PERIOD REPORT
DATE: January 4, 2016 Report No. ADM-16-002
TO: Laurie Hurst, Chief Administrative Officer
FROM: Anja Nurvo, Director of Corporate Services
SUBJECT:TITLE Corporate Services - 2015 Third Period ReportBody
The following is a report on the activities pertaining to the Corporate Services Department from September 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.
I. DIVISION ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. Corporate Services
• Staff completed the following:
o 34 notices, agendas, minutes and action reports for Regular, Special and In Camera meetings of Council and Committee of the Whole, including posting on the Township’s website
o 32 newspaper notifications and advertisements
o 10 Proclamations prepared and posted
• Issued 19 new Business Licences (compared with 21 during this period in 2014); total number of active businesses: 692 (compared with 654 in 2014)
• Administrative Assistant was appointed by Province as Commissioner for Taking Affidavits, in order to prepare certified copies and witness legal documents in the absence of the Corporate Officer
• Corporate Officer completed 10 electronic registrations at the Land Title Office (33 total for 2015)
• Corporate Officer responded to 10 requests for access to records under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (36 total for 2015); 2 were appealed to the Information and Privacy Commissioner and are now closed
• Retained a facilitator to conduct an intensive training workshop in Records Management for administrative staff from all departments
• Conducted research and prepared 11 staff reports for consideration by Council on various topics (42 total for 2015)
• Director of Corporate Services, in her capacity as Secretary for the Vancouver Island Chapter of the Local Government Management Association, took part in organizing and coordinating the Annual Conference, and attended the Conference held in Nanaimo November 18-20
• Corporate Officer completed updating of the Consolidated Zoning Bylaw (last previous update was June 2014)
• Staff attended a training session on Robert’s Rules of Procedure and Minute Taking hosted by the CRD
2. Communications
Communications Analytics Summary:
Legistar:
• 214 page views (all pages in the Granicus system)
• 177 total visits (total number of times visitors came to the site)
• 177 total unique visitors (60% desktop, 40% mobile)
• 284 external media stream views*:
o most popular: 78 views August 17th Council meeting
o * media stream views represent the total number of views of all live and on demand media during the period
Website Google:
• 385,324 page views - decrease of 15% from previous period
• Most popular page: home page (9%)
Facebook:
• Current period: 85 new Facebook likes, an overall increase of 20%
Communications Activities:
• Support for Westside Solutions Wastewater Treatment project as part of a regional communications team working on project communications strategy, public engagement, media relations and event coordination
• Support to Township departments on program announcements and initiatives: Admirals Road, Official Community Plan Review kickoff survey, EVP Request for Proposals, Westbay Neighbourhood Design Guidelines
• Continued with program of news releases and newsletters, posting 43 news releases to the website and issuing 9 releases using regional news media contact list. Topics of news releases included:
o Royal BC Museum Installs Interpretive Display
o Township Raises Port Angeles Flag for RibFest
o Township Recognized with Community Excellence Award at UBCM Convention
o Township Issues RFP for Esquimalt Village Project
o Fire Prevention Week
o Launching of Official Community Plan Review
o Crews Respond to Gorge Oil Spill
o Esquimalt Council Votes to Join New Regional Strategy and Model for Economic Development
o Crews Complete Investigation of Gorge Oil Spill
• Worked with departments on revising and adding web content to corporate website
• Project co-lead, with I.T. Manager, of website redesign phase 1 (new content management system and design update)
• Daily updating of website home page with news and events features and regular updating of mobile website home page
• Daily media monitoring using Google Alerts, media outlet websites and social media; forwarding information to staff where appropriate. Posting of news clippings and links to internal website for staff information. 82 news items (8% increase) posted to media monitoring section of internal website
• Daily updating on internal website The Bridge, posting content of interest to staff, including announcements, news items, videos, safety information, photos and photo galleries
