POLICY REPORT
FINANCE
Date: July 5, 1995
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: Chief Constable, in consultation with Director of
Finance.
SUBJECT: Staffing Requirements - Information Management Project
RECOMMENDATIONS
A. THAT Council approve the reclassification of a Clerk Typist
II, previously budgeted at $34,160 per annum to a Clerk III at
$37,400 per annum with benefits. This is required for the
duration of the Information Management Project and the
difference per annum is $3,240.
B. THAT Council approve funding for six (6) temporary clerical
staff (Clerk III) to assist the Information Manager for four
months at a total cost of $72,000 including benefits.
C. THAT Council approve funding for four clerical staff (Clerk
Typist II) to assist the Information Manager for four months
at a total cost of $48,000 including benefits.
D. THAT the operating budget of the Department be adjusted to
reflect these costs to a total of $123.240 for the year 1995.
CHIEF CONSTABLE'S COMMENTS
The Chief Constable RECOMMENDS approval of recommendations A, B, C
and D.
COUNCIL POLICY
On February 4, 1992, Council resolved that there would be no net
increases in services or staffing in 1992 and 1993 without appropriate
offsets; and that departments and boards be instructed that any
recommendations for increased staff or enhanced programs be accompanied
by recommendations for matching cost decreases or related revenue
increases.
SUMMARY
June 30, 1993 the Police Department went before Council to ask for
staffing and equipment to prepare for the pending Freedom of Information
and Protection of Privacy Act. Included in the application to Council
was a request for an Information Manager to examine the existing records
systems in the Police Department and develop a records program that
would enable the Department to respond to the Act. Council was advised
that the Police Department would return to Council when the Records
Manager had identified the staff requirements to establish a consistent
and effective records management infrastructure. That has been done and
this report identifies the staff requirements.
The legislation pertaining to the Freedom of Information and the
Protection of Privacy Act came into effect on November 3, 1994, and the
volume of requests is increasing rapidly. The Information Management
Project commenced behind schedule for a variety of reasons including
labour action from July through September of 1994. Nonetheless,
substantial work has been done in preparation for a records conversion.
The conversion is necessary to establish the records infrastructure in
the Police department to deal with demands imposed by the legislation.
The Information Manager has completed the exploratory and design phases
and has, to a limited extent, embarked on the implementation of the new
system. A Project team is now required in order to complete the
development of the informational infrastructure in the Police
Department. The conversion process is explained in more detail in the
discussion portion of this report.
PURPOSE
This report seeks Council approval of the Chief Constable's request for
funding for temporary staff.
BACKGROUND
A. Information Management Project
The preceding Report submitted to Council on June 30 1993 outlining
Staffing Needs, recommended that an Information Manager be hired by
October of 1993 to design, develop and implement an Information
Management System in order to comply with the provisions of the Freedom
of Information and Protection of Privacy Act(Bill 50). The Police
Department 1992 audit report entitled "The Examination of Administrative
Filing" disclosed that these provisions could not be met using existing
locally organized filing systems.Requirements of a Records Management
System
The following projects were identified as critical to compliance:
1) Standardized Classification System
2) Central Index of Administrative Files
3) Retention and Disposal Schedules
4) File Tracking System
5) Inventory of Records
- Forms
- Manuals, Directives and Guidelines
- List of all Personal Information Banks
- List of all Categories of Records Kept
- Inventory of all Administrative Records
B. Project Implementation
Work on the project did not get fully underway until September 1994 due
to a lengthy hiring process and labour action from July through
September. Since then the Records Manager has been able to borrow staff
on a temporary basis from the Information Section as well as use several
clerical practicum students made available through the City EEO program.
While this has assisted the project, the Records Manager has had to
spend a great deal of time training people who are short term loans. In
addition, these people have limited or no background in records
management and minimal proficiency in word processing. The records
manager consequently spends much time correcting work.
Progress has been made despite the level of ability of staff, however,
the effectiveness and ultimate success of the project is affected by the
amount of the Manager's time consumed in this area. Considering the
scale of the project, with over 300 work sites to be converted, a
critical success factor is effective use of resources. The fact that
the Operational records are being addressed concurrently lends more
urgency to this issue.
