HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCS-16-115 - Comprehensive Business Licensing Review - Update
REPORT TO: Finance and Corporate Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING: August 8, 2016
SUBMITTED BY: Christine Tarling, Director of Legislated Services & City Clerk,
519-741-2200, ext. 7809
PREPARED BY: Christine Tarling, Director of Legislated Services & City Clerk,
519-741-2200, ext. 7809
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: July 22, 2016
REPORT NO.: FCS-16-115
SUBJECT: Comprehensive Business Licensing Review – Update
___________________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION:
That, subject to consideration as part of the 2017 Council budget deliberations,
the 2017 Business Licencing fees be held at the 2016 rates pending the
completion of the Comprehensive Business Licensing Review, as outlined in
Finance and Corporate Services Department report FCS-16-115.
BACKGROUND:
Municipal Act, 2001 provides municipal councils with the authority to license, regulate
and govern any business, wholly or partly carried out within its boundaries. The primary
purpose for licensing and regulating businesses within a municipality is to protect the
public interest as it relates to the following three major areas:
1. Health and safety of the municipality including workers, customers, and visitors;
2. Consumer protection; and,
3. Nuisance Control.
For those reasons, it is important to ensure that licensing by-laws and processes meet
the needs of the community and are compliant with all governing legislation. As well,
fees need to be reasonable and fair, and the basis for those fees needs to be clearly
rationalized and communicated to the public.
As part of the 2016 Council-approved business plan, Council directed Licensing staff to
conduct a Comprehensive Business Licensing Review (the Review) as scoped in report
FCS-16-009 to ensure the purpose/intent of the licensing program aligns with the
community’s needs and are compliant with legislation. The review includes an
examination of the City’s licensing by-laws, processes and fees as well as provides
recommendations as appropriate to ensure the following:
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a customer-centric approach to business licensing;
better use of existing technologies;
implementation of industry best practices, and
fair and rationalized fees.
The scoping report also provided information regarding what would comprise the
Review study area; the guiding principles to be used in doing the Review; who the
project lead would be; who would be consulted and the engagement tactics that would
be employed; the items that would be reviewed; and the timelines for the Review.
The purpose of this report is to inform Council of the need to adjust the original timelines
for the Review due to a resourcing issue because of the recent departure of the
Manager of Licensing.
REPORT:
It had been the intention of the Manager of Licensing to bring forward a report to
Council at a strategic session on August 29, 2016 with recommendations concerning
by-law changes, process improvements and options for fees. The departure of the
Manager of Licensing in May necessitates adjusting the original timeline in order to
provide the new Manager, once hired, with the opportunity to fully evaluate the themes
and input from the consultation phase; review the research already done and to perform
additional research if deemed necessary; to read and understand the City’s licensing
by-laws and processes; and to analyse the City’s fees and the rationale for them. This
is needed to enable the new Manager to make reasonable, feasible and appropriate
recommendations for Council’s consideration. The adjusted timeline is as follows:
OriginalStatus / Adjusted
Phase ItemDeliverables
TimelineTimeline
Completed Comprehensive Business
January to
Scoping
Licensing Review –
1February 2016
Scope of Review report
presented to Council
In Progress – New Draft bylaw and municipal
Research – This will
Manager will need code amendments
include background
February to April time to review what
2research on
2016 has been done – Draft recommendations
legislation, practices,
September 2016 to for improvements to
policies, and fees
January 2017 practices and policies
Completed Consultation with
stakeholders
Completed Summarize stakeholder
Stakeholder March to June input
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Engagement 2016
To Be Done by new Evaluate stakeholder
Manager –input and incorporate into
September 2016 to recommendations
January 2017
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OriginalStatus / Amended
Phase ItemDeliverables
TimelineTimeline
Presentation to Presentation at Strategic
Council in Q2 2017 Session of Council
Development of
revised by-laws, August 2016 To Be Done by new Comprehensive Business
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practices, policies and Manager – January Licensing Review report
feesto March 2017 including proposed by-
laws, fees, policies and
practice details
Updated public
Implementation of new To Be Done by new information,
September 2016
5licensing program and Manager – April to implementation of new
to January 2017
governing legislation September 2017 technology, approaches
and fee schedule
The most significant impact of the timeline adjustment is that a recommendation to
change the 2017 business licensing fees will not be made in time for approval of the
2017 user fees. More time is needed to evaluate the survey responses and to devise
options for Council’s consideration. It is not advisable to make recommendations
regarding fees in isolation of revising the licensing by-laws and changing processes.
With that in mind, staff recommends holding the 2017 licensing fees flat at the 2016
rates with a view to making recommendations in 2017 for the 2018 budget.
As indicated in the table above, some work relating to the review has been completed
and other work continues albeit not at as a quick of a pace as would have occurred had
Legislated Services not experienced a resourcing issue. Information relating to the
work done to-date is attached as Appendix ‘A’.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
Strategic Priority: Effective and Efficient City Services
Strategy: 5.2 – Improve the design and delivery of city services so that they provide
what citizens want in the most reliable, convenient and cost-effective way.
Strategic Action:
# 116 Comprehensive Review of Business Licensing; and
# 122 Online Business Licensing
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
City staff is conducting the review and as anticipated, disbursements associated with
the review have been minor (less than $100 for advertising the survey) and funded from
the approved Legislated Services operating budget.
If the 2% inflationary increase were applied to business licensing fees for 2017 as per
corporate guidelines, there would be an increase in revenue of approximately $7550 to
Legislated Services operating budget.
