REPORT PIU MEADOWS REQUEST FOR COUNCIL DIRECTION

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1 PIU MEADOWS REPORT REQUEST FOR COUNCIL DIRECTION DATE: FROM: SUBJECT: May 26, 2015 FILE: Office of the Chief Administrative Officer Council Policy C051 Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council Request for Direction SUGGESTED FOLLOW-UP ACTION: THAT Council: A. Direct staff to investigate best practices for routing of correspondence received by municipalities and provide recommendations to Council on potential amendments to the City s current Council Policy C051 Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council; OR B. Other. CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER COMMENTS: BACKGROUND REPORT/DOCUMENT: Attached Available N/A jj KEY INFORMATION: At the March 26, 2013 Council Workshop on citizen engagement, it was identified that there was a need to formalize protocols for receipt and acknowledgement of correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council and to establish other procedures as necessary to ensure Council is kept aware of the status of issues referred to staff for follow up and response. Accordingly, a Council Policy was developed by staff and approved by Council on July 2, As part of Council s 2015 review of Council policies, Policy C051 Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council was reviewed. Amendments to the policy were recommended and subsequently approved to more specifically identify roles, responsibilities of Mayor, Council members and staff as they relate to receipt, reply and processing of correspondence addressed to Mayor or Mayor and Council in both hard copy and electronic format to ensure correspondence is routed to the appropriate individual and dealt with in the appropriate manner The current Policy is attached for reference. Mayor and Council and staff have been working under the updated Correspondence policy since February and some issues have been identified with the current correspondence routing process which are not addressed in the policy #127288v1

2 PITT MEADOWS RELEVANT OBSERVATIONS: The current policy states that: Upon direction from the Chief Administrative Officer, the Corporate Officer will forward correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council from external sources to all of Council and appropriate staff electronically as soon as possible and, if appropriate, include the correspondence on the consent agenda at the next available Council meeting provided: a. the correspondence includes the name and address of at least one person or agency, and b. does not contain any defamatory statements, allegations, inferences, impertinent, disrespectful or improper matter. Increasingly, correspondence is being sent by rather than by hard copy. Council receives a large number of s through a direct Council address; however, there is no specific criteria in the policy to help Mayor and staff determine when it is appropriate to publish the correspondence on an agenda. RELEVANT POLICY: Correspondence received from individuals contains personal information, which as defined under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is recorded information about an identifiable individual other than business contact information, and which the City must protect from unauthorized disclosure or use. This must be balanced with the need for transparency and for Council to know if the correspondent is a resident, or is immediately impacted by a potential decision of council due to where they reside etc. in order to properly weigh the correspondent s input or request. The City does not accept anonymous correspondence. Accordingly, the name and address of a correspondent is included on correspondence published on agendas, however, in accordance with the FOI&POP Act, personal addresses must be severed from any correspondence published on the agenda. STRATEGIC QUESTIONS: Even though there is wording on the City s webpage explaining that, in most instances, written and correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council become public documents once received by the City and may be published in a meeting agenda, when people send e mails to a Council address or a letter addressed to Mayor and Council they may not consider their as being public or know that it may end up on an agenda that is publicly available on the Intranet. (Once something is posted to the Intranet, it is almost impossible to remove it.) On the other hand, some correspondents assume that their correspondence will automatically be published on an agenda, when it may not be. Having all correspondence published on an agenda regardless of the nature of the request or concern would not be operationally efficient and would result in unnecessary delays in addressing resident s concerns. Some requests or concerns can, and should be dealt with at the operational level by being forward directly to staff. ESSENTIAL QUESTION: There is a need for criteria in the policy to inform Council, staff and the public as to what kinds of correspondence should be routed in what manner and published on agendas. DESIRED OUTCOMES Staff is seeking Council direction to direct staff to investigate best practices and report back to Council with recommendations for amending the current Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council Policy. KEY RESULTS: A more clearly defined policy #127288v1

