Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 11-07-12 COMPASS KITCHENER MINUTES November 7, 2012 – 4:00-6:00 Conestoga Room, KITCHENER CITY HALL Present: Theron Kramer Sarah Marsh Diana Bumstead Tristan Wilkin Chris Hyde Kim Knowles James Howe Chris Kopar Staff: Mark Hildebrand Jenn Grein Sue Weare Janice Ouellette Karla Coté Rhonda Bunn Jeff Willmer Regrets: David Yoon Holly Duff Hanan Mohamed The Compass Kitchener Advisory Committee met on this date, commencing at 4:00 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes  The minutes from October 3, 2012 were circulated and approved by Compass Kitchener.  Roll out of Strategic Plan – Diana, Chris H and Tristan volunteered to assist with the roll out of the Strategic Plan to the community. Moved by Chris Hyde, Second by Sarah Marsh. 2. Follow-up to minutes Sarah volunteered to Chair the December meeting in Theron’s absence.  3. Update from Sub-committees Civics101: James provided a brief update on the work of the Civics101 subcommittee. They have been  active over the past few weeks, both updating the initial idea for the grade 10 group, as well as comparing our plans for the grade 5 group with a current program in Ottawa. Community Engagement Toolkit feedback – Mark provided information relating to the feedback that a  working group convened by the Social Planning Council provided to city staff regarding the Community Engagement Toolkit. The initial feedback received from the Social Planning Council did not take into account the audience the document was intended for. Since the toolkit is an internal document designed for staff use, it is not also intended to be useful to members of the public as a guide for citizen-led engagement. The City Hall 101 document is meant to be a starting point for citizens to understand different avenues for engaging with City staff and or council members on municipal issues. Mark, Janice, and Sarah will meet with representatives from the Social Planning Council to follow up with them. Janice encouraged Compass Kitchener to review the City Hall 101 document online and provide feedback. 4. A. Integrated Planning Centre of Excellence Rhonda thanked the committee for inviting her to present on the Integrated Planning Centre of  Excellence. With the use of a PowerPoint presentation, she provided information to Compass Kitchener regarding the work this group will be doing within the organization. The Centre of Excellence is a team that aligns our strategic plan with our business plans – in short it  ensures that our strategy drives our business and performance. The City ensures our strategy drives our business by creating a common approach to how we plan and  manage all our diversity of work, both our core work and all the projects that are needed to sustain and grow our city. The Centre of Excellence will ensure alignment of the strategic plan with the work the organization  accomplishes daily, and further how this work connects with the Project & Portfolio Management, Change Management, Risk Management and Performance Management systems in the organization. Why integrated planning? It ensures that we are investing in the right people, right projects at the right  time. The drivers for integrated planning come with some assumptions, including workload, unplanned  resource drains, taking on too much work, incomplete understanding of our collective work, and a lack of mechanisms in place to capture information. This last piece is a difficult one to measure yet an important November 7, 2012 CITY OF KITCHENER - 2 - piece that connects with all other assumptions. Core services are not actually captured in the business planning at this point, but these need to be accounted for as well. Core services embody the majority of day to day work throughout the corporation, service priorities and  key service objectives within a division/department and within corporate projects involve significant cross departmental resources to achieve a successful outcome. Overextended workloads result in lost organizational productivity, over stretched staff, reduced  organizational morale, and a risk of reduced quality for citizens/public. We need to understand the collective impact of Core Services, Service Priorities, and Projects in order to  be in a position to balance the workload. The goal of the Centre of Excellence is to better align workloads with staff resources through the  integration of the functions within the Centre of Excellence and the entire corporation. Rhonda provided a summary of Business planning within the organization, outlining the framework. The  commitment to council is that they will return three times a year to report on how progress is going. She reviewed the ‘roadmap’ for business planning for the years 2012, 13 and 14, what information goes  to council when, and how this timing aligns with the budget process. She outlined the status possibilites for the report to council and provided an example of a document that  went to Council this past update. The status update spreadsheet includes a column that indicates for each initiative which strategic priority  is being addressed. This column is sometimes hidden to make room for all the updates in a year to print on one page, however the information is still kept up to date so that the connection with the strategic plan can always be readily available. Each time the document goes to Council, successes will be clearly identified for them.  