April 26, 2004 Report
Budget meeting - 1:30 pm

Committee Members present: All except B. Kelly and R. Powers.

(Note:  Murray Ferguson Chaired meeting starting at 2:28pm, as Mayor had comments and was out of Chambers.  Mayor DiIanni returned as Chair around 2:58 pm)

Members of the Media present:

• CFMU 93.3 FM  -  M. Hughes
• Hamilton Spectator  - A. Dreschell; E. McGuinness, C. Puxley
• CHML- K. Mann

Staff present that answered questions through the Mayor:

• Kevin Christenson, City Clerk
• Mary Gallagher, Co-coordinator, COW/Council/Strategic Planning and Budgets
• Jim Kay (I think), Acting General Manager, Emergency Services
• Neil Everson, Executive Director, Economic Development
• Brian Shynal , Director of Operations and Maintenance, Public Works
• Verna Radford , Manager, Customer Contact Centre
• Dr. Elizabeth Richardson , Medical Officer of Health
• Joe-Anne Priel, General Manager, Public Health and Community Services
• Glen Peace, Acting City Manager
• Scott Stewart, Director, Capital Planning and Implementation (Public Works)

Mayor calls the meeting to order and asks City Clerk Kevin Christenson if there are any changes to the agenda.

Christenson: "Yes, we have 3 additional reports.

•  2004 Street Tree Program Enhancements - Alternative Service Levels and Funding Strategies (PW03142a) - (CityWide)

•  Reduction of Print Communications Budget (CM04021) - (Corporate Wide)

•  Budget Process Update, April 21"

Mayor : ".Are there any declarations of interest? .C. Horwath " (voice in background - no mic) .o.k. the Clerk has captured that. .C. Ferguson : Are we still on the March 23 agenda. Ok." Mayor : "Verbal motion to approve the minutes of April 21, COW meeting, moved by Pearson , seconded by Collins , all in favour, that's CARRIED."

Mayor: Next item - Capital Projects and Other Reduction Items (FCS04063) . questions or comments? Collins : C. Powers isn't here this afternoon but a number of these were the ones that he offered up in regards to the tree planting process. Can I get staff to comment on the report that's been put? Mayor : Maybe Staff can - is that you Mr. Stewart? Scott Stewart: I'll give you the Public Works (PW) perspective. I think Finance will speak to the dedication. These are clearly the reports that C. Powers asked for.trouble at this stage is that they are dedicated reserves.I don't think Finance can recommend that you can take them out of this and put them towards tree planting. I'll let Tom speak to that.

Mayor : Mr. Neilson(?) Neilson (?): That's correct.these reserves were part of what came over during amalgamation as being dedicated to Dundas and their parks and it's not recommended that these be redirected from those projects to .tree planting or the Hamilton Future Fund.

Mayor :.C. Bruckler : .I noticed somewhere within the Capital budget there were a substantial number of works to be taken out of the Operating budget related to parks. The question I had, recognizing that there's a couple here dedicated to Park Reserves, particularly the Dundas Drive-in Park, which is 90,000 and the Wm. Connell Community Park which is 20,000. .could we utilize those funds for some of the Park Capital projects. These are parkland dedicated reserves, and then utilize the Operating budgets for the Tree Planting Program. A matter of relocating the funding for these projects. Would achieve the same results and give us some money for the tree planting. Staff: .I have to check whether the Dundas - whether there's sufficient parks projects in Dundas to replace the Operating funding with Reserve funding. Also we'd have to comment on whether that's sustainable. You'd be replacing sustainable operating funding with reserve funding, so it would have to be one time.

Bruckler : One time this time would be very welcome with respect to the tree planting or with the tree program.whether it's planting or some other rehabilitation - or some of the other work we're looking in respect to our Tree Enhancement Program. .If staff could come back.I think it's just a matter of reallocating and recognizing that dedicated parkland funds need to be utilized somewhere in the parks system, just a matter of moving it to other areas and then taking the capital of those park projects that have been dedicated as operating budgets and use them for the tree planting. So staff can come back with that for the next meeting, then we could put that one to rest to see if there are any more funds for trees. Mayor : See what other comments come up.