3 PITT MEADOWS DESIRED BENEFITS OF KEY RESULT: Clear protocol and procedures included in the policy will improve efficiencies in correspondence routing and transparency as to how and why correspondence is routed in certain ways. REQUISITES: Staff will be required to investigate best practices of other municipalities and consider legislative requirements governing release and publication of personal information in developing recommendations for amendments to the current policy for Council s consideration. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: In the absence of criteria to inform what kinds of correspondence should be published on agendas, the City has received some criticism that its practices in this area are inconsistent and lack transparency. However, in adding criteria around routing of correspondence, without the public having a clear understanding of the administrative challenges and legislative requirements involved in processing correspondence received from the public, the City could be criticized for appearing to be more bureaucratic around this process than necessary. Submitted by: Approved by: K. Kenney, Manager of Legislative Services K. Grout, Chief Administrative Office Attachment: Council Policy C05J. Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council #127288v1

4 CITY OF Pitt Meadows The?ZZi.at Place 01 - Administration Correspondence Addressed to Mayor and Council Effective Date: July 2, 2013 Revised Date: February 17, 2015 Purpose: To establish protocols for receipt and processing of correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council. Definitions: City means the City of Pitt Meadows. Council means the duly elected officials for the City, being the Mayor and Councillors. Councillor means any member of Council except the Mayor. Corporate Officer means the Manager of Legislative Services. Correspondence means written material received electronically or in hard copy by the City from an identifiable individual or organization. Mayor means the chief executive officer of the City. Policy: Council I. Individual members of Council have no individual decision-making power and, as such, shall not express opinions in correspondence on behalf of Council. 2. The decisions of Council shall be reflected as collective corporate decisions. 3. In recognizing Councillors roles and responsibility to Council, separate or customized letterhead stationary shall not be purchased for, nor used by, individual members of Council City of Pitt Meadows Page I of 3 I v2

5 CITY OF Pitt Meadows LLI The?itii-tat Place 4. s regarding City business sent directly to Mayor and Council s addresses are to be forwarded by Council to the Corporate Officer for recording, distribution, filing and action, as required. 5. A member of Council may choose to respond to requests for information from a resident that are routine in nature where the information is readily available to the public. Such responses shall be shared with the Mayor, all members of Council, and the Chief Administrative Officer. Corporate Officer 6. The Corporate Officer is responsible for establishing routing procedures to ensure timely and appropriate review of correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council including received through the info Upon direction from the Chief Administrative Officer, the Corporate Officer will forward correspondence addressed to Mayor and Council from external sources to all of Council and appropriate staff electronically as soon as possible and, if appropriate, include the correspondence on the consent agenda at the next available Council meeting provided: a. the correspondence includes the name and address of at least one person or agency, and b. does not contain any defamatory statements, allegations, inferences, impertinent, disrespectful or improper matter. 8. Correspondence deemed by the Corporate Officer not to comply with section 7) will be returned to sender (if known) with an explanation as to why the material cannot be included in the Council agenda. 9. No further action is taken in response to correspondence received by Mayor and Council, unless directed by Council. 10. Correspondence that requires a response from Council is signed by the Mayor and cc d to Council. The Chief Administrative Officer may direct staff to prepare the Mayor s response. Mayor II. The Mayor, as the City s chief spokesperson, is responsible for explaining Council policies, priorities and decisions to the public and will respond to electronic communications on behalf of the City as appropriate or refer the correspondence to staff for response and will copy Council members, the CÁO and the Corporate Officer on all correspondence City of Pitt Meadows Page 2 of 3 #11161 Iv2

6 CITY OF Pitt Meadows The?ZiZZ.-uI Place 12. The Chief Administrative Officer will coordinate actions and responses to electronic correspondence received from the Mayor and will inform Council of the outcome of the requests when appropriate. 13. Hard copy and electronic correspondence addressed to the Mayor, may be circulated at the discretion of the Mayor to Council either informally for information (via ) or formally through inclusion in an upcoming Council meeting agenda. General 14. Electronic Correspondence will generally be dealt with only during business hours. Correspondence received on weekends and statutory holidays will be dealt with the next business day. If the matter is an emergency, members of the public are to be advised to contact the city by telephone. Exceptions 15. Communications from external bodies which Council members sit as members of inter-municipal committees are to be routed or filed as requested by Council members by the Executive Assistant to Mayor and Council. I 6. Hard copies and electronic copies of invitations to Mayor and Council are to be forwarded to Council by the Executive Assistant to Mayor and Council. Invitations sent to Mayor and Council are to be filed by the Executive Assistant to Mayor and Council City of Pitt Meadows Page 3 of 3 # v2