ;_ .-Reviewed by: :-Anne=free ee, 9A, Franklin Wu CMO Municipal Clerk Chief Administrative Officer CAG CORPORATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CLARINGTON 40 TEMPERANCE STREET, BOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO L1C 3A6 T 905-623-3379 REPORT NO.: CLD-015-14 PAGE 2 1. BACKGROUND At the General Purpose and Administration Committee Meeting of May 26, 2014, the following resolution was passed: Resolution #GPA-364-14 THAT Staff be directed to prepare a report, for the General Purpose and Administration Committee of June 9, 2014, on the possibility of hiring one part-time parking officer; and THAT the report include details regarding Sunday coverage. 2. Current STAFFING LEVELS Our existing Parking Enforcement Unit consists of two full-time Parking Enforcement Officers (PEO) and one part-time PEO. The full-time PEOs work 35 hours per week, _j Monday through Friday, during the hours of 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, while the part-time PEO works a maximum of 24 hours per week, and may be scheduled Monday through Sunday at the discretion of the Manager and in accordance with the Employment Standards Act, 2000, S.0. 2000, c. 41 (ESA). Hours are typically scheduled between 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM with occasional Saturdays. The work hours for the full-time PEOs is set out in the Collective Agreement and the hours for the part-time PEO may be scheduled anytime (ie. 24 hours per day, 7 days per week) within the limits of the ESA. Additionally, staff are scheduled to work overtime to address the 3:00 AM - 5:00 AM infractions (approximately one shift a month) and to work in cooperation with our snow ploughs during the winter months to assist with vehicle removal. Generally speaking our part-time PEO enforces parking in the downtown areas in Bowmanville, Newcastle and occasionally Orono, and our full-time PEOs respond to parking complaints in our residential and commercial/industrial areas. That said however, all of our PEOs are all equally trained and qualified to respond to any type of parking control issue and are dispatched as appropriate to maximize our workforce resources. 3. Current SERVICE LEVELS Ticket Volume (Excludes Meter and Pa king Permit Revenue) Detail Quantity Fine/Revenue Average Annual Tickets issued 5500 $67, 298 based on last 4 ears Average Monthly tickets issued 475 $7000 based on 2014 Year-to-date REPORT NO.: CLD-015-14 PAGE 3 3.1. Top Five Violations (based on 2014 year-to-date) 1. Parked Between The Hours of 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM 2. Parked At Expired Meter 3. Stopped So As to Interfere with Snow Clearing 4. Parked on Private Property Without Owners Consent (usually issued by Private Parking Authority) 5. Parked Longer Than 3 Hours Complaint Volume Detail Quantity Average Monthly Complaints 50 Average length of monitoring period per 6-8 weeks complaints 3.2 Top Three Complaints (based on 2014 year-to-date) 1. Parked Longer Than 3 hours 2. Parked Between The Hours of 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM 3. Parked On/Over Sidewalk Accumulated Hours of overtime in 2013, taken in pay or time-in-lieu totaled 316 hours at time and a half equals a payout of 474 hours. Of this time, 156 hours were accumulated for evening or nighttime enforcement (payout of 234 hours). 3.3 Meter Revenue The approach to parking enforcement is a combination of proactive and reactive based on complaints. In the commercial areas (ie. Downtown core), enforcement is more proactive and results in approximately 17% of our tickets with 50% of our parking revenue being generated through the meters. 4. SERVICE LEVEL CHALLENGES Our existing complement enables our PEOs to regularly patrol the downtown commercial areas on a daily basis (primarily Monday through Saturday) and to respond within 24-48 hrs/days to complaints regarding "day-time" issues in all other areas of our Municipality. Our response time to "evening" issues is greater and in some cases up to two weeks with response times for "nighttime" issues often being up to three weeks. REPORT NO.: CLD-015-14 PAGE 4 Our limitations to improving our response times are directly related to budget and staffing resources. Although our PEOs are entitled to overtime pay, in an effort to limit overhead costs, they regularly take time-in-lieu when they work beyond their 35 hours; thus, leaving the unit short-staffed when the time owed to them is taken. To comply with the Collective Agreement, our part-time PEO is limited to working 24 hours per week and therefore additional hours are only available to the part-time PEO when he is filling in for a full-time PEO or other rare instances. While we have flexibility in scheduling the part-time PEO's hours, he is just one person and cannot reasonably