SUPPORTS ITEM NO. 3
CS&B COMMITTEE AGENDA
APRIL 18, 1996
POLICY REPORT
ADMINISTRATION
Date: March 1, 1996
TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets
FROM: Corporate Management Team
SUBJECT: Changes to Administrative Policies
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT gifts presented to City Council, Board Members or staff
by visiting dignitaries and/or delegations, which have a
value of over $50.00, be turned over to the appropriate City
Official for safekeeping, or disposition by sale or auction,
with the sale proceeds credited to the City's general
revenues.
B. THAT gifts presented to staff being paid to represent the
City on speaking engagements, technical presentations or
other related activities, which have a value of over $50.00,
be turned over to the appropriate City Official for
safekeeping, or disposition by sale or auction, with the
sale proceeds credited to the City's general revenues. Gifts
in the form of cash honorariums or other monetary
compensation made in similar circumstances, regardless of
amount, are to be deposited with the City.
C. THAT, in order to strengthen the City administrative
practices around tendering for supplies and services, the
general conditions of the City's tendering documents be
amended to put existing and potential suppliers on notice
that discounts/rebates cannot be offered to City employees
unless those same discounts/rebates are offered to the
public at large, or those discounts/rebates are offered to
employees of other large employers (public and private) on a
no-strings-attached basis to the employer.
D. THAT Council approve the changes to the administra-tive
policies discussed in this report and outlined in the report
Appendices. These policies deal with the following items:
- Conflict of Interest - Staff;
- Political Involvement - Staff;
- Business Travel; and,
- External Training - Staff.
E. THAT Council request the Park, Library and Police Boards to
adopt the above policies as well.
CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The City Manager RECOMMENDS approval of A, B, C, D and E, noting
that this report has been prepared by the Corporate Management
Team.
COUNCIL POLICY
Amendments to established Council policies require Council approval.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval on certain
administrative issues which require either new policy or changes to
existing policies.
BACKGROUND
The City has been without an administrative manual since the late
1960s. At times, the lack of a centralized and consolidated source of
information has made it difficult for both newly elected and newly
appointed officials and staff to obtain a working knowledge of
existing corporate policy governing many routine administrative
matters.
In order to address this situation, the General Manager of Corporate
Services has agreed to compile a manual containing certain statutory
obligations, existing Council policies, and various management
policies and procedures.
To best explain existing policies and procedures, the manual is being
compiled in a standard format and presentation. This sometimes
results in a reformatting of a policy, which gives it a new look,
although its content and application remain unchanged. In cases where
policies have been updated to reflect the City's current operating
environment, the updated versions will be presented to Council from
time to time for approval.
The changes to existing policies as outlined in the discussion section
of this report fall into the latter category.
DISCUSSION
1. New Policies
Gifts From Visitors
On many occasions Council, Board Members and staff are presented with
gifts from visiting delegations and dignitaries. These gifts can range
in value from nominal to significant. Our proposal is that gifts
valued at over $50 must be turned over to the appropriate City
Official (usually the City Clerk). The Official will keep a record of
each gift containing a description, the estimated value, the donor,
the recipient and its final disposition. These gifts may be displayed
in individual offices, general offices, or in the public areas of City
buildings. Alternatively, they may be disposed of by sale, or
auction, with the proceeds credited to the City's general revenues.
The Official will assist in determining a value for each gift for
purposes of executing this policy and will consult with Mayor and
Council or the appropriate Board before taking any action on
disposition.
Recommendation 'A' of the report deals with this policy situation.
Gifts For Services Rendered
The following policy guideline deals with gifts from outside
agencies/groups given to City staff representing the City on speaking
engagements, technical presentations and other related activities.
This guideline only includes activities for which the employee is
being paid by the City.
The above discussion on gifts from visitors has equal applicability to
gifts for services rendered. An additional requirement is that
acceptance of cash honorariums and other forms of monetary
compensation, regardless of value, must be deposited with the City.
The exception would be reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs incurred
by an employee for travel, living and accommodation expenses,
associated with attendance at an event.
Recommendation 'B' of this report deals with this policy situation.