Project and portfolio management helps the organization prioritize projects and helps ensure that the city  is investing in the right projects at the right time in the right way with the right resources. This will help us to strengthen, support and promote a project management environment to enable staff to deliver projects efficiently and effectively to meet the strategic priorities of the City. Compass Kitchener had several questions for Rhonda:  Who does the team consist of? Mike Grummet works with Project Portfolio Management, Sue Weare is  an ambassador for strategic planning. Rhonda is the lead on the team. Much of the presentation was about workload projections and allotting time for core services as well as  additional projects; did you have projection systems in place previous to this?There are a lot of cutbacks at the city right now. We need to ensure service levels continue to be met etc. It’s important to ensure balance across the org. Is there a plan for measuring the effectiveness of this approach? Yes, a tool has been developed in  Information Technology, and is in use measuring all projects within their division; it’s working well. We intend to use this tool as a model for measurement across the org. From the description, this sounds like an HR function, rather than a strategic planning function – why?  This aligns well with the HR Capacity training program and engagement work the training team at the city is currently working on. The PeoplePlan is owned by HR, and this really is helping the organization become more of a matrix, connecting throughout the organization. There seems to be a significant portion of financial measurement. Is there a plan to provide significant  non-financial information for council’s consideration? It is part of process, and will be tied in. Are you also going to focus on competencies? Yes.  Strategic Planning and business planning to be added to the January agenda.  This is great information on current and new projects; however what about the day to day, where is this  information captured? The team is currently looking at this, a plan is not yet in place, but is being worked on. The Report card subcommittee would like to provide a better outline to staff of what they would like to measure so that the report card process will be smoother. B. Report Card Role with Strategic Planning, WAYK, etc. Karla provided a high-level overview of the process of strategic planning.  Kim reviewed and outlined all that takes place through this process with the Compass Kitchener Report  Card to Citizens. (attached) November 7, 2012 CITY OF KITCHENER - 3 - Residents’ core values are not likely to change significantly over the full length of the 20 year strategic  plan. The update which takes place every four years is an opportunity for both the organization and Compass Kitchener to check in and consider new strategic directions. The Report Card subcommittee would like an opportunity to share with city staff information about what  they would like to measure in the coming years, so the work of both Compass Kitchener and the organization can complement each other, and thorough information be gathered for use by both groups. The report card process is also an opportunity to review the business plans to see if the city is in line the  strategic directions as outlined by the residents of the city. This has been a challenge with past report cards – the priorities of the report card group and the  measurement the city completes for business planning is disconnected. It’s helpful to provide an explanation from the Report Card subcommittee of why certain pieces are being measured and ideally provide requests for information a year in advance so staff is aware and can measure appropriately. Mark outlined the timing for the citizen survey and Who Are You Kitchener (WAYK). The citizen survey  will take place approximately September – October 2013, with WAYK running from February – May. Safe & Healthy Community Advisory Committee Jeff joined the committee to receive feedback on the draft Safe & Healthy Communities Advisory  Committee report and recommendations. Over the last number of years, there have been many vacant positions on the committee and it has been  difficult to fill seats. This, in combination with Shelley Adams’ departure from the city, Jeff considered as an opportunity to consider the future of the committee. As Compass Kitchener has always played a key role with advisory committees, he felt it important to connect and receive feedback. Regarding Community Safety, there is some potential that we are duplicating efforts currently provided by  other organizations, such as the Downtown Kitchener Business Improvement Association, the Working Centre, or the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council. The Region of Waterloo as an organization is responsible for public health, and the work that has taken  place with the committee has not been overly representative of Health. Most Kitchener advisory committees have sufficient budgets to meet meeting expenses, however Safe  and Healthy Communities also provides grants. There are pros and cons to this, but ultimately, there has not historically been much accountability in the funding opportunities that come to the committee. This could be better addressed through the official granting process that takes place within the Community Services Department. Recommendation mentioned was to narrow the focus to Healthy Community initiatives.  Granting dollars in 2013 budget would be used to employ a temporary staff for the committee. In 2014  these dollars would be shifted to the granting process currently in place with Community Services. Jeff has suggested a 6 month trial, with reassessment at the end on how this new focus is working for the  committee; however he also indicated feedback has been received that this is not a long enough time period. Theron clarified, Compass Kitchener’s role is not as an oversight committee, however it does work to  provide a way to connect committees and help draw lines between work accomplished by each. The Safe & Healthy Communities Advisory Committee was not included in this round of the advisory  committee application process. Sue also explained that membership over the past two years has had extenuating circumstances, specifically a maternity leave, return to university etc. The committee had several questions and comments:  If there has not been much volunteer involvement in the committee perhaps it would be beneficial to start  a recruitment team to encourage resident engagement in advisory committees. This seems to be an ongoing issue with the committee. This could also be due to the work plan focus and/or clarity around ‘deliverables’ the committee is expecting to achieve. A member of the committee commented on three specifics: 1. Safety, this truly affects each of the 6 focus  areas identified by residents. It is important for the city to remain active in safety issues to ensure the health of our communities, residents and city as a whole. Rather than disband the committee all together, it would be beneficial to reconsider its focus and work and move forward with a work plan that adequately reflects Safe and Healthy Communities. 