Corporate Administration Committee

Corporate Administration Committee

info@hamiltoncatch.org

June 7/06 Report
Actual Start Time: 9:35 am. In camera: 11:37 am

Attendance :

Councillors Braden , Bruckler, Collins, Mitchell, Pearson, Samson (Chair), Whitehead. Councillor Mitchell left meeting at 11:10 a.m.

Also Present :

C. Graham, Human Resources
G. Peace, City Manager
J. Rinaldo, Finance and Corporate Services
J. Lee, Customer Service, Equity and Access
M. Carter, Access and Equity Coordinator
S. Stewart, Public Works
L. Friday, Taxation
J. Kay, Hamilton Emergency Services
R. Male, Financial Services
M. Amorosi, Employment and Client Services
Councillor McHattie (in 9:46 , out 10:54 , for item 7.1)

Media:

Hamilton Spectator (McIntyre)

CATCH

Roberts

1. CHANGES TO THE AGENDA

(a) Delegation request from Jake Sudac, District Manager Dufferin Construction, respecting Bid Disqualification for paving contract tender for Red Hill Valley Project, Mainline Paving, Mud St. Interchange to QEW Interchange (In camera for this item)

(b) Added Report - City of Hamilton/Ministry of Transportation Dedicated Gas Tax Funding Agreement (FCS06064) (City Wide) (Added as Item 8.5)

Typographical Errors as follows:

Page 4 of Report and Pages 6 and 20 of Appendix "B"- Labour Relations Section:
ATU 107 (January 1, 2004 - December 31, 2007 ) should read ATU 107 ( January 1, 2004 - December 31, 2006 )

(d) Distribution of Power Point Presentations for the following items:

7.1 John Yardley, Ph.D., Director, Workplace Health Research Laboratory, Brock University , respecting results of the Employee Survey

7.2 City of Hamilton Human Resources Annual Report - Human Resources Activity 2005 (HUR06009) (City Wide)

7.3 City of Hamilton Workforce Profile/Demographic Report (HUR06010) (City Wide)

5. CONSENT ITEMS

No Discussion on these items
(Pearson/Bruckler)

5.1 Minutes of Various Advisory Committees (FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY

5.1.1 Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities - April 4, 2006

5.1.2 GLBT Advisory Committee

(a) February 8, 2006

(b) March 8, 2006

5.1.3 Mundialization Committee

(a) January 19, 2006

(b) March 22, 2006

5.1.4 Advisory Committee on Immigrants and Refugees - January 12, 2006
(Note: Due to bulk, copies of this material have been distributed electronically to members of Council. Minutes can be accessed via the City of Hamilton website.)

5.2 Monthly Status Report of Tenders and Requests for Proposals for April 12, 2006 - May 16, 2006 (FCS06016(c)) (City Wide)

5.3 Authorization to Enter into Extension Agreements on Specific Properties for Payment of Property Tax Arrears (FCS06056) (City Wide)

5.4 Red Hill Valley Project Financial Status Report to April 30, 2006 (FCS06004(e)/PW06004(e)) (City Wide)

7. STAFF PRESENTATIONS
(Braden/Mitchell) To receive

7.1 John Yardley, Ph.D., Director, Workplace Health Research Laboratory, Brock University, respecting results of the Employee Survey
Power Point presentation topics: Human Resources Strategy, Employee Satisfaction Survey, 2006 Employee Survey Results Quality of Work Life, Scale Rating System, Response Rate, Benchmark Comparisons, Graph of Averages, Strategy Indices and Averages, Sector Benchmarking, Importance Rating Use, Graph of Importance, Average Deviation by Job Category, Open Question on Improvement, Healthy Workplace Programs and Next Steps.

Councillor McHattie (referring to a graph): This is an extremely important document. I look forward to seeing it rolled (roled?) out as to what these things really mean to us in changes - at the risk of focusing on one, as there's so much across the whole document . Item 26 - satisfaction with strategic leadership. That was not the top of the list by any means, it was down around 39%, although it was listed as fairly important in the (Graph of Importance) - so the gap was significant enough.

I wonder if you can help me understand the EFS (Scale - not sure what EFS stands for) category a bit better - what it means to us. We always struggle with - as a board of directors, as a city council, should we be doing more strategic level policy setting and perhaps treading less in the day to day details of the operation of the city. What impact that has on staff who may see it as our role to undertake some of those day to day stuff, and may see the role of councilors as interfering at some level. So I'm trying to understand that dynamic because that's something that we can control directly (I think here he says "not sure we can control it") - but we can address that directly as a councilor in the way that we operate strategically?

Yardley : (says something about adding a new line), because I think it's a very important one because I think the relationship between council to senior management team is a very important one of demonstrating modeling what needs to be done inside the organization. And so to the extent to which you are working well together should be reflected in the terms of behaviour that senior managers have to their directors and then down through the organization. Absolutely. Just to give you an example out of the media this morning. (Here he refers to someone in the TTC resigning because he was not able to do his job because of interference of politicians.) So the issue becomes one of how do you manage as a councilor, as someone who's an elected official who has a responsibility to the citizens to ensure that wise decisions are made and that you stand in governance over your senior management staff. At the same time trust your senior management staff to do a good job and to work together as best you can because there's a tension between the political side and the staff management side - work as best you can to do your utmost to make sure the city of Hamilton is either a great place to work in or has great outcomes. And what you are putting your finger on is exactly what needs to be done in terms of healing, if there is a need for healing, across the senior levels of your organization which is both political and management. It's all about corporate governance that we're getting into now. What is the appropriate role for a councilor vis a vis a senior manager? When is it appropriate for a councilor to say something publicly or privately to senior management about an issue and I can't answer any of those things, because you have to make your own decisions on a day to day basis. But every time that's done in the way that either puts senior management in a position that's untenable or difficult for them, that destroys part of the relationship that you have with them. But every time it's done positively, it builds it. And this is this "trust" thing, there has to be trust here, there has to be fairness here, and there has to be respect here and that has to be modeled all the way down through the organization. I don't know if I've gone off in a tangent, but you started to talk about something that's very, very important. And the worst thing, I think, in this survey about whether staff understood council decisions, and it's not very strong. It's very difficult for a person in the front line to understand why it is council made the decision - probably never were aware of the entire debate and all the issues that went into making that decision. And so it's rated low too, way down there in the low 50's. Now I didn't put it up on the screen - it wasn't something we were going to talk about, but it is in the survey and . speaks to some of those disconnects.

7.2 City of Hamilton Human Resources Annual Report - Human Resources Activity 2005 (HUR06009) (City Wide)
Power Point presentation

7.3 City of Hamilton Workforce Profile/Demographic Report (HUR06010) (City Wide)
Power Point presentation

8. DISCUSSION ITEMS

8.1 Manulife Financial - Renewal of the 2006 Financial Agreement for Employee Benefits (HUR06007) (City Wide)

8.2 Treasurer's Report - 2005 Fiscal Year by James P. Marshall (FCS06061) (City Wide)

8.3 Fee Waiver Request for CANUSA Games Golf Tournament (GRA06005(l)) (Ward1)

8.4 Correspondence from Cindy Sue McCormack, Chair, Committee Against Racism, respecting the Caledonia Dispute and the Effects on the City of Hamilton

Chair Samson refers to p. 2 of the letter from Customer Service, Access and Equity Division, Committee Against Racism and notes the number of requests for this committee to deal with.

Staff has handed out the committee's response in the form of a Draft Motion with 5 proposals on how to approach the Committee's concerns.

Councillor Braden wants to have it addressed item by item; Councillor Whitehead asks for it to be taken as a whole.

Jane Lee and Maxine Carter make general comments.

Lee remarks on unfortunate incidents in Hamilton in respect to aboriginals as a result of incidents occurring in Caledonia - asks the city to make a statement to denounce all forms of racism - many issues relate to media reporting - letter asks "Strengthening Hamilton's Community Initiative to advise its Hamilton Media Advisory Council to facilitate a meeting of local media on proactive measures to provide respectful, unbiased, and equitable local media reporting that offers equal opportunities for Aboriginal specific reporting mechanisms ."(from the letter).

Whitehead requests that recommendations (a) to (e) be moved in its entirety. Braden asks that it be moved item by item.

Collins asks for context of item (d) in letter re the media. "Is there some claim that the local media has not treated the matter in an unbiased or equitable fashion to date?" Lee answers that "perhaps not all sides of the dispute and all sides of the impact on our community that are being reflected and that they are specifically requesting that aboriginal specific reporting mechanisms and media be included in the dialogue to make sure that there is equitable reporting."

Maxine Carter states, in answer to a question from Councillor Bruckler , that there has not been any dialogue between the Strengthening Hamilton's Community and Community Against Racism, "they have had individual dialogue with both chairs." Bruckler then asks if this is "redundant" (referring I assume to the motion before them) and Carter replies "absolutely not" and that the Committee feels the Mayor and councilors should make a clear statement to the general public.

Samson : "Individuals on the committee have done this. We have never taken a stand as it has never come before us."

Braden : "I think there are things in here that we can agree with easily and we want to be seen to be leaders or co-leaders in saying these things are important to us . As soon as we get down into details with particular groups it appears that we're deciding in this whole problem which things are the important things . I don't want to be seen in any way to be taking sides. I want to join the ??? in saying that we have a problem and I would urge that we bring it to the attention of others and try to solve it in a way that we believe . (this is) a more wholesome approach to take than beginning to get into details with particular groups . because we begin then to be giving a certain weighting(?) to certain individual groups . and it contributes to all the things I don't want to be part of.

(Comments off mic) Braden : Anyway that makes it open, because this isn't just a decision about aboriginal issues. There are people that are not aboriginals that are in this issue as well and I don't want to begin to talk about a whole lot of (interrupted by conversation off mic) Braden : I just think that at the beginning we're great (referring to draft motion) and that when we get to the bottom we're in trouble.

Whitehead states that because of what is happening in Caledonia , there is a ripple effect in Hamilton for aboriginal people who live here. "They're tainted because of the controversy happening in Caledonia " - need to make a strong statement -

(more conversation off mic) Decision is to vote on the motion item by item.

Motion for draft motion

Unanimous vote for items a, b, c.
Braden wants to be recorded as opposed to item d, e, others in favour.

Motion is carried.

8.5 Added Report - City of Hamilton/Ministry of Transportation Dedicated Gas Tax Funding Agreement (FCS06064) (City Wide) (Added as Item 8.5)

11:37pm In Camera for added agenda item (a).