Employee Discounts/Rebates
City employees are representatives of City Council and the way they
conduct themselves will determine how the community views the
corporate City of Vancouver. It is therefore critical that a high
standard of honesty, integrity (one of the City's stated corporate
values) and impartiality be seen to underpin the City's business
practices.
Employee discounts/rebates on purchases for personal use is a topic
which surfaces from time to time. Clearly, we know that our employees
are offered discounts by a variety of commercial establishments, some
of which are suppliers to the City, and those discounts are likely
accepted by many.
In order to guide our employees on the types of supplier
discounts/rebates that are considered acceptable under the City's
Conflict of Interest policy, we have proposed an amendment to that
policy in this report which explains, by example, those situations
where a conflict would be deemed to exist. Similarly, Recommendation
'C' of this report would put existing and potential suppliers to the
City on notice as to the City's policy on employee discounts/rebates.
2. Changes to Existing Policies
Recommendation 'D' of this report deals with the changes to existing
policy that are discussed below.
Conflict of Interest - Staff (Policy Manual reference D.50.2)
On March 10, 1987, Council adopted a policy dealing with conflict of
interest and confidentiality. In an effort to assist employees to
clearly understand that policy, there is a need to make some minor
wording changes to parts of the policy, and these changes require the
approval of Council.
The wording changes cover the following areas of the policy:
- the explanation of when a conflict is deemed to exist has been
more concisely defined as a situation when either an employee is
able to gain a special advantage due to employment with the City,
or conversely, where the City is disadvantaged as a result of an
employee's other interest(s);
- the expected behaviour of City employees has been defined as
conduct which accords with the spirit and letter of the law, the
Vancouver Charter, and Council's administrative policies; and
- additional examples of a conflict of interest situation have been
provided as follows:
- employees must not use or permit the use of City-owned
equipment, material, staff time, or property for
anything but City business; and
- employees of the City may not take advantage of
discounts/rebates on personal purchases from suppliers
having an existing business relation-ship with the
City, unless those suppliers offer the same
discounts/rebates to the general public or those
discounts/rebates are offered to employees of other
large employers (public and private) on a no-strings-
attached basis to the employer.
The entire Conflict of Interest policy is set out in Appendix A and is
submitted for information. The changes discussed above are submitted
for approval and have been marked with a vertical line in the left
margin of the text.
Political Involvement - Staff (Policy Manual reference D.130.1)
Section 38 of the Vancouver Charter was amended during the spring
session of the Legislature in 1993. The Charter now allows employees
to be nominated for City Council and for the Park Board, provided the
employee takes a leave of absence in accordance with the provisions of
the Charter.
The Charter amendments did not deal with the situation where an
employee seeks to hold office on the Vancouver School Board. On
August 26, 1980, Council dealt with this issue and approved the
following policy:
That City employees be permitted to participate in the
following political activities:
(i) active membership in a Vancouver civic party.
(ii) candidate for other GVRD Council.
(iii) candidate for MLA.
(iv) candidate for other GVRD School Board.
Further that the matter of permitting City employees to run
as candidates for the Vancouver School Board be deferred.
The aforementioned policy statement has since been interpreted in a
manner which prohibits Department Heads from active participation in
civic political parties.
The School Board issue remains to be resolved. Given that the Charter
is silent on this matter, Council does not appear to have the
authority to prohibit an employee from being nominated for a position
on the Vancouver School Board, or to require the employee to take a
leave of absence in order to pursue election to the Board. In order
to address this long-standing situation, the policy approved by
Council in 1980 has been revised to allow staff to seek nomination for
the Vancouver School Board. However, employees seeking to hold a
position on the Board, must not violate the City's conflict of
interest policy.
The changes to the policy cover the following areas:
- employees may seek nomination and hold office on City Council or
the Park Board; and
- employees may seek nomination and hold office on the Vancouver
School Board.
The entire Political Involvement - Staff policy is set out in Appendix
B and is submitted for information. The changes discussed above are
submitted for approval and have been marked with a vertical line in
the left margin of the text.
Business Travel (Policy Manual reference E.70)
The City's current travel policy was approved by Council on July 28,
1992 and subsequently modified on April 19, 1994 to allow the City
Manager to delegate his authority to approve exceptions to the
provisions of the travel policy to the Director of Finance. The
Director of Finance has since made minor administrative changes to the
travel policy which clarify the intent of the policy or improve
control over travel costs generally.