Collins : .I understand that the report centres around dedicated reserves. The policies attached to dedicated reserves are set by this Council. Rinaldo : Some are set by Council, some are set by legislation. For example, development charges are set by, that parkland dedication are dedicated for that purpose under legislation, so those are the kind - area rated ones are set by Council. Collins : The Dundas Parkland Reserve, that's one that was, I'm assuming, was set prior to amalgamation. We've adopted that reserve. I recall amalgamating several former reserves into one new City reserve, whether it was parkland, whether it was in PW. I'm assuming the option is still available to reallocate those funds if it's not a provincially legislated reserve such as development charges, so in the case of the Dundas Parkland Reserve we could.allocate those funds if Council chose to override the original intent of the reserve, per the Councillor's suggestion originally. Is that correct? Rinaldo : Yea. The parkland reserve was collected under the Planning Act would have to be used for parkland purposes. It could be used anywhere in the whole City but it has to be used for parkland purposes if I can clarify that. If that's what the original reserve was set up in the old town of Dundas. That's how it would have to be done. Yes, you could use it anywhere in the City if you want but for parkland purposes. I believe it was under the Planning Act, I'm not sure. Collins : Could you find out those that are parkland reserve. I know the development charge one is a little more difficult to deal with and that's probably a non-starter, but the other ones , I think there might be some leverage there, leeway. Rinaldo : I'll verify that.

Mayor .C. Ferguson : .made references to those items. Does that include all 'a' through 'e' Joe.Drive-in Park, Centennial Park, Community Centre, Connell Community Park, and DARTS? Mayor : .we did get some responses to some of those .for example the DARTS issue, but we'll get an answer to the others. Rinaldo : In terms of the road resurfacing example, this is funded from a regular reserve to that could be redirected. Those kinda things. Parkland one is a question one, I gotta verify, the Dundas one - where is that funded from- (looking in papers) Ferguson : Road Resurfacing it says right there Parkland Reserves. Rinaldo : Is that parkland reserve? Oh, that's parkland reserve as well. That's the ones I gotta verify for you and Wm. Connell Park is development charges, so we can't redirect those funds. .if it was set up under the Planning Act and if it is we have restrictions. Ferguson : The Community Centre retrofit (?), we can move that around? Item 'c'. Rinaldo : ??? included in the budget to begin with. Ferguson : And the DARTS surplus? Rinaldo : As we reviewed it, there is no DARTS surplus. It was a Balance Sheet item, it was a Receivable, it was never set up as a budgetary item as we indicated in that report. Ferguson : ok that whole report, how many funds are available for tree planting? Take out the - 'c' wasn't in, 'b''s not in, is 'd' still in? Rinaldo : .once we figure out exactly what that reserve was, 'a' and 'b' could possibly be used. I need to verify that it wasn't collected under the Parkland Planning Act for parkland purposes. If it is then it can be used.but only for parkland purposes. Ferguson :. 'c' and 'd' leave out? Rinaldo : Yes. Ferguson : So, the likelihood is pretty high - there's no money available in this report. Mayor : .That's the gist of the recommendation from staff, so they just need to clarify whether some of that money can be moved in a couple of those areas. .

C. Whitehead : .focusing back on DARTS, the $400,000 that Joe went to great lengths to explain to me how this has been carried over since 2001. I have 2 questions.How many of these kinds of transactions do we carry on the books over a number of years? Is that standard practice and how many more do we have outstanding and what are the financial implications when we do so? Rinaldo : DARTS was set up under a special ??? because they were running into a cash flow situation. Most of the other agencies we fund are done on a straight budgetary basis. We used to have similar arrangement with RBG and we changed that this year. We have virtually eliminated all of them that have this kind of cash flow arrangement.DARTS at one time was part of the City's operation, then was moved out, kept going back and forth.over the years and that's probably why there's that historical arrangement. I don't know of any other ones like this. Now.we simply make a payment on a basis on the levy and period. That's all we do for like the Conservation Authorities, the RBG, the other boards and agencies. We make a final adjustment once the Council passes the final budget. We do it all within the same year. Whitehead then asks if there are any other carry-overs from 2001 on paper - have others been rectified and is this unique to DARTS? Rinaldo : As far as I know I think we have. I'd like to verify that.that one and the RBG. Whitehead asks if there are "financial implications" when done in that manner. Rinaldo : .it's the opportunity costs of not having the cash here as opposed of not having it there and primarily .when it was done for DARTS back a number of years ago it was to help them, I guess they were borrowing money, so was helping reduce their costs from a cash flow point of view. .set up to get them out of borrowing money from the bank .which ultimately cost the taxpayers more money. Whitehead : .in the report you talked about a small surplus of $56,000. .is there a reason why this $56,000 goes right back into 2003 operations? Rinaldo :.part of the corporate surplus and we take that in account (?) as part of the overall surplus for the operations. The policy has always been that we transfer to the tax stabilization fund one way or the other, on a corporate basis. Whitehead : So that $56,000 would not be available to .transfer over to the tree fund? Rinaldo : If Council wanted to do that, it would be an option. They would take it out of the operating surplus which would come out of the tax stabilization fund at the beginning of the year. Whitehead : ok. That's it for now. Mayor .

