CITY OF VANCOUVER
CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE
Judy Rogers, City Manager
Brent MacGregor, Deputy City Manager

M E M O R A N D U M

DATE: June 22, 2001

TO: Mayor and Members of Council

FROM: Judy Rogers, City Manager

CC: Erica Westley, Manager - Council Support Services

SUBJECT: SECRETARIAL SERVICES TO COUNCIL

Following debate on this topic at the June 8 Council meeting and subsequent referral to Committee, I submit the following in response to your request for additional information.

We are careful to give equitable clerical support to all Councillors, and I note that no difficulty with the level of services has been voiced to me by any Councillor to date. Priority of service is given to meeting scheduling, processing mail, and handling phone calls. Within the remainder of their allotted time for support services, Councillors can have secretariat staff do whatever they choose - even responding to names on petitions -with the understanding that, once that Councillor's allocation has been used up, there is no more resource available for other things that an Assistant could do. Historically, Council has endorsed the notion that Council will not reply to all the names on a petition because to do so would seriously reduce the Secretariat staff's availability for the more usual clerical support functions to Councillors.

As you know, it has been past policy that staff do not type letters that criticise, or suggest criticism, of individual Councillors or that promote any political organization or its objectives.

...2

Attached is a copy of the Councillors' Secretariat Directory of Services that each of you was provided in the the Fall of 1999. The document essentially remains current, although some minor updating will be done for a future edition to reflect such things as the extended office hours. (Limited Distribution of "Directory of Services").

Judy Rogers
City Manager
judy_rogers@city.vancouver.bc.ca

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