• On behalf of the Township, liaising with advertising representatives from print, broadcast and electronic media on major advertising opportunities
• Graphic Standards II: applied new standards to a number of publications
• Daily monitoring of social media sites and posting of information:
o Approximately 76 tweets and retweets posted to Twitter
o 152 new followers added
o 41 timeline posts to Facebook
o 85 new Facebook likes (62 last period), an overall increase of 20%
• Regular e-mail broadcasts to news, events and newsletter subscribers to the corporate website
• Assisted with promotion of community events and media photo opportunities, posting some 25 event announcements to the website, including:
o Major curling announcement
o Port Angeles Flag Raising
o Holiday movies
o Celebration of Lights
o Cars, Rods and Rides
o Mayor’s Open Door Events
o Township Classics
o Esquimalt RibFest
o Sculpture Splash
• Writing assignments included speeches and speaking notes, event notices, news items, newsletter, advertising and web content
• Editing, writing and design of October 2015 “Current” Newsletter. Stories included:
o Mayor’s Message
o Community Plan Review kicks off
o Esquimalt Village Project Update
o Admirals Road Completion
o New Playgrounds in Parks
o News in Brief
o Community Events
• Continued coordination of Township editorial and advertising in the Victoria Times Colonist’s “Experience Esquimalt”
Times Colonist “Experience Esquimalt”, 2015 Third Period Summary
|
Issue |
Editorial |
Advertisement |
|
Dec 2015 |
• Celebration of Lights • Christmas Tree Village |
• New Program and Event Guide |
3. Archives
• Another grant application has been submitted to Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC, seeking support for Phase II of the “Capturing our History: Esquimalt Archives Image Digitization Project,” involving up-loading of 1,200 historical photographs along with 400 relevant textual images (post cards, posters, maps, sketches, etc.).
• On November 22nd, Archivist and volunteer staff participated in the Bay Street Armoury 100th Anniversary Celebration. The Township’s display included the home front during WWII, as well as our WWI banner that currently hangs in the Esquimalt branch of the public library.
• On November 12th, Archivist made a return visit to the Cook Street Village Activity Centre, for another demonstration of the “Capturing Our History” digitization website.
• Archives volunteer Emma Hughes has been appointed to the position of Chair of the Southern Vancouver Island Group - Archives Association of BC.
• Valuable assistance was given to UVic “A City Goes to War” project. The educational website offering information, graphics, stories and historical photographs depicting WWI and its effect on Greater Victoria can be viewed at <https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/esquimaltduringwwI/>.
• We continue to assist with research on the UVic sponsored project on “Asian Canadians on Vancouver Island.” The website tells stories about Asian pioneers on Vancouver Island and their interaction with First Nations.
• New acquisitions over this period include:
o series of photographs of the Victoria Athletics baseball team of the 1940s
o the history of railways on Vancouver Island, with a major emphasis on the E & N Railway
o set of 35 mm colour slides depicting the 1972 Buccaneer Days Parade
• There were 86 logged requests for information/assistance/tours, some summarized below. 29 were walk-ins and 29 related to furnace enquiries from the fire department.
o the Magazine Exchange, an organization that collected and distributed magazines to service men and women during WWII
o Captain Richard Mayne (RN), a noted surveyor and explorer who surveyed large sections of the BC Coast in his vessel HMS Hecate, and wrote “Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island”
o research pertaining to a new book on early Japanese Canadians in Victoria entitled “Sakura in Stone: Victoria’s Japanese Legacy”
o the Military Convalescent Hospital in Esquimalt, which helped form part of the story about “Muggins” the little dog used as a fundraiser during WWI
o the Royal Visit of Edward the Prince of Wales to Esquimalt in 1919
o additional historical photographs for a new edition of the book “The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast”
o the 50th Gordon Highlanders and the history of sports at Work Point Barracks and Fort Macaulay
o the Gorge Vale Golf Club, in particular historical details regarding the golf course and the BC Agricultural Land Commission
• Research on houses, apartments and commercial buildings in Esquimalt continues to be popular with 7 requests being made by residents.