address the commercial areas during the day and the over-night issues as well. 5. SERVICE LEVEL OPPORTUNITIES An additional part-time PEO would complement our existing services by providing greater flexibility in addressing "evening" and "overnight" parking issues in a more cost- effective manner without compromising our existing service levels. Thus far in 2014, our PEOs have worked a total of seven overnight shifts. This results in 5 hours of overtime per officer and typically they work in pairs. If taken in overtime pay, this amounts to approximately $450 each time. If, the PEO chooses to take time- in-lieu, this amounts to 7.5 hours accumulation per PEO per shift. On average approximately 140 tickets are issued during the night, which translates to approximately $2100 in fines per shift. As well, the PEOs have worked a number of shifts in cooperation with the Operations Department's snow clearing. Therefore, in 2014, thus far, overnight parking enforcement resulted in a net fine revenue of $19,620 with labour costs amounting to $9300. It is worth noting, that should the PEOs take all of their overtime in time-in-lieu it would amount to a total of 45 days where one of our existing complement are not working (in addition to vacation entitlements). Thus far in 2014, if we had one additional part-time PEO, a total of 24 hours of enforcement time would be added to our existing costs and fine revenues. If this part- time PEO worked the same 3:00 AM — 5:00 AM shifts (instead of a full-time PEO as detailed above) our net fine revenue would be the same. Also worth noting, our staff complement would be fully staffed more consistently with the reduction of time-in-lieu accumulation. The total annual salary costs (including employment costs) for one additional part-time PEO is $34,100. The estimated fine revenue generated by the additional part-time PEO, based on existing evening, weekend and overnight volumes is estimated at $2,500 - $3,000 per week (based on existing ticket volumes). Equally, if not more importantly, the additional part-time PEO would enable our Parking Enforcement Unit to increase our service level standards by responding to evening and overnight issues within 24-48 hours. REPORT NO.: CLD-015-14 PAGE 5 Please note, the addition of one part-time PEO will not completely eliminate the requirement for our existing full-time PEOs to work overtime, but it will assist in reducing it. As well, the addition of one part-time PEO will not enable us to provide 24/7 parking enforcement. The addition of one part-time PEO will allow us to improve our service level standards by providing additional staffing resources, greater flexibility for meeting evening and overnight needs, while allowing us to continue to respond to the many daytime needs in the downtown and residential areas and school safety zones. The initial outlay of expenses to add an additional PEO to our Unit is estimated at $3,000, which would include uniforms, additional software licence, handheld unit (which is also a cell phone) and printer, and training. In late 2013, a new software system was deployed to automate the issuing of parking tickets and to streamline our management and tracking of tickets. By automating our ticket issuing, we have essentially eliminated the manual keying of our tickets into our database. As well, this system provides for real-time on-line ticket payment which is much more convenient for our clients and eliminates keying of payments and reduces opportunity for errors. Streamlining these processes has reduced the clerical work that was traditionally done by our PEOs which enables them to focus more on enforcement. Having these new tools available to staff means that an increase in ticket volume will have a minimal impact on the entry, management, tracking and payment processing activities performed by our clerical support staff. 6. CONCURRENCE: Not Applicable 7. CONCLUSION: Our Parking Enforcement Unit provides exceptional service given our complement size and financial resources. An additional part-time PEO will enable the Parking Enforcement Unit to provide more consistent enforcement during evenings and overnight, maintain our existing daytime service levels in our commercial/downtown areas, and maintain if not improve our response times to daytime residential parking concerns. Should Council wish to maintain our existing service levels it is recommended that this report be received for information. Should it be Council's desire to improve our parking enforcement service levels, it is recommended that Council authorize the hiring of an additional permanent part-time PEO. CONFORMITY WITH STRATEGIC PLAN — Maintain financial stability Staff Contact: Anne Greentree, Municipal Clerk Attachments: None List of interested parties to be advised of Council's decision: None