In order to effectively utilize the Information Manager's time it is
imperative to be able to delegate more than basic tasks to the support
staff. This would permit more time to be dedicated to the provision of
on-site support and training during conversions and to other more
significant information management issues. Personnel are required with
a higher level of ability who can be trained to assume more
responsibility, to perform preliminary records analysis, and in filing
system conversions.
It has been found that the existing support staff in the Department do
not have sufficient time to devote to system conversions. Therefore, a
Project Team is required to provide this service. The project will not
succeed if it drags on too long proving confusing and frustrating to
end-users. A record of completed tasks, to date, are attached in
Appendix A.
Now that the classification scheme has been developed it is necessary to
apply a project team to the conversion. If the records manager and
short term staff loans continue with their slow conversion they will
never complete the task and the work already done will decay. The
conversion is essential so that a maintenance process can be
established. If the conversion takes too long or is delayed, the work
done to date will be lost as the users in frustration modify their own
filing systems. This has immediate implications for retrieval of
records for Freedom of Information requests as new file systems and
files are developed without the knowledge of the Information and privacy
staff. The conversion process takes time due to the following:
- There is normally an absence of logical order in the files
- Extensive analysis of each file is required due to a miscellaneous
filing system approach (e.g. 20 topics in one file)
- Extensive culling of files is required.(e.g. 15 years of minutes
per file)
- File folders require replacement
- Lists provided by file holders prove inaccurate and several
revisions are required
- Department staff require training in basics of records management
DISCUSSION
The foundation is in place and the conversion phase of the project is
ready to commence in order to meet the requirements of the legislation.
The scale of the project is extensive. The earlier Report to Council
stated that there are eighty-five (85) work sites with approximately
2000 linear feet of Administrative records to be processed. In addition
there are a further 700 linear feet in Archival storage.
The Information Manager advises that within each work site, at the unit
level, there are several subsets of filing systems, consequently a
figure of 300 work units is more realistic. There are 1,800 linear feet
of Operational Archival records, however a figure for active Operational
records has not yet been determined.
It is critical to the success of the project that effective use be made
of resources. The Information Manager has elected to take a project
team approach as this proves to be the most effective utilization of
personnel in large projects. The conversion tasks have been broken
down into modules which will require different skill sets. Higher
results are yielded this way with optimal accuracy and a lower
occurrence of staff burn-out. A. Staffing Requirements - Phase I- to
project completion
A Clerk III is required to assist in the coordination and development of
the following for the duration of the project:
ARCHIVES
- Detailed examination, culling and organization of Archives
- Organization of in-house Archives by level of security
- Assistance in culling and organization, and inventory of other
sensitive material
- Listing and transfer of Archival material to off-site storage
- Updating of Archival database
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
- Compilation of file lists where none exist
- Ongoing revisions to Information Management Manual
- Ongoing revisions to Master Index database
- Proofreading, updating printed reference copy
- Inventory of Records - Administrative & Operational
- Development of retention and disposal guidelines database
- Implementation of formal records retention and disposal
program coordinated by the Information Management Unit
including transfer to Archives
COFI RECORDS MANAGEMENT DATABASE
- Entry of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Subject Headings
- Testing
- Program development
- Data entry of all department records
- Verification of input, corrections,
- Generation of reports
B. Staffing Requirements - Phase II - Four months
Six Clerk III's will be required for:
ARCHIVES
- Detailed inventory and compilation of contents lists for in-
house Archives
- Final culling of in-house Archives based on formal retention
guidelines
- Relocation and organization of in-house Archives by level of
security
- Detailed inventory, and compilation of contents lists for
Archives stored in City Archives
- Culling of Archives stored in City Archives based on formal
retention guidelines
- Revision of Archival lists by unit
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
- Compilation of unit file lists where none exists
- Detailed inventory of all Department active records,
Administrative and Operational
COFI (COMPUTERIZED OPERATIONAL FILES INVENTORY) RECORDS MANAGEMENT
DATABASE
- Data entry of all department records
- Revisions to database
C. Staffing Requirements - Phase III - Four months
Four Clerk Typist II's will be required for:
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
- Detailed inventory of all Department active records,
Administrative and Operational
- Production and processing of file labels for entire Department
- Physical preparation of file folders as required
COFI (COMPUTERIZED OPERATIONAL FILES INVENTORY) RECORDS MANAGEMENT
DATABASE
- Data entry of all department records
- Revisions to database
D. Staffing Requirements - Phase IV
The Information Manager will address the following issues in Phase III
to identify further staffing requirements.
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
- Analysis of Operational records
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
- Security access level for files.
- Standardized computer directories for VPD as extension to
Master Filing System
- Assessment of alternate technologies for information
management applications e.g. relational databases or image
management software
- Implementation of demo copy of Image Management Software in
Information & Privacy Unit as test site
BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING
- Review and analysis of various processes in context of
information management
- Recommendations re: alternate modes of delivery
- Recommendation and design of information management systems
SPACE PLANNING
- Space Planning during renovations of 312 Main Street based on
functions and relationships of work units
- Design specifications for Archival storage area at 312 Main
Street
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
A. One Clerk III at an annual coat of $37,400.00 with benefits, an
upgrade from previously budgeted Clerk Typist II ($34,160).
Variance being $3,240.
B. Six clerical - Clerk III for four months to total $72,000 including
benefits.
C. Four Clerical - Clerk Typist II for four months, to total $48,000
including benefits.
D. The total cost is $123,240.
CONCLUSION
The Information manager has completed the examination of the records
systems in the Police Department and has developed a new system. With
some limited short term staff the Information manager has been able to
implement some of the changes. However, an intensive conversion process
is now required to convert the department to the new system. Short term
staff levels have been identified to accomplish this task. The Police
Department has tried to commit staff to work with the Information
manager but operational requirements make this unworkable. Funding is
requested to bring additional people in to complete the identified
phases of the conversion project. The risk of not doing this is the
decay of the new system as staff try to convert but lack the time and
knowledge to do the necessary work.
* * * * *
APPENDIX A
The Records Manager has completed the following tasks to date:
1. PROJECTS
- Completion of Customized Central Subject Classification Scheme
- Numeric classification scheme developed
- Administrative Subject Headings entered into COFI records
management database
- COFI database testing and development underway
- Development and implementation of formal retention schedules
- Development of 48 customized unit file heading lists
- Provision of labels to 12 units
- Conversion of 29 filing systems
- Training of department staff re Filing System
- Training of Information Management Unit staff re Word Processing &
Records Management
- Culling of 90% of in-house Archives
- Organization of in-house Archives
- In-depth analysis, culling and organization of following
Operational records including computerized lists of box contents:
- Homicide
- SOS
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Detention Services
2. Examination of INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
i) COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
- Define security access level for files
- Implement standardized computer directories as companion
to Master Index
ii) NUMERIC CLASSIFICATION SCHEME
- Development
- Entry into database
iii) RETENTION SCHEDULES
- Development of retention and disposal guidelines database
- Implementation at unit level
- Updating of master & unit lists
iv) UNIT FILE HEADING LISTS
- Customized development (48 to date)
v) UNIT FILE LABELS
- Production
- Input
- Proofreading
- Revision
- Generation
- Provision to 12 units to date
- 2 -
vi) UNIT FILING SYSTEM CONVERSIONS
- Conversion (29 to date)
vii) TRAINING
- Basic principles of records management - ongoing
viii) OPERATIONAL RECORDS
- Homicide
- SOS
- Robbery
- Burglary
- Detention Services
- Detailed examination, culling & organization
- Arrangement by incident number
- Multiple related cases are filed as a group record with
cross-references
- Input of case numbers & details into database designed to
serve as basis for case management database
- Generation of computerized lists of box contents:
- Development and application of retention schedules by
category of record
ix) SPACE PLANNING
- Design & layout and shelving requirements for following:
- Violent Crimes Records Storage Area (3rd floor)
- Homicide, SOS, Vice, Fraud
- Historical Homicide Review Team (3rd floor)
- Central Archival storage area (basement)