The changes to the policy cover the following areas:
- a new provision to the travel authorization process which permits
a person who is authorized to approve travel to lower the maximum
spending levels set out in the travel policy on a case-by-case
basis in order to accommodate available budget funds. Reductions
must be agreed to by the traveller prior to the travel;
- clarification of the activities which are considered to be part
of a registration fee. Social events, banquets and other
ancillary activities are not to be included as part of the
registration fee if they are optional and involve an extra cost
over and above the basic registration fee. Ancillary activities,
if business related, should be identified as separate claim items
on the travel expense form. Otherwise, they should be considered
as part of the per diem allowance;
- clarification of allowable expenses when travelling by
automobile. In addition to the costs noted in the present
policy, travellers may claim parking costs and toll fees;
- clarification of excursion fares. Excursion fares are not
generally available for business class travel. Therefore, staff
and Council/Board members who are permitted to travel in the
business class category are exempted from the excursion fare
requirement at their option;
- clarification of class of travel for staff at pay grade 34 and
above. This category includes the Inspector level and above for
the Police Department;
- flight cancellation insurance has been eliminated as a
requirement when booking excursion fares. Based on the City's
experience to date, it is less expensive to self-insure for the
possibility of travellers not being able to travel because of
sickness than to pay the additional premium costs for the
insurance coverage;
- clarification of the requirement to book hotel reserva-tions
through the City's designated travel agency. The policy now
allows certain reservations to be made through designated
conference organizers to take advantage of group discounts;
- clarification of the reimburseable expense associated with
staying with friends or relatives instead of booking hotel
accommodation. The policy allows a traveller to claim a daily
reimbursement for the expense of purchasing a gift or meal for
the host, up to the full per diem allowance for the traveller,
for the duration of the stay. Appro-priate receipts are
required;
- a $5 airport pick up and drop off charge ($10 maximum per trip)
may now be claimed in lieu of air-porter/taxi transportation or
short-term airport/terminal parking charges;
- clarification of the meal components for purposes of reducing the
per diem allowance in certain circumstances. The components are:
i) breakfast $ 6.00
ii) lunch 9.00
iii) dinner 15.00
For example, if a traveller receives a meal which is included as
part of the training/conference registration fee, the traveller
could reduce the per diem allowance by the appropriate meal
component amount; and
- clarification of the applicable bench mark fare when combining a
business trip with personal travel. The traveller's
reimburseable portion of the fare will be based on a direct,
return flight to/from the business destination using the lowest
economy excursion fare available for the travel dates.
The entire Business Travel policy is set out in Appendix C and is
submitted for information. The changes discussed above are submitted
for approval and have been marked with a vertical line in the left
margin of the text.
External Training - Staff (Policy Manual reference G.120.1)
In 1980, City Council delegated the responsibility for external staff
training to Department Heads. Council still required the Human
Resources Department to be involved with external training in the
following circumstances:
- where a department considered it appropriate for the City to
contribute less than 100% of the course fees; and
- where an employee had successfully completed a credit course and
was entitled to reimbursement of the second half of the course
fees.
In keeping with the present restructuring of City operations, and the
delegation of decision making authority and responsibility to
appropriate staff levels in the organization, the following changes
are proposed to the present external training policy:
- the department head or designate is to decide the appropriate
external training needs for department staff and will administer
the reimbursement of course fees; and
- departments are tomaintain records of all externalstaff training.
The entire External Training - Staff policy is set out in Appendix D
and is submitted for information. The changes discussed above are
submitted for approval and have been marked with a vertical line in
the left margin of the text.
CONCLUSION
This report is the first in a series of reports which will deal with
updating present City policies to accord with our changing corporate
culture and working environment. The recommendations of this report
not only propose updates to present policies but present for approval
two new policies dealing with the acceptance of gifts by Council,
Board Members and staff, and a recommendation to strengthen the
notification to our suppliers around employee discounts/rebates.
A copy of this report has been forwarded to all civic unions and
employee group representatives.
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