• Archivist’s article on the Township’s first Mayor, Charles Lugrin, appeared in a September issue of Victoria News.
• Archivist wrote a brief article for the Winter 2015 Active Living Guide that focused on the history of ship building and repair in Esquimalt.
• Director of Parks and Recreation was assisted with solving the mystery of a gravestone that suddenly appeared in Saxe Point Park in October.
• Archivist photographed 2 houses prior to the Township issuing final demolition permits.
• Archivist worked with the Communications Coordinator in a submission to Heritage BC’s photograph competition of a “Distinctive Destination” in their municipality to be used on the Heritage Week poster.
• A total of 100 walking tour packages were handed out by Archives staff and volunteers directly to the general public.
• Our team of seven volunteers contributed a total of 595 hours, working on a variety of projects, including:
o review and organize the contents of three boxes of material and several binders (photographs, textual material) received from Parks & Recreation
o organize press releases from 2004 to 2007
o research historic photographs in order to add additional information, scanning and supporting the creation of finding aids
o review local newspapers and clip articles pertaining to Esquimalt - events, history, personalities - to reduce the number of storage boxes presently required
4. Human Resources
• Job Evaluation
o Three Job Evaluation appeals have been conducted and, as yet, are not resolved. A further three Evaluations were conducted and resolved with no change in cost to the Township.
o The Township steadfastly insists that neither increase nor decrease in value will occur in the absence of new and different responsibilities - not just a few task changes.
• Labour Relations
o IAFF
A five year IAFF Agreement was concluded effective from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2016 at rates prevailing in the GVLRA. Labour relationships within the IAFF bargaining unit appear to be improving as new management approaches are fostering trust.
o CUPE
Our current CUPE Local 333 voted to transfer its membership to CUPE Local 374 which will now represent similar employee groups in Oak Bay, Sidney, North Saanich, Colwood, Sooke and Metchosin. The effects of this change are as yet unknown as their application for successorship is currently before the Labour Relations Board; however we do know that an Esquimalt employee will be a Unit Vice President of CUPE Local 374 and sit on their executive. Issues related to collective bargaining will still fall under the umbrella of GVLRA.
Arising out of the Union successorship, the Township is endeavouring to determine what, in the eyes of the Labour Relations Board, the terms “Union officials” and “representatives of the Union” mean. In other words, with successorship in place, can such persons be members of another Municipality’s CUPE Local 374 workforce or must they be CUPE employees of Esquimalt.
Twenty-one outstanding grievances were scheduled for arbitration before Arbitrator Ready in January and February of 2016. As a result of three informal meetings with the new Union Executive and one formal meeting - attended by the National Representative for the Union and Adriana Wills for the Township - we have resolved fifteen of those issues.
Of the six that remain, two may be resolved - one without cost and another with a nominal payment. The remaining four grievances, involving one person and consisting of four separate, but related, disciplinary letters and suspensions, will proceed to the Ready Arbitration.
• Long Service Awards
Township Long Service Awards to employees with lengthy service were provided to recipients by the Mayor at a well-received ceremony on December 1st. At the same ceremony, two Firefighters were presented Service Awards by the BC Fire Commissioner, Gord Anderson [at one time Deputy Fire Chief in our Township].
• General
o Flu shots were provided to 35 staff on November 6th.
o A draft New Employee Orientation package has been circulated for review by all departments.
II. COMMITTEES
• Director of Corporate Services organized recruitment of the vacant position on the Advisory Planning Commission
• In their roles as Recording Secretary, staff organized, attended, recorded and transcribed minutes, prepared notices and agendas and completed all required follow up for Advisory Committees, Te’mexw Treaty Advisory Committee and Labour Management meetings
• Staff coordinated 3 Mayor’s Open Door meetings
• Staff made arrangements for registration, travel and accommodation for 2016 LGLA, AVICC, FCM, UBCM Conferences and other Council workshops