Bruckler : For clarification, C. Ferguson said that "d" might be out of the equation.Wm. Connell Park, there is $20,000 there that might be available for parkland dedication. So.not overlook that $20,000. Mayor : That number, plus the $90,000 from 'a' that staff will look at - right? Ok. C. Collins .

Collins : .in regards to the list that's attached, the infrastructure and non-infrastructure related projects, I did ask about the furniture, the $1/2 million for new furniture.can I get an explanation as to where that furniture is going and what it's replacing? Staff (?) states they don't have the answer and will have to get it from the fleet and facility people and will have it ready by Wednesday. Collins : ok. The other issue I would have in relation to the tree issue we're dealing with. The policy issue that relates to public art.1% of all our capital projects dedicates funds to public art, or is supposed to, can I get a confirmation on that? Staff (?): We're working with Anna Branford (?) on bringing forward a new policy. Not all existing capital projects have the 1% in. We're sitting down with Anna and her staff to see the various projects coming up for 2004 to make it work within this budget and then bringing forward a new policy . so that it's incorporated into all our capital projects City-wide. There was some confusion internally on is it just road works or roads plus infrastructure, the underground works.

Collins : And if we wanted to apply that same concept or same principles to infrastructure, whether its road or road and sidewalk or underground or any road allowance work we could apportion a part of the budget from the PW area to tree planting. Along the same lines? Staff: Yes, it's possible . We would need to sit down and indicate - I mean, if we had a budget of $500,000 and you take 1% off to do tree planting, there has to be ramifications to the existing budget so again, where we haven't built it in, that might give us some difficulties in the year 2004 and plus the reasons I want to work with Anna her group so that we're doing this properly in '05 forward. Collins : Last year .we had $3 million positive budget variance related to Public Works, tenders and infrastructure related projects, is that not correct? Staff: That's accurate and that was put back into the resurfacing program.

Collins : If we wanted to . and look towards maybe apportioning the surplus for the year to the tree planting program, or, and I don't want to push the envelope too much because 1% of the PW budget is a lot of money, .if it was ½% or ¼% what kind of $figures are we looking at.? Staff : The Capital budget is roughly $132 million so ¼% .if we were to do something like that, I would maybe say 'up to' so that would maybe help with our nervousness of 'what if the projects don't come in with surplus'.1% of $132 million would give you some magnitude of the dollars. Collins : I'd like to suggest something along those lines.understanding that we don't know how the tenders are going to come back, but based on last year's results of having $3 million which would be in the 1 - 2% range.it sounds like we've had a positive track record of having some surplus monies, and last years as was noted we put it in the resurfacing account, there's nothing that prevents us from putting it into tree planting program. So if I could put that on the table for discussion.

Mayor : .There are no other speakers. But I was going to ask a question .around the surplus that we put towards road resurfacing, how did that process? Did you come before Council for permission, or you just did that? Staff: .We provided a supplementary list and then did it through project updates throughout the year. Mayor : Council approved that supplementary list? Staff : Yes, they did through (interrupted by Mayor ) Mayor : And so that's probably the way to approach this. If there is a surplus to come to us and include the tree planting along with any other priority that might be there and then Council has a chance to make a decision on that. The other is to say whatever's over, just put it towards tree planting. I'm just trying to offer us a choice.

Braden : I'd like to get some money in there and I want to make a suggestion . in the first ??? we had some specific budget lines. There's money in there to do, I think, a comparison of the natural gas and the diesel engine and we're going to do a study. It would appear to me that every major municipality across the whole province, maybe across the whole country, is interested in precisely the same information.(names some organizations) might have some specific information on that.and eliminate the need for a study altogether. .Rather than be quick to spend our own money.if all the information is there that's a $50,000 savings. I'd be real happy to move that from there into tree planting.Certainly no point in doing that study by ourselves. Mayor : Can you just hold that. Let's see if we can bring to conclusion any potential surplus to see if there's a motion coming forward and then I'll take that one as well. Chad, did you, were you making a motion? (answer with no mic)

Merulla : Thank you Mr. Mayor . I have a (interrupted by Mayor ) Mayor : Is that a different item than - ( Merulla talking at same time as Mayor ). Mayor : Ok, go ahead. Merulla : There's $300,000 allocated for ??? for CNRail between Lawrence and - pedestrian bridge between Lawrence and Gage Park. It's been in the books for years now. We'll never get the approvals to pursue it from CN, it's just sitting there .I'd like to take $100,000 from that and put it towards tree planting. Give it $200,000 I think should be shared equally between Wards 3 & 4 for park type of improvements so that'll be my motion. I'll take $100,000 from that, which is now a dedicated fund towards the tree planting. Mayor : Comment from staff on that Jerry?. Staff (Jerry ): There was a report coming forward on the use of that $300,000 to put it towards the bike lanes . . he's prepared a report, that hasn't been approved, but that was the proposal that we were going to bring forward . as advice to Council.

Merulla : .perhaps we can allocate $100,000 to the bike lanes, $100,000 for greenspace in Wards 3 & 4, and $100,000 towards trees. Mayor : When is that report coming forward? Staff (Jerry): In June. Mayor : And we're dealing with it here and now. So if you have a clear motion and a seconder I'll certainly accept it. Merulla : Moved by myself, seconded by Collins , that the $300,000 allocated for the CN pedestrian bridge between Lawrence and Gage be separated into 3 components: $100,000 towards tree planting, $100,000 towards the bike lane, and $100,000 towards park development in Wards 3 & 4. Mayor : Seconder - C. Collins .

Horwath : I just want to confirm with PW that we have money in this budget for bike lanes already. That we have leftover $600,000 from previous years that haven't been allocated plus the $300,000 odd from the adjusted budget that you provided to us Mr. Mayor . Staff: yes, there's $580,000 in previous approved bike lane funding, there's an additional $300,000 in the 2004 budget. Horwath : That's not included in the . report that's coming, right? Staff: Right.

Ferguson : .the motion on the floor, is that not confusing Capital operating yet? Rinaldo : My understanding of the motion, it's just a reallocation of an existing capital project.(interrupted by Ferguson ) Ferguson : Tree planting is capital? (discussion with no mic.) Staff: .Mr. Mayor , you gave us direction to set up a tree planting capital project. I'm assuming this would go directly into that for 2004. Mayor : It's appropriate. All we have to do is to decide that's where we want to go.

Merulla : Can I just emphasize the parkland redevelopment be allocated to Gage Park which over the years has been in decline, so from that perspective, I want to specify Gage Park. Mayor : You can certainly do that. Seconder agrees with that.

Mitchell : .It may be a wise decision to make that change and to do these 3 developments and split that money that way, but. not having heard from staff on where the most need is, whether the job can be completed.I think it's premature.to take funding of capital money and divide it 3 ways before we've seen the full implementation of doing that. .A lot of areas have to be looked at. I don't have a problem with the idea.I think it's a little premature. Mayor :.

Whitehead : .How much were you budgeting of the $300,000 or was it all for the bike lane, and what are the implications if you only get $100,000? Staff: The report coming forward identifies through the Shifting Gears report the total bike needs for the City. The costs involved well exceed the budget .The projects have been prioritized so what we would do is take the available funding in the ??? plus this year's budget allocation, plus the additional $100,000 in this case, then we would go down the list and draw the line at what we could get done in 2004. And we would bring that report back to Council. Mayor : What I heard is that that report is coming, the funding they intended may be a little less. Mayor .

McHattie : Just so I understand the 3 rd $100,000, the 3 rd component of that, is dedicated to Gage Park projects. Are there projects in Gage Park that can move ahead in this year? Merulla : Actually.Gage Park over the last few years has been in decline in maintenance perspective as well as tree planting, so I would leave that up to staff to determine what the priorities are. The esthetics surrounding Gage Park need to be dealt with quite expeditiously. I think the $100,000 is not enough but it will do something.

McHattie : The reason I was concerned and asked that question is if there are projects to go ahead this year.capital projects in Gage Park makes sense. I don't know if we actually saw any in the capital list. We do know that there's actually cycling projects that are slated there and planned that could go ahead with the extra $100,000. In that case there would be $200,000 for bikes and $100,000 for trees, but I didn't know the details.

Merulla : .tree planting in Gage Park - if you notice they have mature trees there and (to staff), when was the last time we ever planted trees in Gage Park? Staff: Certainly not been recently. Merulla : Right, so that would be a priority as well. . Mayor : We have a recommendation that's been moved and seconded. It's in 3 component parts. We all understand the parts. All in favour.CARRIED.

Mayor : Now I would like to just focus on the report itself.We need a recommendation to approve A & B of report.

Whitehead : I just need a clarification. I thought C. Collins was going to be moving a motion and secondly, as a matter of direction, .I'd like to have staff do some research in respect to the federal programs relating to.Kyoto. It's my understanding that there might be opportunities for the industry.relative to that program to further enhance the tree planting opportunities and I would just like to see if we can explore that. . Mayor : .were you going to put a motion Chad? ( Collins speaking w/o mic on). Mayor : C. McHattie did speak.oh gosh, somebody a , somebody take the bull by the horns, do we have a motion C. Collins ?

Collins : Based on last year's announcement I would put that ½% from the capital projects from PW be dedicated for tree planting. The problem I have with setting an up set limit or looking for surpluses, it doesn't guarantee.[END OF TAPE #1, SIDE A].this calendar year instead of finding out after the fact we don't have any thing and we won't plant anything. Mayor : Do you want staff to come back and give us some guidance that for the next meeting. Collins :.I don't mind waiting. Mayor : .alright. Ferguson : ???how much will ½ a million getcha. Collins : Let's say between ½ and 1%, maybe they can come back and comment on that? Mayor : Can staff do that.alright. Thank you. ( Collins comments - no mic)

Mayor : He will do that... Now C. Whitehead on recommendations.on the first page of the first report. Moved by Whitehead , seconded by Braden . Braden : (speaks w/o mic on)??? Mayor : Which? Braden (without mic). Mayor : Isn't something in the works where we're going to be talking about natural gas vs. diesel. Rinaldo : Actually Mr. Hall is already working with London on that whole issue.with other municipalities . he is not duplicating the effort. If it's the project that is dealing with transit, he is working with them on that.

Braden : ??? (no mic.) I find it a ?? to put that money to trees but if we are.no one needs to pay $50,000 to be a partner in this study. That's too heavy, so if we can get something back on that very quickly. That's just too much money. If there's 3 other communities in here, we're not spending $150,000 because we're not geniuses, so somebody needs to look at that, that's just too rich. Staff: We'll take that away and take it under advisement. We'll look at that with the transit folks and get an answer back quickly on what that's for. Mayor : Thank you, so the recommendations then have been moved and seconded, as amended. All in favour.CARRIED.

Mayor : Onto report #3. Follow up Budget Discussion, Customer Contact Centre (CCC) and IP Telephony (FCS04064) Any questions or comments? C. Collins .

Collins : Did we get an answer back in regards to the IP Telephony service disruptions in regards to funds we may be receiving back for the interruption in service? Rinaldo : We're in the process of developing a report on that whole issue. Collins : Do we see any monies we can allocate to certain projects as part of that report? Rinaldo : I don't believe so, but we're still in the process. Collins : I would move that part of that process - that this issue be brought to the Corporate Services Committee for review for possible '05 savings. Mayor : ok We'll take that as direction.

McHattie : I have a question on this report. On p. 4/5 it talks about the potential elimination of the CCC or the automated attendant. My understanding is that people will be able to call in directly to speak to the staff directly through extensions.point #2, elimination of the CCC would result in a decentralized environment for call handling requiring a total of 34 employees. If we are decentralizing the situation and people are calling directly into the City.why do we require an additional 34 employees to implement that system? Verna Radford (staff): Currently, the way the CCC is set up 70% of our calls are handled within the CCC, which means they come to the CCC, we handle them whether it's tax, waste, logging, so therefore there are no employees in those depts. that are currently handling calls. If we do centralize the environment then we will need to set up staffing in all those depts. to handle inquiries that are currently handled at the CC. Very few of our calls are treated as 'switchboard' type calls which are forwarded. Currently all of Council does receive 'switchboard' type calls. We have no direction from Council to handle those calls. However for staff in the various depts. we do handle the calls. They stop at the CC. In our research with the Federal Communications Council (I think it's called), we found that in a decentralized environment you need 3 CC operators which you would need to set up several small CC within the organization to handle these calls for every 2 in a centralized environment, and that's how we came up with 34 employees.

