SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 3
CS&B COMMITTEE AGENDA
DECEMBER 14, 1995
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: November 30, 1995
TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets
FROM: General Manager of Corporate Services
SUBJECT: Transfer of Business Improvement Area (BIA) Function
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT in recognition of the current work requirements for the
BIA function, the existing 1.0 FTE position be changed to a
.75 FTE position, at a cost savings of $16,600 including
fringe benefits.
B. THAT Council approve the transfer of the BIA function to the
Planning Department, including the .75 FTE position funding
of $49,600 and associated operations funding of $9,700.
C. THAT the $16,600 savings resulting from Recommenda-tion A,
including the hosting budget of $7,400 in the Economic
Development Office, be transferred to the City Clerk for
purposes of establishing a delegation hosting capability in
the Clerk's office.
COUNCIL POLICY
On September 14, 1995, Council approved the following resolution
resulting from the deliberations around the final report of the
Economic Development Task Force.
THAT Council defer approval of the transfer of the BIA
function, staff position #4373, and delegation hosting
function, along with related 1995 funding of $83,300,
pending a report back from staff on the appropriate location
of the function.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to recommend the relocation of the BIA
function to the Planning Department with appropriate capacity to
undertake the present workload associated with that function and to
provide operating funding for the City Clerk's Office to establish a
hosting function for visiting delega-tions.
DISCUSSION
When this issue was before Council on September 14, 1995, there was
some uncertainty as to the best location in the organiza-tion for the
BIA function. After discussions with the General Manager of Community
Services and the City Clerk, we initially felt that the function would
be best placed in the City Clerk's office, with some position capacity
being available to handle the hosting function for visiting
delegations.
Upon further reflection, and recognizing the fact that when a position
is assigned to serve two or more functions, none of those is best
served in the longer run, as inevitable conflicts arise in scheduling
the work demands. We, therefore, believe a better proposal would see
the BIA position changed from a 1.0 FTE to a .75 FTE position,
representing the current workload requirement of the BIA function.
The savings resulting from that change could be transferred to the
City Clerk, along with the hosting budget presently incorporated in
the budget of the Economic Development Office, giving a total of
$24,000 to establish an appropriate hosting function in the Clerk's
office.
CONCLUSION
Arguably the BIA function would work equally well in the City Clerk's
office or in the Planning Department. However, relocating the
function in the Community Services Group would provide valuable
community input to the planning function in terms of having a staff
position advance a business perspective on local area planning issues
based on first hand work in the field.
The City Clerk is responsible for co-ordinating the City's Sister
Cities initiatives and the hosting function is a natural fit to this
responsibility. The funding transfer proposed in this report will be
sufficient to establish a modest hosting function for visiting
delegations which, with the demise of the Economic Development Office,
is not available elsewhere in the organization at the present time.
The City Clerk will be reporting to Council in the early new year on
an appropriate budget and activities related to Vancouver's Sister
Cities.
A copy of this report has been forwarded to the business office of
CUPE Local 15.
* * * * *