Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

General Manager of Community Services in consultation with Public Involvement Review Working Group

SUBJECT:

Public Involvement Review - Implementation Update

 

RECOMMENDATION

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

The Better City Government initiative and CityPlan identified public involvement in City decision-making as a priority, including improving existing precesses where required and establishing a broader set of relationships and links to Communities.

In 1998 Council adopted sixteen Directions for Improvements to Public Involvement and a set of Guiding Principles (Appendix B).

SUMMARY AND PURPOSE

Improvements to public involvement have been underway at both the citywide and departmental levels to implement the sixteen Directions for public involvement adopted by City Council in 1998. Work has been carried out through partnerships between staff in the City, Park Board and Vancouver Public Library and with the assistance of the consultant team of Context Research and Dovetail Consulting.

This report provides Council with an overview and update on the 37 projects included in the improvement phase of the Public Involvement Review (PIR). Over 90% of these projects are complete or underway. In addition to completing the remaining work, staff have created a strategy to continue and sustain improvements to public involvement at the City.

BACKGROUND

In 1996, the Better City Government initiative identified the need to review the City's public involvement practices. A review was undertaken in three steps:
1) documentation of City processes that include the public; 2) an independent evaluation of how well the City does public involvement; 3) implementation of improvements based on the evaluation.

The first step, documentation, was completed in 1996 with the creation of the guide "How to Participate in City Processes". Later in 1996, Context Research was hired to undertake the second step, the evaluation. In October, 1998, Council adopted the consultant's sixteen citywide Directions for Improvement, including Guiding Principles for Public Involvement.
In July, 1999, staff presented to Council the Action Plan for implementation of these sixteen Directions (Appendix C).

DISCUSSION

Improvements to public involvement practices have been made in six strategic areas identified in the Action Plan for City Improvements to Public Involvement. The Action Plan includes over 30 projects. This work has been carried out by staff throughout the civic organization with the assistance of Context Research and Dovetail Consulting. It has been guided by an inter-departmental working group and a temporary coordinator. The working group includes representatives from Engineering Services, Community Services, Park Board, Vancouver Public Library, and the Police and Fire Departments.

The six strategic areas and some examples of the projects completed or underway are:

1. Individual Departmental Improvements: staff have been working with the consultant team on making improvements to nine representative processes where the public are involved, ranging from recurring processes such as development applications, liquor licensing reviews, to one time processes, such as the street furniture program. These processes were similar to the ones selected in the evaluation phase of the PIR, so the teams could learn from the results. The majority of these projects are now complete. Feedback from both staff and the public involved has been positive.

2. Developing a Corporate Framework for Public Involvement: over the past two years staff have been working to improve the tools we use to involve the public. An intranet-based "Public Process Guide" for staff was developed by Dovetail Consulting to help staff plan and execute effective public involvement programs. The guide has recently won an education award from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators. It is viewable for both staff and the public at: www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicprocessguide/. The consultant team is now working with staff and the public on a companion guide for the public, so they know what to expect from the City and how they can get involved. It will be completed later this Fall.

3. Improving Public Involvement Skills: Human Resources has reviewed its courses that include public involvement skills training. A new course is being developed around the "Public Process Guide" and enhancements made to some of the existing courses. A staff resource group is also being created so that other staff can seek advice before or during a public process.
4. Creating Better Civic Awareness: A number of steps are being taken to raise civic awareness of how the City functions. A civics curriculum has been developed in consultation with Vancouver School Board teachers for Grade 11 Social Studies students. It is currently being piloted. The Communication's Department will be increasing the promotion of City services this Winter, including a revised "Your City Works" brochure. The "Newcomer's Guide" to the City has been completed and, in addition to English, will be translated and printed in Chinese, Punjabi, Vietnamese and Spanish. Other ongoing initiatives to improve civic awareness include the City's website (e.g. Community Web Pages and VanMap), the Greater.Vancouver program and new technologies such as interactive TV.

5. Improving Ongoing Contact With Communities: A number of City programs facilitate ongoing interaction and information sharing between the City and communities, including the Community Visions program, community policing, Neighbourhood Integrated Service Teams and Community Centres. PIR initiatives have built on these programs. QuickFind is now the City's centralized database of community groups and is updated twice per year. In addition, the Community Services Group has recently created a list of staff with knowledge of planning issues and community contacts for each neighbourhood and policy area of the City. Community Web Pages have been created for all 23 Local Areas of the City and contain information on services, recreation centre programs, community events, developments and construction taking place. The project won the 2000 innovation award from the Municipal Information System's Association of BC. Community pages can be viewed at: www.city.vancouver. bc.ca/community_profiles/index.htm.

6. Creating a Multicultural Outreach and Translation Strategy: Multicultural outreach and translation strategies are being developed by Social Planning, in consultation with various multicultural groups and other City staff. Draft strategies will be reported to Council in Spring, 2002. As mentioned above, the "Newcomer's Guide" to the City has been completed and will be available in five languages. Project costs will be covered through partnerships between the City and corporate and government sponsors. Confirmed sponsorships include the Scotiabank, Lower Mainland TV (LMtv) and the Provincial government.

Strategy for Completing and Sustaining the Improvements

The inter-departmental Working Group, in consultation with the Corporate Management Team, has developed a strategy for completing and sustaining the improvements to public involvement. This strategy is based on the consultant's recommendations in their final report for "locking-in" improvements (Appendix A).