McHattie : This doesn't involve calls coming directly to staff. Someone within PW, for example, to ask about, when someone's, some project within PW, it would go directly to them, someone within PW would take those calls and they, perhaps, could allocate them to other people within PW. It sounds like it's doing the same thing. It's setting up many CCC. I thought we had asked about having direct extensions for members of the public to contact us. That's not what we see here, is it? Radford: With our report, it would be very difficult for callers to know who to call. For example, it your Waste was missed, the caller wouldn't know who to call. There's not a direct person that would be called, so we'd have to set up a CC to handle that. There would have to be a centralized number for 'missed waste'. Or if you had a tax inquiry there's not an individual to call, so they wouldn't necessarily come through a directory. What you would have to do is come up with a small CC to handle those calls, which is the way it was set up previous to the CC. You had various small CC within the organization handling calls. .(no mic)

Whitehead : We have a good understanding of the general trend and type of calls and where the volume is.Is that safe to assume? Radford : Yes, we have a pretty good understanding of the calls. We do track calls on a periodic basis through a manual tracking mechanism. Whitehead : Is it safe to assume the bulk of those calls are PW oriented? Radford : It is safe to assume that at times. We have a fluctuating call volume depending on the time of year so for instance during tax season our tax calls are very high. Last year we took over 20,000 calls for cycling so each dept. has a peak period and at that time the percentage of calls would be for that section of div. or dept. that we're answering for. Whitehead : We created.an anti graffiti line. How's that being dealt with and who's paying for that?. Radford : I'm not sure.Other Staff: That's Police Service but I don't believe it's selective. Whitehead : Did the police come with their budget and request an extra staffing to handle those calls? Radford : We're not aware of that.but I can get you that information.

Whitehead : What I'm driving at is that - fortunately I was here pre amalgamation and I understood the operation then and I'm still unclear - these 34 bodies - I believe that there's going to be added bodies in certain depts. that are needed to address the calls, .any answers, complex answers are directed by that are relative to the questions being asked and certainly not by the person answering the phone. The phone people are there more to give directions to appropriate staff. At times, at times, they'll provide the general information as provided to them by the depts. My concern is that it's not something that existed. I don't believe.that it's needed. I believe that through the assistants that we have as Councillors.that through strategically added staff, the depts. that have the loads as regards to inquiries by the general public need to be addressed. But I think that 34 is a little bit steep and I would ask, at some point put a motion forward, but I would like to see us decentralize the current operation and address the staff needs appropriate to the depts. relative to the calls that come in. Mayor : We have some speakers.

Collins : .in regards to the Blue Pages, what do we have advertised in the Blue Pages in regards to extensions and departmental lines? Radford : .Currently in the Blue Pages what we have advertised is 546-CITY in numerous places. However, where there is a direct indial extension for specific program, those would be more related to a health service, or 'rec' centres for example, and all of our museums, we have direct indial lines. The rest are advertised 546-CITY. Collins : .we wouldn't have the traditional areas of PW, the tax or finance dept. Those are not listed, currently? Radford : There are no tax or PW numbers except for specific programs. For instance we take all of the tax calls. They all come to the CC. We handle all of them. Collins : But oftentimes.some of those calls are directed directly to the depts. If there are more complex questions that the CC cannot answer then I believe in some instances those calls are forwarded to a district, if it's PW, or to the Finance or Tax Dept. for further assistance. So there are numbers that we are referring people to within the organization that are just not advertised. My question would be.if we're looking at a decentralized model I would hope that from a procedural standpoint it would be part of the review that's coming back to corporate services that we could start advertising some of the numbers that, you know, often times we get calls to our office. People are saying, look, I need to speak to someone regarding this specific matter. If it was in the phone book it would provide the information those people are looking for. I really think since we've gravitate from that, we've sort of created a middle man situation, where in some instances the CC is just that. It is a switchboard. I would like to, our staff to look at advertising all the depts. in the City in the Blue Pages, if we could. Look at what the cost is and have that included as part of the report that is going to Corporate Services. Mayor .