2. Perception of a Healthy Community, much work has been considered by the Report Card subcommittee regarding the happiness of a community and the clear ties November 7, 2012 CITY OF KITCHENER - 4 - of this to a healthy community – this would be a great area of focus moving forward. 3. The City has been excellent in the past, reacting to community issues and emerging needs. If the funding is no longer available through Safe and Healthy Communities, the City will not be able to react in a timely manner to community needs and health. A connection must be maintained between the City and the Waterloo Regional Crime Prevention Council  (WRCPC). Many members of Compass Kitchener indicated they mirror the above concerns and comments.  Every four years, the Environics survey taps into many things, including perception of safety in the  downtown. There are other bodies that do this work, however it’s vital that the city continue partner, and hold a stake in this important work – especially since it’s the heart of our community. Ultimately, the connections that are made because of participation with WRCPC are absolutely  invaluable. The Town and Gown funding also comes from these dollars, this is an impressive community building  event involving students both from and new to our community. Please be sure to consider the students as stakeholders in this. One member, having participated on a subcommittee of WRCPC, found it disappointing that the City does  not feel implicated with the work WRCPC is doing due to them being a regional body. This member pointed out that the Health component of the advisory committee refers to the social determinants of health, which is much larger than just public health; it covers community health, mental health and so much more. All issues taking place throughout the city are linked to community health and the city must play a role. This is absolutely 100% the work of the City, without any question. If there is a problem with attracting and retaining members for the committee, perhaps more can be done  with the mandate, terms of engagement, work plan or otherwise, but certainly not due to the lack of actual work that can be accomplish within the city. The title of the City’s key long-term plan is in fact ‘A Plan for a Healthy Kitchener’ – clearly relevant to the committee and the work it could accomplish, not to mention the city and the community as a whole. Theron, Compass Kitchener chair, echoed the comments provided thus far by committee members.  Crime and Safety continue to be an important issue in our city, and not simply a part of the mandate of WRCPC. Kitchener has been a leader in this regard and worked through a number of issues; the City should continue in this role. The Downtown Advisory Committee has a full work plan and likely will not be able to add this to their workload. Important to note, just because we have a dysfunctional committee doesn’t mean we do away with the committee as a whole; we need to fix it. The chair’s role is vital to a committee’s function and can play a large part in the focus of the group. Additionally, a neighbourhood focus is not something WRCPC may be able to take on. Jeff thanked the committee for the feedback provided. He indicated he understands a system has been  built that is responding to a number of issues however, it seems to be happening with or without this particular committee. The City continues to have a representative on the WRCPC. 5. Advisory Committee Gathering You’re invited to a party, and you’re hosting!!! The All Committee Gathering will be taking place Tuesday  th November 27, and will be a thank you to all committee members for their efforts over the last two years of volunteer service. Mayor and Council will be present. Janice and Jenn to connect on budget  Chris and Sarah to speak on behalf of Compass Kitchener, Tristan to be a backup speaker.  Please encourage other committee members to attend this exciting event!  6. General Business LEAF Report: th The LEAF report went to Finance and Corporate Services Committee on Monday, October 15. The  recommendations suggested $2M to parks, trails and natural spaces, and $1M into an environmental stewardship capital account. Theron represented the committee well, providing a thorough outline of the process. A delegation presented after Theron providing a chart with Compass Kitchener’s engagement numbers, however interpreting them differently than our committee’s neutral standpoint. And, after November 7, 2012 CITY OF KITCHENER - 5 - significant debate around the horseshoe, a motion put forward then denied, the committee agreed to accept the report, however to make no decisions regarding recommendations. Council thanked Compass Kitchener for the efforts they dedicated to the LEAF Community Engagement  process and asked additional questions on the survey process. The subsequent Council meeting, Theron registered as a delegation as to clarify a few points that may  have been misunderstood at Committee. th Decision on the LEAF fund has been deferred to the November 26 Finance and Corporate Services  Committee. Tristan to attend to answer any questions that may arise. A HUGE THANK YOU was given to Theron as well as the subcommittee by members of Compass  Kitchener for all the work that has taken place for this item Meeting adjourned at 6:15 pm. Next meeting: December 5, 2012 Location: Conestoga Room Attendance: