ward3brighton.ca

Last spring I quietly followed the steps to have Charlottetown listed on FixMyStreet.ca, a service maintained by Visible Government which is “a Canadian non-profit that promotes online tools for government transparency.” All that was required was an ESRI shapefile defining the geographic borders of each city ward (helpfully provided by a friend with friends at Elections PEI) and the names and email addresses of each councillor. I’d actually forgotten all about it until someone tweeted about a similar service and I responded. There have since been three reports logged in as many days (and I’ve since noticed the shapefile contains an older version of ward boundaries so we’re trying to get the new ones Fixed).

There’s nothing magic about the service. You could pick up the phone or sit at your keyboard and convey the complaint to your councillor or city staff in private. But reports that are logged on FixMyStreet.ca are publicly visible and other people can subscribe to reports of problems they would like to see fixed. Reports with many subscribers appear to be pushed above the fold into the Top Problems category, presumably to provide extra incentive for officials and staff to act. It’s simple, but provides a level of transparency and accountability that people appreciate.

Since being elected to council I’ve noticed a distinct lack of any complaint tracking system, paper, electronic or otherwise. Complaints and requests and questions arrive in various formats — email, phone, letters — and are routed to someone thought to be in a position to deal with it. But I often get complaints of buck passing, unhelpfulness, lack of follow up, issues falling through the cracks, etc. A city our size, providing the number of services that it does, needs a proper way to log, delegate and track issues that have been raised. I’ve had discussions with staff about implementing a proper CRM (Citizen Request Management) system and arranged for a demonstration of one product last year. There appears to be interest in pursuing the idea, at least among senior staff, and I hope to convince my fellow councillors of the same.

FYI to councillors and staff in Cornwall, Stratford and Summerside; the shapefiles I provided also contained the data for your municipalities so the FixMyStreet.ca people took the liberty of setting you up too.

UPDATE: Josh Biggley wrote a nice piece at Spacing Atlantic yesterday about government transparency and accountability. FixMyStreet.ca is mentioned. Josh reported a pothole on Beach Grove Rd. using FixMyStreet and I just noticed this on Twitter:

I took this panoramic photo using the Pano app on my iPhone after our monthly public meeting of council, December 14th, 2009. It is stitched together from four separate photographs.

In the doorway on the left is reporter Steve MacDougall interviewing Councillor Mitch Tweel (unseen). Mayor Clifford Lee is the blurry man-on-the-move in the center. To the right of the Mayor is CBC reporter Brendan Elliot, and at the back is Beth Johnston, Communications Officer for the city. Click the photo for a larger view.

Josh Biggley, writing at the excellent new Spacing Atlantic blog, makes the case for another farmer’s market in Charlottetown. The market on Belvedere Avenue is, by some measures, a victim of its own considerable success. Josh believes the market will support another market and invites readers to post their suggestions on a collaborative Google Map. Read his article and if you agree, weigh in with your suggestion on the map.

I submitted the following comment on Tim Banks’ blog. The comment is still awaiting moderation so I thought I better post it here also, for the record:

Tim… thanks for the kind words. There’s just one thing I’d like to clarify. When I ran for council I made a firm commitment to my employer that company time is company time. I wouldn’t want my boss to think I’m taking liberties, or my colleagues to get the impression I’m treated any differently. I am generally regarded as the councillor who is most difficult to schedule for meetings because I need to live up to that commitment I made. I can count on one hand the numbers of times that I’ve attended to city duties outside of my lunch hour, or before 4:30 [update: okay, maybe I'd need two hands]. I’ve occasionally used vacation time where necessary to avoid mixing company time with city time.
No comment on the rest of your post!
Thanks again,
Rob

I’m happy to see UPSE president Shelley Ward questioning the wisdom of moving two provincial government departments out of the capital city. Clearly the union membership is not pleased. I also spoke out against this move when it was announced. It’s bad for Charlottetown; it will disrupt the lives of many involved; and will only create a new commuter class of employees who travel to and fro across the island everyday while providing little economic impact for the target communities.

My last act as chair of the city’s Youth Advisory Board was to create a new website. Charlottetown Teen Zone is intended to be a place for teens to connect with local youth groups and find information about youth related events around town. Many of the local youth groups are being offered posting privileges to the website to announce their news and get their events on the Event Calendar.