I. Completion of Remaining Projects
Thirty-seven projects are included in the Action Plan. Sixteen are completed, 18 are underway or ongoing and 3 are yet to start. Respective staff will continue implementing existing projects outlined in the Action Plan.

In addition, the consultants have included a number of recommendations in their final report to make improvements to City notification processes. These recommendations were created in consultation with a staff "notification working group". The recommendations include improving notification of tenants and community groups, making notice letters more consistent and understandable, reviewing the notification time for Council reports, and continuing to look at broad based communication tools such as interactive TV. The "notification working group" will continue working on these recommendations and report any policy changes to Council as required.

II. Ongoing Needs for Continuing and Sustaining the Improvements
Public involvement is an underlying principle of Better City Government. Most City initiatives provide opportunities for public involvement yet the support network for public process is ad hoc, being managed on a project by project basis. The PIR has identified the need for ongoing systematic support for City public involvement processes. The inter-departmental working group recommends the following actions to provide this support:
A. Create a Permanent Public Involvement Coordinator
Implementation activities to date have been supported and managed by the PIR coordinator. This was a temporary position that ended in April, 2001. The coordinator has been pivotal to all improvement activities, coordinating, expediting, monitoring and working on the over 30 projects. Progress on the completion of outstanding projects has noticeably slowed since the position ended in April. In addition, there are a number of ongoing and emerging needs that need to be addressed if the City is going to sustain improvements to date. These include: training existing and new staff in the use of the "Public Process Guide"; referring staff to and coordinating the Staff Resource Group in Public Process; administering the public involvement consultant budget; creating and maintaining a public involvement page on the City's website; and shepherding new corporate improvement projects developed by the inter-departmental Working Group and staff.

B. Create a Public Involvement Budget
The strategic use of consultants for complex and controversial projects has proven extremely useful in this phase of the PIR. The consultants advised staff, and in some cases, facilitated public meetings, such as the proposed Corrections Canada facility in Yaletown and the Chinese Baptist church proposal for Knight and Kingsway. They also provided advice for complex processes such as the review of the liquor licensing process and rezoning procedures. Based on this experience, the Working Group is proposing an annual consulting budget of $15,000, to be administered by the Working Group and Coordinator. This is not intended to replace the resources or commitment that staff will need for their individual public involvement programs, but will be available to support processes where unique circumstances result in complex public consultation requirements. In addition, a $5000 contingency is proposed for miscellaneous costs such as room rental, printing, interpretation, etc.

C. Create a Staff Resource Group
The City already has many talented staff who can be a resource for others. The Working Group supports the creation of a Staff Resource Group, coordinated by the Public Involvement Coordinator, to provide advice, guidance and some expertise for other staff undertaking public involvement. This would be a supplementary resource and not a group of staff that would actually undertake the public involvement programs.

D. Encourage Training and Use of the Public Process Guide
The City is currently creating a course based on the "Public Process Guide" and revising the courses offered in the CityLearn Calendar. The Staff Resource Group and Public Involvement Coordinator can help educate other staff in the application of the guide. In addition, managers of staff that conduct public involvement can encourage staff to take training and use the guide.

E. Confirm the Role of the Inter-departmental Working Group
The group of staff that has guided the PIR from its inception has provided a key leadership and advisory role. It has also been a means for sustaining the partnership that is the backbone of such a large inter-departmental effort. Staff are recommending this group continue on as a steering committee, with support from the Public Involvement Coordinator, to continue this leadership role and to ensure that the City continues making corporate improvements to public involvement.

PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT

Extensive public involvement has been conducted over the five years of the Public Involvement Review, including various focus groups, workshops, a staff/public working group, and a mailing list of over 300 groups and individuals. This report has been mailed to those groups and individuals for review and comment, as well as to provide closure on the Review. Public comments are attached in Appendix D.

STAFFING AND FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The completion of existing projects will be resourced from within existing resources as identified in the Action Plan. New costs for sustaining improvements to public involvement include:

Public Involvement Coordinator:
Total first year cost, including benefits, computer and furniture, is $64,000; annual cost thereafter is $57,000. Source of funds for the remainder of 2001 and 2002 to be from the remaining Public Involvement Review budget and annually thereafter from Operating Budgets without offset. However, Council should note that the City is frequently approached by outside organizations to share our public consultation experience. One task of the Public Involvement Coordinator will be to identify opportunities for the City to recover some publicconsultation costs, including the potential sale of the staff "Public Process Guide" to other businesses and public sector organizations. While the Coordinator will be located in the Community Services Group, it will continue to serve all departments.

Public Involvement Budget:
Total annual cost is $20,000, with the source of funds for the remainder of 2001 to be from the remaining Public Involvement Review budget and annually thereafter from annual Operating Budgets, without offset.

CONCLUSION

Improvements to public involvement have been taking place at both the citywide and departmental levels to implement the sixteen public involvement Directions adopted by Council in 1998. The majority of these improvements are complete or underway. In addition to completing the remaining work, staff have created a strategy to continue and sustain improvements to public involvement at the City.

LINK TO APPENDICES A-D

* * * * *

pe011213.htm

Comments or questions? You can send us email.
[City Homepage] [Get In Touch]

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver