After three days of discussions on a draft review of municipal services, Mapleton council plans further research, including inviting public input, before deciding on any potential action.
In March, council directed township staff to conduct a service review in response to public concerns expressed through a Township of Mapleton Council Report Card survey. Asked to rate council’s overall performance, about 13% of respondents indicated they were very satisfied, 26% were satisfied, 34% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 19% were dissatisfied and 8% were very dissatisfied.
A mission statement approved by council on May 10 indicates the purpose of the review is, “To provide council with a comprehensive awareness of the services offered by the township and to identify those services which should remain as they are, be made more efficient, enhanced, reduced, or eliminated.”
A draft service review was presented to council last month and council went through the 188-page report at special meetings on Sept. 29, 30 and Oct. 3. It provides a range of options in terms of maintaining, increasing or decreasing staffing and service in all areas of municipal operations.
Mayor Neil Driscoll said the meetings resulted in council asking staff to provide further information on some topics. Once that process is complete, Driscoll said council intends to hold a public meeting.
“We want the public’s input and we want to approve something before we go to budget,” he said.
The review, which compares the staffing and service levels of Mapleton (population 9,989) to those of three other municipalities, Minto (population 8,334), Wellington North (population 11,447) and Adjala-Tosorontio (population 10,603), indicates the township is operating efficiently, given current resource levels, says Driscoll.
“It sure shows that we operate efficiently for the staff that we have, compared to the other municipalities,” he said. “But it then opens it up if the residents want some more services, we need to add more people and/or equipment to do that.”
The draft report shows that, based on full-time equivalent figures (FTE) Mapleton has the lowest number of employees per square kilometer and the second lowest FTE number per 1,000 population of the municipalities in the study.
Mapleton has the equivalent of 34 full-time employees (26 full time, 17 part-time), while Minto has 41.75 (38 full time, 11 part time), Wellington North 42.3 (37 full time, 11 part time) and Adjala-Tosorontio 29 (29 full time).
The report indicates Mapleton’s administration, finance, building and bylaw enforcement department operations are relatively consistent with the comparator municipalities.
One area where a significant disparity was noted is economic development.
“On a total and per capita basis it is recognized that Minto invests significantly more funds towards economic development initiatives than Mapleton or the other comparators,” the report states.
Mapleton has a full-time economic development coordinator who receives some administrative support, for a total of 1.1 FTE in that department. Minto’s FTE for economic development is 2.4, while Wellington North’s is 1.3 and Adjala-Tosorontio does not have an economic development department.
Mapleton budgeted $223,489 for economic development in 2016, compared to $605,209 in Minto ($487,709 for economic development, $117,500 for tourism), $152,191 in Wellington North and zero in Adjala-Tosorontio.
Driscoll said some consideration is being given to beefing up the economic development department in Mapleton, but he noted the community doesn’t have the same concerns as some of the other municipalities.
“There was talk of hiring a helper for the economic development department so they could do more big-picture things, but honestly I think council is split. We want to see if our residents are going to see a benefit from doing more in the economic development department before we jump into that,” said Drisoll.
“We don’t have empty storefronts that we need to be promoting.”
Driscoll also suggested an additional staff member could be shared with other departments, as well as economic development.
The draft report points out that other than economic development, the parks, facilities and recreation department(s) contained the most varied service levels among the comparator municipalities.
“It appears that Mapleton and Wellington North are generally on par, however Minto appears to have lower overall expenses per FTE and higher revenues per FTE. This anomaly should be further investigated,” the report indicates.
Driscoll said council wondered, “Do we need more recreation for kids? Do we need to have a recreation programmer in place to promote a lot of these activities?”
The mayor said council asked public works director Jamie Morgan “to go back and talk to Minto, North Perth and Wellington North to find out costs, so we know if it’s a revenue neutral program or not.”
Snow removal is one area Driscoll suggested could be enhanced as a result of the review, particularly sidewalk clearing in urban areas.
“One suggestion is we try and contract those services (sidewalk clearing) out in Alma. The same machine does all three towns. One of the recommendations that council has to consider is, do we start putting sand and salt down on our sidewalks,” Driscoll explained.
“We haven’t had those concerns yet, that people have been falling on the sidewalks, but as one of the councillors stated, even in Drayton when you look at all the hills that our sidewalks are on, it’s just a matter of time.”
The report notes Mapleton has the second lowest winter maintenance cost (per kilometre maintained) among the municipalities compared and lowest sidewalk winter maintenance cost per kilometre maintained.
Driscoll said he feels development of a snow removal policy could be beneficial.
“If we rip up your grass, do we go back and fix it? That’s never been a policy. Yes, it’s probably been done for people but it’s just nice that staff has direction from council,” he said.
“All we’ve ever followed is a minimum maintenance standard. If someone is concerned their road isn’t getting plowed enough, at least staff can say it’s what council approved, or wanted, it’s so many times a day or so many inches of snow…”
In general the report indicates the township’s roads department has the highest total road kilometres per permanent employee and the lowest total roads cost per kilometre of road.
The report raises the idea of a shared human resources director with Minto and Wellington North.
“We want to hear back from our public but that’s another recommendation, to ask Brad (CAO Brad McRoberts) to talk to Minto and Wellington North and “see if we can get something on the go.”
“At various meetings of the Wellington County CAOs, interest had been expressed about such a role to alleviate the CAO from more routine administrative duties and to provide a separation of overall administration from human resources,” the report states.
Not only could a human resources professional streamline the hiring and regulatory process for the township, the position would provide employees with another means to address concerns, said Driscoll.
“We want to ensure our staff have every avenue to get their concerns out.”
The report looks at asset consumption, assessment, tax levy and reserves to determine a net financial position per capita, a “key indicator of financial health.”
Wellington North was considered to have the highest net financial position per capita, at $927, while Mapleton was second at $367, Minto third at $185 and Adjala – Tosorontio fourth at $47.
Driscoll said he is pleased with the review process so far and feels township staff have bought into the project.
“I was really happy with the process. Staff brought back a lot more than I really thought they would.”