Last year I was able to secure a small budget to hire a Youth Development Coordinator. We did not actually fill the position until late last year but the website is now in Megan Gauthier’s hands and she is runnng with it, among other initiatives. There’s also a Facebook page but I can’t seem to find it right now. If you have an event you would like posted to the site, use the contact page on the website to get in touch.

UPDATE (January 26): The name was corrected today.

‘This investment by Homburg has reignited the issue.’— Coun. Jeff Lantz

Having a brother who was formerly in politics, I get called ‘Jeff’ quite often. But this is the first news story to mix us up.

There is one other correction to this story. Paying cash in-lieu of physical parking spaces is not an exception to the bylaw as reported. It is an option built right into the Zoning & Development bylaw.

4.47 CASH-IN-LIEU OF PARKING SPACES

.1 Council May require or accept Cash-in-lieu of Parking Spaces in any situation where a
Development Permit has been applied for and adequate or required off-street Parking cannot be
provided or, in the opinion of Council, having considered a recommendation from the Planning
Board, is unfeasible.

I just received the following email from City Hall:

The 9th annual Capital New Year in the Park will take place on Wednesday, December 31 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Victoria Park.  This has become an annual traditional event that gives residents the chance to come out and meet neighbors, friends and family and to wish them all the best for 2009.  The event begins at 5:30 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m. with the annual Prayer for Peace taking place at 7:00 p.m. and then the official countdown.  There will be hot apple cider, pop, hot dogs, cake, music and horse and wagon rides throughout the park.

This is a great family event and a nice alternative to traditional late night New Year’s parties.

See you at the City of Charlottetown Levée on New Year’s Day (10:30-noon).

I recently received a package in my mailbox at City Hall from the Church of Scientology International. It was addressed specifically to me. I’m not aware of any other councillors receiving the same package which makes me wonder, “why me?”. There’s a short note from President Heber Jentzsch outlining the virtues of Scientology and a DVD “with 80 broadcast-quality videos”.

Scientology DVD

I haven’t taken the wrapper off the DVD yet, but if Tom Cruise himself agrees to come to Charlottetown and make a movie I’ll… um, take the wrapper off. Actually, I plan to watch it out of shear sheer curiosity, but I’m not quite ready to sell my Thetan to Xenu just yet.

That title is a reference to my previous post about Benjamin Franklin’s observations on the tendency of “those who govern” to be reactive.

With that in mind I wanted to highlight an initiative of the Human Resources Committee, which I chair, that was not “forc’d by the occasion”, as Ben put it, but rather quite forward looking. Last year the HR committee decided to develop a strategic plan for the management of the City’s permanent employees. After a lot of hard work, the result is the City’s new Corporate HR Plan. The document is a road map for the City to be a leader in HR management. Attracting and retaining qualified employees is becoming very difficult in all employment sectors and we wanted to get a jump on the competition and start developing a more professional, competency-based work environment and a corporate culture that values employees. The plan deals with retirement and succession planning, recruitment, training, performance evaluations, communications and a raft of other issues. Ultimately, the goal is better service for the residents of Charlottetown.

This will be an ongoing process. Management is currently developing a work plan aligned with the HR plan’s recommendations, and some immediate actions are already underway. This whole process has the support of Council, senior staff and management and employees were engaged in the process all along. This is not a report that will sit on a shelf gathering dust. Although HR is a pretty mundane topic for most people, and not generally newsworthy, I think this was an important step for the City.

I read Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography a few months back, mostly because it was available for free as an ebook on my iPod. As one of “those who govern”, I found this little bit of wisdom interesting:

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forc’d by the occasion.

It sounds like a more sophisticated way of stating what is now an old corporate-speak cliché: be proactive, not reactive.

 Who knew we held the solution to Toronto’s parking woes?

While Miller declined to offer any details, an example of an alternative system is used in Charlottetown, where ticketed drivers can pick up a dispute form from the police department or city hall. Submitted forms are then directed to the deputy police chief for a decision.

The driver is notified by telephone within three days of a decision.

I had no idea this process was in place here. Have you, or anyone you know, ever disputed a parking ticket this way?