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If fees were held flat at 2016 rates with no inflationary increase for 2017, there would be
a need to mitigate the revenue loss of $7550 across the rest of the Legislated Services
2017 operating budget, which staff feels is attainable.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM – This report has been posted to the City’s website with the agenda in
advance of the council / committee meeting.
COLLABORATE – Working with Process Partners has been an important aspect for
identifying those areas for improvement and then implementing changes. All
stakeholder recommendations will be taken into consideration when evaluating and
changing the program.
CONSULT – There has been extensive stakeholder consultation associated with this
review to-date and such consultation will continue throughout the drafting of
recommendations and implementation stages.
PREVIOUS CONSIDERATION OF THIS MATTER:
FCS-16-009 – Comprehensive Business Licensing Review – Scope of Review
ACKNOWLEDGED BY:
Dan Chapman, Deputy CAO, Finance & Corporate Services
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Appendix ‘A’ – Work Completed To-Date
Notwithstanding the need to adjust the original timeline due to the resourcing issue,
work on the review began as planned in February 2016 and has progressed as outlined
below.
Research:
Research has been initiated and to-date, information has been accumulated
from ten (10) municipalities concerning their by-laws, fees, and processes but will need
to be examined and evaluated by the new Manager of Licensing in order to make
recommendations for Council’s consideration.
Stakeholder Engagement:
Stakeholder engagement, which included Council,
Corporate Leadership Team, Process Partners (internal and external), and customers
took place from April 25 to May 23, 2016 and overall, survey responses generally
support the direction staff had recommended for the Review as follows:
Review the overall layout of all business licensing by-laws looking to incorporate
best practices, improve accessibility and create a more customer-friendly business
licensing model;
Address housekeeping changes for business licensing by-laws to improve language
consistency, avoid unnecessary duplication, improve readability and reflect current
administrative practices;
Review fees for market comparison, structure, appropriate level of cost-recovery and
implementation across the licensing types;
Review available technology to optimize its use where possible;
Look to remove redundant practices, inspections, and processes within the
Licensing program;
Review and improve inter-departmental customer service and communication
processes where necessary; and,
Review access to information including public notices, website information and
updates, and currently licensed listings.
Very preliminarily, responses from the survey have revealed the following common
themes:
1) Legislation/Rules/Processes
a) Access
i) Customers and Internal Process Partners report the rules and regulations are
not easy to find and access, largely because there is no online presence.
b) Simplified Language
i) Customers and Internal Process Partners find the regulations are not easy to
understand.
ii) There is confusion between policies, by-laws, and Municipal Code Chapters –
it was noted there is a need for more consistency.
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c) Harmonization
i) Internal partners indicated language, by-laws, and processes conflict or are
confusing. More coordination/consistency and better clarity of terms is
needed.
d) Inspections
i) Internal Partners identified a need to ensure inspection levels/requirements
are appropriate.
e) Renewals
i) Customer responses vary regarding the best timing for renewals but most
Internal Partners support a change that would enable more equitable
distribution of workload in some way to facilitate more timely service delivery.
f) Fees
i) Internal Process Partners feel the fees should reflect work levels for staff.
ii) Customers indicated support for a nominal fee for online payments if needed.
iii) Customers in certain sectors (temporary retail markets) indicated fees are too
high.
2) Website/Online
a) Online resources
i) Customers indicated the most support for online maps, by-laws, applications,
licence requirements, payments, and inspection details.
b) Technology
i) Process Partners and customers would like to leverage technology to
increase self-sufficiency and automate more processes.
ii) Customers would like us to review the feasibility of facilitating online
payments.
iii) Process Partners and customers would like to see online application tracking.
iv) Internal Process Partners and customers (over 75%) are supportive of
moving to online applications and renewals.
3) Customer Service
a) Processes and Timelines
i) Overall Process Partners, except Fire, responded that licensing processes
work well for their area.
ii) Internal Process Partners and customers report the need for clearer
processes and procedures.
iii) Overall customers are happy with turnaround times and their experiences
with staff but noted areas for improvement include relaying information, and
having the customer go to multiple departments to submit documents.
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b) Staff Relations
i) The majority of customers and most Process Partners indicated they are Very
Satisfied/Satisfied with their interactions with Licensing staff, particularly in the
areas of staff knowledge, timeliness, assistance, and service. Very few
ratings below neutral.
ii) Customers and Process Partners reported they believed staff is dedicated to
service.
The new Manager of Licensing will need to review the consultation responses, validate
the common themes and incorporate these into any recommendations as appropriate.
Process/Procedural Changes:
Preliminary assessment of the survey responses has
prompted staff to begin work on those items which can be done without the need to
change the licensing by-laws or fees and which support the customer-centric model
adopted by Licensing, and Legislated Services in general. These are:
Working with AMANDA resources to improve the tracking of applications so
customers and Process Partners can be provided with up-to-date status information;
Consulting with Regional Health to automate the Health Reporting response tracking
process within AMANDA versus the current paper tracking process;
Identified internal processes that have duplications or delays for improvements for
future streamlining;
Investigating the ability to enable online payments; and,
Pilot testing customer electronic submission of forms using the Public Hall licensing
process to eliminate the need for the customer to attend multiple locations to submit.
The intention is to expand this process to other types of licensing.
Further changes will be implemented as staff work through the various processes that
have been identified as possible candidates for streamlining and upon direction from
Council once recommendations from the Review come forward in 2017.
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