Township council will give notice it plans to terminate a three-way service sharing agreement for the services of a bylaw enforcement and property standards officer.
The municipality plans to utilize more of the employee’s time in Mapleton.
Since June of 2014, Mapleton has been sharing the services of bylaw enforcement and property standards officer Maurita Boyle with North Perth and Perth East. Shared costs include wages (based on each municipality’s usage), cell phone, laptop, training courses, memberships to professional organizations, clothing and other equipment costs.
Mapleton will continue to share Boyle’s services with North Perth. She will work up to 24 hours a week in the township and up to 10 in North Perth. The current allocation is for her to work up to 14 hours in Mapleton.
A report presented at the Sept. 22 council meeting indicates Mapleton chief building official Patty Wright feels the township would benefit from additional hours from Boyle, who would be cross-trained to assist in other areas.
“The bylaw enforcement officer would be trained for septic inspection in preparation for a possible septic re-inspection program and to provide additional support to the building department,” Wright stated.
“At present there are by-laws and records to update, and the additional hours could be utilized for these administrative duties.”
The report also notes the building department is a “financially self-supporting” department.
“As the wages are paid from building department revenue there will be no adverse effect on the tax base,” Wright stated. She said keeping up with paperwork and getting files up to date are among the key areas where the local building department could use additional hours.
Councillor Lori Woodham suggested council hold off on any staffing changes until after a new CAO is hired.
Former CAO Patty Sinnamon was let to on July 2. The township has hired the consulting firm of Bellchamber and Associates to assist with the recruitment process, which is expected to be completed by late November.
“I would like to defer this report. I think we are in a transition,” said Woodham.
She also said township staff received a memorandum from Mayor Neil Driscoll on Aug. 25 indicating there would be no changes to staffing “until our CAO has had a chance to realign responsibilities.”
“I didn’t say there would be no changes … my letter to staff meant there would be no more firings in my mind,” replied Driscoll. “That’s not to say if someone grossly didn’t do their job that council couldn’t very quickly change their mind.”
In October of 2014, four public works management positions were eliminated and three new positions were created as a result of a previous round of restructuring facilitated by Bellchamber. The same consulting firm assisted with the process that led to the June 20, 2014 hiring of public works director and acting CAO Brad McRoberts to replace former works director Larry Lynch, who was terminated in December of 2013.
Councillor Michael Martin asked “is there a sense of urgency” to the need for the additional manpower? “Do we have a backlog of work that would be detrimental to the department if it’s not done?”
“We are behind on our paper work and we are behind on our files. Is that detrimental? Is that an urgency? In all fairness, no,” said Wright. However, she added, “I don’t want it to get too far behind.”
Comments from Driscoll indicated a problem in terms of scheduling the employee’s time between the three municipalities.
“Two municipalities are cooperating very well with the calendar and there’s one that unfortunately doesn’t understand the calendar,” he stated.
Driscoll said he felt additional hours allocated to bylaw enforcement could be well utilized.
“We are getting a lot of complaints about the illegal businesses running out in the municipality and it’s been a long time since anyone looked into it,” he stated. “I think this is a promising recommendation from the building department.”
Martin suggested Mapleton could learn from the experience of a neighbouring municipality that, “took it in-house and made a full-time position then quickly realized there is not enough work for a full-time bylaw officer.”
“There is no way we could support a full-time position. I agree with that completely,” said Wright. “I’m looking at a multi-purpose situation – up to 24 hours max.”
A motion by Woodham, seconded by Martin, to defer acceptance of the report for further information was defeated, with only Woodham voting in favor.
A motion to accept the report passed with only Woodham opposed.
