November 19, 1999

To: Administration Committee

From: Acting Commissioner of Corporate Services and City Clerk

Subject: ACCOMMODATION NEEDS OF CLERK'S FUNCTIONS:

RECORDS AND ELECTIONS

Purpose:

To outline the current issues and necessary directions to provide appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of the Clerk's Division in the short and long-term. The report responds to previous recommendations adopted by Council with respect to consolidation and accommodation requirements for the City Clerk's Elections and Records Centre programs and requests approval to acquire space to accommodate the Elections and Records Centre functions.

Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

This report outlines the need for an increase in the Elections 2000 budget of up to $350 thousand for leased accommodations. The report also outlines the need to continue to allocate up to $389 thousand in 2000 to meet service requirements for the Records Centre program pending consolidation of inactive records into a single records storage facility.

The Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer has reviewed the report and the financial impact statement.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1) the Executive Director of Facilities and Real Estate Division be directed to secure lease space for a period of five years for the Elections function at a gross rental rate not to exceed $350 thousand per annum, and the 2000 operating budget for the Clerk's Division be adjusted accordingly;

(2) the City Clerk and the Executive Director of Facilities and Real Estate be directed to investigate the re-allocation of the City-owned property at 25 Whitlam Avenue for a consolidated records centre;

(3) the City Clerk include, subject to a business case being developed in conjunction with the Acting Commissioner of Corporate Services, an additional $1.7 million as a change in scope within the 2000-2004 Capital Budget submission for transition projects to provide necessary funding for repairs and other costs related to the possibility of preparing a city-owned property for use as a records centre in year 2000;

(4) funding of $389 thousand previously approved in the 1999 Operating Budget to maintain the existing unconsolidated inactive records storage operation be continued on a one-time basis only in 2000;

(5) this report be referred to the Policy and Finance Committee for consideration of the financial implications; and

(6) the appropriate City Officials be authorized and directed to take the necessary action to give effect thereto.

Background:

Two Clerk's functions have an urgent need to resolve their accommodation needs in order to achieve the business goals previously reported through City Council.

Consolidation of Records Storage

On March 2, 3, and 4, 1999, as part of the 1999-2004 Capital Budget, Council approved funding for the Corporate Records and Archives' Transition Project to consolidate records storage facilities and services. A cash flow of $1.286 million was approved for 1999, and an amount of $0.373 million was committed for 2000. This project included consolidation of archival holdings at 255 Spadina Road, purchase of records management software to facilitate program integration, and consolidation of inactive records into a single Records Centre. This first two components of this project were implemented during 1999, but the Records Centre has not been developed as staff reviewed several site options. As a result, the cash flow for this project should be revised to $0.381 million for 1999, and $1.278 million for 2000

A five-year renewable lease for space in a commercial warehouse to store the inactive records of the City was reported for approval to the Budget Committee in November 1998. Staff were directed to negotiate with TEDCO for a long-term agreement for a design-built records storage facility. A one-time funding increase in the Clerk's 1999 budget (to meet the operational costs of maintaining the existing unconsolidated records facilities) was approved in February 1999 by City Council and staff were directed to continue negotiations with TEDCO. Although lease discussions have not been terminated with TEDCO there are a number of conditions that still require resolution and the annual costs to the City of $443 thousand to $530 thousand over the next fifteen years are prohibitive. The overall term of the agreement would be locked-in for twenty years without any ownership equity accruing to the City or provisions for review of market rents through the term. This agreement is viewed as unsatisfactory by the Facilities and Real Estate Division.

Elections

As part of the 1999 Operating budget process, Council approved a recommendation "that with respect to the need for a centralized elections storage and operations facility the City Clerk work with the Executive Director, Facilities and Real Estate to identify city-owned or other properties, explore alternatives, including further negotiations with the Provincial Elections Officer, and report back to the Budget Committee on financial implications for 1999 and 2000". City staff have been searching for a City-owned property to meet this requirement since April 1999 without success. Discussions with the Province of Ontario for co-location within their Elections warehouse facility have also occurred, however the quoted gross rental rate of $18 per square foot is cost prohibitive. Suitable accommodations must be found and fitted-up prior to March 1999 to prepare for the November 2000 municipal elections.

It should be noted that the Elections function in the former six area municipalities was accommodated in over 35,000 square feet of space in the Civic Centres and Oriole Yard prior to amalgamation. This space was scattered throughout the City and through the process of amalgamation has been released in large part for other Corporate uses.

Comments:

The accommodation requirements for Records Centre and Elections functions are at a critical juncture.

Records Centre

Corporate Records and Archives continues to require operational funding to maintain services at ten locations. In order to maintain services in 2000 an annual funding allocation of $389 thousand is required to be continued. Funding in this amount will be included in the Clerk's 2000 Operating Budget submission.

The report on records storage consolidation adopted by Council in February 1999 was based on the assumption that no suitable municipally-owned buildings were available for the accommodation of large volumes of records. This situation changed in April 1999, when Facilities and Real Estate was notified that a building at 25 Whitlam Avenue may be surplus to the parks operations of the Economic Development, Culture and Tourism Department. This building was reviewed by staff, who determined that its size and location met the requirements for a records centre. The building was subsequently inspected by an engineering consultant, who determined that the facility would require improvements costing $1,500 thousand to prepare it for this use (replacement of the concrete slab floor, and major upgrades to the building's structural and mechanical systems). The site currently accommodates storage and programming for several local organizations, and the relocation of these functions will add time and possibly expense to this project.

As work on this assessment neared completion, additional properties became available for consideration. The transfer of 700 Huron Street and 200 Madison Avenue from Toronto Hydro to the City provided locations that were adjacent to the City of Toronto Archives at 255 Spadina Road, which could house several combined Clerk's functions, including Elections and the Records Centre. This option was pursued until the Property Management Committee met on October 18, 1999, when it was determined that these properties should be developed as part of the City's Housing First priority. In addition, the time line of several years for site development would not meet the City's pressing need for additional records storage capacity.

Office consolidation and yard rationalization are adding several thousand boxes of inactive records that are already awaiting transfer to 10 existing municipal records centres currently operating at or above capacity. Stockpiling of boxes in offices, hallways, and file rooms is creating a situation where the City cannot meet its corporate governance requirements of identifying and retrieving information when needed to support decision making or to answer statutory demands, and this approach is also creating overcrowding in working environments that can result in health and safety problems.

While leasing commercial space to accommodate the Records Centre avoids the short-term capital expenditures associated with renovating the municipally owned warehouse at 25 Whitlam Avenue, these costs will be recovered during the first 12 years of the building's operations. Should the City consider leasing space on a temporary basis until another building was available on the municipal inventory, this approach would add additional expenditures to the project of approximately $300 thousand for moving records from the temporary location to the permanent Records Centre, as well as significant costs to adapt or replace shelving purchased for the leased space (an initial expense of approximately $650 thousand).

In summary, the City Clerk's Division faces a compelling need to consolidate and expand records centre operations during 2000. A municipally owned building is potentially available at 25 Whitlam Avenue, and the delay in implementing yards rationalization studies in other departments makes it unlikely that a comparable property will be available for reuse in the near future. Leasing is not an attractive alternative due to additional costs in the long run, and significant service disruptions when the move takes place to a permanent City-owned facility.

Appendix "A" sets out the financial impact of the three separate options considered by staff to meet the accommodation needs of the Records Centre.

Elections:

Elections must have accommodations for vote counting equipment to be delivered in March 2000 and appropriate space to test and set-up these machines and the election process in November 2000. The only viable alternative currently available is the lease of premises for a period of five years at an anticipated annual cost of $350,000 per annum. These funding requirements will be included in the 2000 Operating Budget. The long-term location of the Elections facility will be dependent on consolidation activities of the City and the Clerk's Division.

Appendix "B" sets out the financial impact of the recommended lease to accommodate the Elections needs.

Conclusions:

This report outlines the urgent accommodation needs of key Clerk's functions and recommends the leasing of property to resolve the most pressing Elections need. The options and action plan for accommodation of a consolidated Records Centre function is also outlined and provides a recommendation for short-term funding of the existing operation.

Contacts:

Mark Davies, Director of Facilities Services, 397-0805, Fax 392-4828, e-mail mark_davies@metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca

Michael Moir, Director, Corporate Records and Archives, 392-9673, Fax 392-9685, e-mail mmoir@toronto.ca

John Hollins, Director, Elections, 392-8019, Fax 392-1867, e-mail jhollins@toronto.ca

Brenda Glover Novina Wong

Acting Commissioner of Corporate Services City Clerk

Appendix A

Appendix B