March 30, 1998

 To:Special Committee to Review the Toronto Transition Team Report

 From:Chief Administrative Officer

 Subject:Toronto Library Board Structure

  Purpose:

 To recommend a new structure for the Toronto Library Board, a proposed by-law to establish the Board in accordance with the Public Libraries Act and the process for appointing members for the current term.

 Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

 No financial implications.

 Recommendations:

 It is recommended that:

 (1)the Toronto Public Library Board be comprised of 15 members appointed by Council:

(a)seven of whom shall be Members of Council including the Mayor or his designate and at least one member of the standing committee to which the Toronto Public Library Board reports;

(b)two of whom shall be nominated by the Toronto District School Board;

(c)one of whom shall be nominated by the Toronto District Separate School Board; and

(d)five citizens nominated by the Nominating Committee of Council;

 (2)the Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Public Library Board be given authority through Council by-law to call the first meeting of the Board in each term;

 (3)the City Clerk be requested to review the desirability of instituting limits on the terms served by citizen appointees to local boards and to review the process of receiving nominations by external bodies with a view to adding flexibility to the process and facilitating the balancing of qualifications of citizen members;

(4)the school boards be requested to nominate the representatives of the predecessor school boards who are currently members of the Interim Board as their representatives for the current term expiring on November 30, 2000 or until their successors are appointed;

 (5)Council re-appoint the current Councillor and citizen members of the Interim Board;

 (6)the Striking Committee be requested to nominate six additional Members of Council, including the Mayor or his designate, as members of the new Toronto Public Library Board;

 (7)the Clerk be authorized to initiate the process of citizen appointments for an additional two citizens for the Toronto Library Board, during the next round of citizen appointments through the Nominating Committee;

 (8)leave be granted for the introduction of the By-Law attached as Appendix 1 to this report which establishes the new Toronto Public Library Board in accordance with the Public Libraries Act; and

 (9)the appropriate officials be authorized to take the necessary actions to give effect thereto.

 Council Reference/Background/History:

 The City of Toronto Act, 1997 (No. 2) established one consolidated Library Board for the City as of January 1, 1998 and dissolved the library boards of the former municipalities. The City Council was given the authority to establish the size and composition of the new Board within the parameters of the Public Libraries Act. Until Council determined the structure of the new Board, the legislation established an interim structure consisting of the seven Chairs of the former boards.

 A Library Board Transition Committee was established to advise the Toronto Transition Team on the board composition. The Provincial Government tabled Bill 109 which was to revise the Public Libraries Act to permit majority Councillor representation and eliminate the requirement for school board representation. The Library Board Transition Committee developed two options for the size and composition of the Board, anticipating this legislative change. However, Bill 109 was withdrawn. The Committee revised its recommendation to comply with the unchanged legislation and the Interim Board considered this recommendation at its meeting of January 29, 1998.

 The Interim Board amended the recommendation of the Library Board Transition Committee and forwarded its report to the Special Committee to Review the Toronto Transition Team Report. The Special Committee referred the report from the Interim Board to the Chief Administrative Officer for a further report. This report complies with that request.

 This report considers all of the recommendations made by the Toronto Transition Team, the Library Board Transition Committee, and the Interim Board, as well as the legislative constraints and the general policies for appointment of citizens. The structure and composition of the former Boards were also reviewed. The Framework for Determining the Composition of Boards which was attached to the Terms of Reference of the Task Force on Agencies, Boards, and Commissions approved by Council on March 11, 1998 was also used in formulating the recommendations in this report. The senior management team of the Library and the Chair of the Interim Board concur with this report.

 Under existing legislation, it is necessary for Council to pass a by-law establishing the size and composition of the new Board. In addition, a by-law is necessary to give authority to the CEO of the Library Board to call the first meeting of the Board in each term, failing which the City Clerk would be required to call the first meeting of the Toronto Library Board. The draft by-law which satisfies these two requirements is attached to this report as Appendix 1.

 This report also makes recommendations for the next steps in the process of appointing members to the new Board.

 Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

 1.Board Size and Composition

 The Public Libraries Act, as it applies to the City of Toronto, specifies that a municipal library system must be governed by a Board at arms= length from the core municipal government. Council may determine the size and composition of the governing Board within the following parameters:

• Board must be comprised of between 9 and 15 members
• Council Members must form a minority on the Board
• two members shall be nominated by the Toronto District School Board and one by the Toronto District Separate School Board
• no member shall be an employee of the City or of the Library Board.

 The Public Libraries Act also specifies that the term of appointment be the same as the term of the Council which appoints them.

 Recommendation 82 of the Toronto Transition Team recommended that the majority of members of the Library Board be citizens (as is required by the legislation) and that the Acitizens reflect the diversity of their communities and a variety of skills and expertise@. No specific composition was recommended.

 The Library Board Transition Committee recommended the maximum number of members permitted under the legislation (15) to be comprised of seven Council Members, including the Mayor or his designate, three school board representatives required by legislation, and five citizens. The Interim Board amended the recommendation to six Council Members and six citizens, but otherwise concurred with the Committee=s recommendation.

 The former municipal library board compositions were as follows:

  Given the previous representation, the size of the combined budget, staffing, and value of assets and the high visibility and use of the library system within the community, it is recommended that the size of the Toronto Library Board be 15 members, the maximum permitted by legislation.

 The framework for determining the size and composition of boards, which has been proposed for use by the Task Force on ABC=s, suggests that the balance between Councillor and citizen representatives on a board should primarily be determined by the percentage of the budget funded municipally and the degree to which municipal policy is impacted or established by the board=s decisions.

 In the case of the Toronto Library Board, more than 90 per cent. of funding comes from the municipal tax base. The budget is set annually by Council and spending is monitored quarterly.

 Strategic policies might include the balance of reference and circulation services, the magnitude of user fees and/or fines and the topical and linguistic balances of the collection. In addition, the decision to invest in and retain rare or valuable collections may be considered a strategic policy. These policy decisions affect a very high percentage of taxpayers who are library users.

 Council has the means to control spending through means other than board membership, but the policy decisions do not generally require Council approval. Council should therefore be strongly represented on the Board through the maximum Councillor membership permitted. Since a majority is not permitted under the legislation, it is recommended that 7 of the 15 members be Council Members.

 The Board has also recommended that, of the seven Council Members appointed by Council, one be the Mayor or his designate. As indicated above, the head of Council or designate was a member of the Library Board in only two of the seven municipalities, North York and Metro. Given the number of Boards and committees of the new city, specifying that the Mayor be a member may be impractical, but as long as a designate is permitted, this is not an issue.

 It would also be beneficial to ensure that there is some overlap between the Board membership and the membership of the standing committee to which the Library Board reports.

 This proposal would result in the following recommended composition of the Toronto Library Board:

15 members appointed by Council comprised of:

• the Mayor or his designate;
• 6 Councillors nominated by the Striking Committee, one of whom is a member of the standing committee to which the Library Board reports;
• 2 nominees of the Toronto District School Board;
• 1 nominee of the Toronto District Separate School Board; and
• 5 citizens nominated by the Nominating Committee.

 2.Terms and Sunset Clauses

 The Interim Board has recommended that Council approve a policy which limits the number of terms any individual citizen may serve on the Board to two consecutive terms (six years) and that half of the citizen appointments be automatically renewed for a second term. This provides the desirable continuity deemed necessary to ensure a continually effective decision-making process.

 In specifying the term for citizen appointees as being the same as the term of the Council which appoints them, the legislation effectively prohibits automatic renewal of appointments. Each new Council must have the prerogative of selecting citizens which it believes will most effectively represent the public=s and Council=s interests. For Councillor representation on the Board, Council has requested that the legislation be amended to permit 18-month terms consistent with the terms of Councillor appointments to other boards. This will provide for some change of the Library Board during the term of Council.

 The Interim Citizen Appointment Policy adopted by Council did not recommend any limit to the number of terms that a citizen may serve on the same board. Council always has the ability to re-appoint or not as the Council sees fit. However, instituting sunset clauses may expand the opportunity for broadening citizen involvement and may help to continually inject fresh ideas and dynamics into board decisions. It is recommended that the City Clerk be requested to consider instituting sunset clauses for board appointments in general.

 3.Nomination Process for School Board Representatives

 The Interim Board has recommended that the school boards submit a rank-ordered short-list of candidates to the Nominating Committee who will then make the final recommendation to Council and that the school boards be asked to refrain from recommending employees of the school boards.

 Although not common practice for nominations made by external entities, the suggested process may be practical and desirable. Council=s interim policy for citizen appointments states that no individual may serve on any more than one municipal board. If a school board nominee had also applied to other municipal boards, this process would permit the Nominating Committee to select the next short-listed candidate without having to request an alternative. It also provides the Nominating Committee with added flexibility to balance the skills and expertise, to select on the basis of geographical representation if desirable, and to reflect the cultural diversity of the community.

 In the case of the Library Board, it may not be necessary to institute this process for 1998 if the recommendations of this report are approved, since the school boards would be asked to nominate existing members as discussed further in this report. However, the Clerk should explore the benefits of this suggested process and other means of expediting the selection process and facilitating the balancing of qualifications of citizen members on boards in general.

 4.Selection Process for the Current Term

 The Interim Library Board=s current membership consists of the seven Chairs of the former municipal boards which were amalgamated. The Interim Board happens to be comprised of:

 In order to maintain continuity over this period of significant change, it may be desirable to re-appoint the existing members and add the additional members needed to bring the membership up to the recommended number. The Interim Board reports that it is working effectively with the current membership. The members represent a geographic dispersion across the entire City since they represented the former municipalities. The membership, although experienced in Library Board matters have a new synergy and dynamic since they come from different boards. This strategy would also simplify the school board selection process during a period of transition for the school boards as well.

 To pursue this strategy, the following actions are recommended:

• School boards be asked nominate the school board representatives who are currently members of the Interim Board;
• Citizen members be re-appointed;
• The current Councillor appointment be re-affirmed;
• The Striking Committee be requested to nominate another six Members of Council, including the Mayor or his designate;
• The Clerk be authorized to begin the process to select an additional two citizens through the Nominating Committee.

 5.By-Law

 The By-law attached as Appendix 1 to this report was approved by the Interim Board at its meeting of January 29, 1998 and has been reviewed by the City Solicitor. The By-law sets out the recommended composition of the Toronto Public Library Board and authorizes the Chief Executive Officer of the Board to call the first meeting of the Board in each term.

 Conclusions:

 This report recommends the composition of the new Toronto Public Library Board in accordance with the Public Libraries Act to replace the Interim Board established by Provincial Legislation and the proposed supporting By-law. The recommendations were developed in consultation with the Library CEO Team and the Chair of the Interim Board and are consistent with the Framework for Determining the Composition of Boards and the structure recommended by the Library Board Transition Committee. This report also recommends that the members of the Interim Board be re-appointed to maintain the desirable continuity on the Board during its amalgamation process and provide the flexibility to add new members with new perspectives. This report also outlines the next steps necessary to implement these recommendations.

Michael R. Garrett

Chief Administrative Officer