McCarthy : .City of Hamilton is a complicated process. The CC is the only practical opportunity for people to access a very complicated system. Rather than have to look at or analyze the process as to how it evolves and who they're supposed to contact, they've got one call to make. The CC has the ability to answer 100 most asked questions.If there's an emergency situation, they've got that information before anybody, because the dept. filters that through right away. We've had this debate for many years and Council in its entirety suggested that if we couldn't get information, we in fact as Councillors would call the CC. We've marginalized this dept. to the point where they're functioning on a shoestring. But they're functioning. I'm not willing to make any more cuts to the dept. For me, for my constituents, for the general public, they're the most practical opportunity to access a very complicated system. I think they're invaluable and they've won awards for that. I think if we marginalize them any further we're going to find that there's this fallout, that we're going to have to backfill there positions. There's been an awful lot of information to suggest that they're invaluable. I really implore Council to look at that information that we have before us and the fact that we've accessed them ourselves when we've been at our wits end. I know I do. .I respected the work they've done. They're diligent, hardworking, .they help everybody in the same way.they're professional. I'd be happy to receive the report. Mayor :.

Ferguson : How many calls do you receive annually? Radford : Over 500,000 calls each year. Ferguson : And how many are handled at the CC? What percentage? Radford : Just over 70%. Ferguson : So 150,000 are deferred? Radford : A lot of those customers will be asking specifically for individuals.we don't poll the customer, we don't ask for information. Ferguson : In your opinion how many would, you've already said that. .to Brian Shynal How many people would it take to answer the calls .in the height of a storm or to Joe, how many people would it take when the tax bills go out, how many would it take to handle those calls? Rinaldo : We currently handle 99% of all tax calls, only the real problem ones are transferred. When we set up the amalgamation, we transferred the staff in the Tax Dept. to CC to do that so therefore we're not staffed up to answer 99% of the calls 'cause they handle 99% of the calls right now.

Ferguson : So particular at tax time there's a ramp up required. Rinaldo : Yup, at tax time and also throughout the year 'cause we get tax inquiries throughout the year. Ferguson : Even 150,000 who are relayed, ok, do we have a bump policy, we try to guarantee one bump? Radford : .Yes, we do, we try to answer the call at the CC, that's our first mandate and if we can't our attempt is to one transfer. We'll do a soft transfer, that's check with the person we're transferring to, to make sure we're transferring to the right person. Ferguson : So, if a waste call came in . if a garbage call came in, the staff, the person who answers the phone knows whether it's blue box , whether it's organics, whether its waste transfer.so one bump. Radford : .Most of those calls are handled at the CC. We do all the logging of 'missed anything' and also of white goods pickup for the Waste Dept. Currently the Waste Dept. doesn't have a group of people that handle waste inquiries, so the only calls that go to them are related to staffing issues, truck driver issue, or to do with a situation that we cannot solve.

Ferguson : .I guess what I'm getting at is customer service. The customer has to call one number. He calls, talks to one person. That person either answers 70% of the time and satisfy the caller or knows who to call exactly who to zero in on the problem and that problem was dealt with by the right person at the right time with one bump. Mayor :.

Pearson says that she has had no complaints with the system as it is now, and "it would be a shame to backtrack on this now when everything has gone into place and people are becoming very familiar with it."

Whitehead : The reality is that before it was created there was no driving desire or complaints by the citizenry . what is the budget for this particular operation?.What is the total budget for the CC? Rinaldo : I'll get it for you, just give us a second. Radford : The budget is $1.7 (million). Whitehead : $1.7 million has been spend on the CC. .If you took into consideration the amount of staff that were taken out of the depts. that were not needed.do we have a cost on that? Rinaldo : .as you know, we've been asked to come back with a report .some of that information is what we can provide. At this time I wouldn't have quantative numbers like that readily available. As part of the report that we going to report back to the Corp. Administration Com., we'll identify some of those.

Whitehead : The point I'm making is yes indeed they added enhanced customer relations opportunity, I'm not questioning the dedication and hard work of the employees that are currently there. My concern is the fact that the taxpayer and the $83 million deficit and there's going to be some pain, and I made that clear throughout this budget process that we need to find where we can make cuts that will not jeopardize the basic services.I believe that if we show some ingenuity and creativity, we can bring that $1.7 million budget down by decentralizing and providing the bodies where needed relative to the call loads to respond to the questions that are asked. I want to make clear to my colleagues who were not here pre amalgamation. This wasn't something that came out of the community. This was something that came out of the Transition Board.we're looking at $83 million deficit.if we weren't.I wouldn't even be looking at this.we have to find cuts and we can make everything motherhood, and at the end of the day the taxpayers will feel the pain when we pass the budget. .This is one of the areas I'm looking at and prefer to have the Council make a decision on.

FERGUSON TAKES OVER AS CHAIR. Ferguson : .

Merulla : .This is an issue I've been working on for a number of years.I've always believe there was a duplication in the actual system itself and just for my own interests I just contacted the Pentagon in Washington and they have an automated system, no CC. .if they can actually function without a CC I'm wondering why we as a City of Hamilton can't firstly, .find other large organizations that are functioning without a CC. (laughter) I'm not trying to make a joke out of this.I do want to emphasize the savings of $1.7 million and I think that's essential in having us look at other priorities such as the fact we're scrounging for money for trees, we had to fight for the lack of HSR increases and we couldn't get a couple million from the BTR, and now we're in with a function in the City I think we can do without. We have a duplication of IT as well when you look at the cost ??? the IT system. All we .need is a voice automated system which can function in large organizations.I'm sure we can focus in on doing the same with the City if we become efficient enough.

DiIanni : .I wonder how many citizens call the Pentagon vs. the City. I'm talking about ordinary citizens looking for service. This is vs. the City of Washington and the City Hall there, how many people try to access the City. I think it would be a fair comparison. ..In our City, and I agree with C. McCarthy on this, fairly complex organization. I think if you analyze the situation that says this. You pool your resources to act as a clearing house for calls.or do you construct CC all over the place, and all over the place being depts. having a varying load structure, so you would have to staff up, I would assume, to the highest level of activity. Then you ask yourself is that the most efficient, is that the most financially efficient way of doing it. Especially when you hear statistics that indicate that the vast majority of calls are handled by the central clearing house.The statistics indicate that it's much more efficient to collect in a clearing house call centre situation rather than to disperse. Staff has put actually a number beside that. By seeming to save some money we may actually be adding to cost by many millions of $ and that wouldn't be where we want to go, especially when we are facing the fiscal challenges that we are. Ferguson (Chair):.

Whitehead : We made a significant in the IP Telephony and I believe that the technology's there to make it very easy and accessible to the general public to access the depts. or the information that they need. .If we have to man (sic) every call it's going to be a pretty costly venture. At some point we have to catch up with the technology we have in hand, so I believe with an $83 million deficit.the intent is to save money and in fact if it shows that it will cost more money, then I will not be supporting it. But I would like to move a motion.relative to the staff reporting back to the budget process on this. Ferguson (Chair): .

Bruckler : Is this sort of an industry standard with respect to performance standard for cost per call received within the industry whether it's - and is there a separation between municipal and private? Radford : There are different costs per call in different environments. Private sector is much different than the public sector. The only costs per call statistics that I have at the moment have not to do specifically with our centre but we looked at utilizing Hamilton Hydro (HH) a little bit more than we are now for after hour calls and they come in at $5 per call, which is much more than what we're doing right now. It depends on your business and your length of call and the type of work that you're doing, so there's not a standard out there. We haven't done any benchmarking within municipalities. We were one of the first CC in Canada to become a municipal CC. There's many others that have converted since. We've had 19 tour our CC just to look at what we do and how we do it. At the moment we haven't come together as a group. We are doing some benchmarking exercises as municipal CC but we don't have those numbers together yet and I expect it will be a year or two before we start to see some industry standards in Canada. Bruckler : .It would be great if there were some information like that with the report which I understand might be coming forth and this might be helpful as well as a guide for performance. Ferguson (Chair): C. McCarthy with a motion. McCarthy : Mr. Chairman, motion to receive, seconded by C. McHattie . Ferguson (Chair): ok, motion ..the floor (someone speaking w/o mic)