February 4, 1999

To:Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team

From:Councillor David Miller

Chair, Special Committee

Subject:Wrap-up Report of the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team

Purpose:

This report summarizes the actions taken by the Special Committee since its formation in January 1998. The report brings closure to the Committee's activities and removes the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team from Council's agenda.

Financial Implications:

The recommendations in this report have no financial impact.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1)Council confirm that the review of the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team has been completed and that the Special Committee be disbanded; and

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

Council Reference:

Council created the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team at its inaugural meeting on January 2, 6, 8 and 9, 1998. Council referred most motions pertaining to the Transition Team's Final Report and the interim Procedural By-law to the Special Committee. Council requested the Special Committee to report on the Transition Team's recommendations, with a few exceptions, to the May 1998 meeting of Council, that is, after four months.

Council adopted the Special Committee's terms of reference on February 4, 5 and 6, 1998 (Special Committee Report 1 (1)). The terms of reference identified the following six priority areas:

(i)location of the seat of government;

(ii)role of community councils;

(iii)Council-committee structure;

(iv)citizen involvement in the City's governance;

(v)Council Procedural By-law; and

(vi)administrative structure.

From the outset, it was clear that the Special Committee should undertake a thorough review of these priority items in order to add significant value to Council's decision-making process. This would not be achieved simply by running down a checklist of the 136 recommendations in the Transition Team Report. Furthermore, it was clear that the Special Committee's consideration of Council's procedures, the committee structure and the roles and responsibilities of community councils called for consultations with members of Council and the public, which would take time to conduct properly.

The Special Committee reported to Council following its first four months as requested. The report summarized the Special Committee's actions since its creation and reviewed the progress of outstanding items on the work plan. Council adopted the progress report on July 29, 30 and 31, 1998 (Special Committee Report 10 (2)). This report highlights the Special Committee's accomplishments during the full year of its mandate.

Summary of the Special Committee's Actions:

The Special Committee's membership represents the broad spectrum of perspectives on Council. It includes former area municipal and Metro councillors and a former mayor and represents wards in every community council area except York. This diversity helped to ensure that the Committee's discussions covered all aspects of issues and were balanced. It also helped to ensure that the policy directions recommended by the Committee were generally supported by City Council.

The Special Committee met twelve times over a period of one year. In that time, the Committee dealt with all six priority areas on its work plan. The following summarizes the Committee's actions with respect to each of the priorities.

Location of the Seat of Government:

Council requested the Special Committee to attach a high priority to determining the permanent location for the seat of City government. Accordingly, the Committee dealt with this issue at its first meeting. The Committee recommended that Toronto City Hall be chosen as the seat of government. The Committee also recommended a timetable and approach to preparing City Hall to accommodate all members of Council and Council and Standing Committee meetings by the end of 1998. The Committee recommended setting in motion a longer-term process to develop a civic campus in the vicinity of City Hall.

An early decision on the seat of government was important for a number of reasons. It symbolized the new municipal government's first major step towards building an identity for itself. It removed a contentious issue from the table enabling Council to move ahead with its policy agenda. It united members of Council behind the common goal of moving into a single location. Finally, an early resolution allowed the process of renovating City Hall to proceed expeditiously.

Council adopted the Special Committee's recommendations. Council also requested the Special Committee to establish a sub-committee to oversee the relocation of members of Council to City Hall. The Special Committee appointed five of its members to the sub-committee under the chairmanship of Councillor Ron Moeser on February 13, 1998.

Under the guidance and scrutiny of the sub-committee, the renovations to City Hall and relocation of members proceeded smoothly and on schedule. All members of Council moved into their offices in City Hall by the end of 1998 as planned, standing committee meetings began to meet in City Hall in January 1999 and Council met in the refurbished Council chamber for the first time on February 2, 1999.

Planning for renovations to the City Hall towers and development of longer-term plans for a civic campus are continuing under the supervision of the Corporate Services Committee.

Role of Community Councils:

The Special Committee undertook a comprehensive review of the roles and responsibilities of community councils. This issue was of great symbolic as well as practical significance to Council and the citizens of Toronto. Community councils, as provided for in the City of Toronto Act, 1997, were a relatively untested component of municipal government. There were few examples to turn to for a record of their experience and potential and none in a situation like the one in Toronto. The legislative parameters, which defined the possibilities for community councils, were uncertain and fairly restrictive. However, many members of Council and their constituents saw community councils as essential means to keep a large government with a huge jurisdiction in touch with its communities. They also viewed community councils as vehicles to ensure that decisions with local community impact are influenced and made by people familiar with the local area, and to assist Council to deal with its enormous workload.

There was considerable public interest and debate about community councils. Therefore the Special Committee devoted energy and time to consultation with the public and councillors. The consultation process included a half-day workshop for councillors on February 23, 1998. Based on the workshop, the Special Committee produced a discussion paper on the roles and responsibilities of community councils. The paper was posted on the Internet, made available in public libraries and other civic buildings and distributed to the public through members of Council and the Special Committee's mailing list. A questionnaire attached to the discussion paper solicited citizens' feedback. The Special Committee heard public deputations on February 26 and June 26, 1998. In April 1998 the Special Committee conducted three focus groups on various aspects of the roles of community councils and, in April and May 1998, the community councils held public meetings on the issue and reported their outcomes to the Special Committee.

Thus, in making its recommendations to Council, the Special Committee drew on the benefit of a wide variety of input. The Committee recommended a strengthened role for community councils within the City's governance structure. The recommendations clarified the community councils' mandates for local planning, transportation and recreation matters and the distinction between city-wide and local matters. The Special Committee recommended that the community councils should have more scope to make final decisions and that a greater number of matters should be delegated to community councils. Council adopted the Special Committee's recommendations with few amendments on October 28, 29 and 30, 1998 (Special Committee report 12 (1)).

During 1998, Council also adopted a number of other specific recommendations of the Special Committee concerning community councils. These included the addition of a third councillor to the East York Community council and some changes to the Procedural by-law to enable community councils to establish committees and task forces and hold recorded votes.

Council-Committee Structure:

In response to requests by Council at its inaugural meeting, the Special Committee reviewed terms of reference for eight task forces and special committees and developed terms of reference for an Economic Development Committee. The Special Committee also made recommendations to Council on an interim structure for the City's non-profit housing agency, the structure and mandate of the Toronto Parking Authority, governance structures for Arts and Heritage, a structure for the Toronto Library Board and the reorganization of the Toronto Licensing Commission.

However, most of the Special Committee's efforts with respect to governance structures were devoted to the roles and responsibilities of community councils, as described above, and a comprehensive review of the basic Council-committee structure.

In March 1998, the Special Committee sent a short questionnaire to Members of Council to assess their preliminary experiences with the interim committee structure. During the summer, staff interviewed about a third of the members of Council and a sample of senior management and secretariat staff. The interview responses and other research were analyzed and compiled into a discussion paper on the committee structure and its issues. The discussion paper also outlined a framework for resolving the problems. In October 1998, the Special Committee reviewed the staff paper and sent it and a questionnaire to all members of Council and a selection of senior staff. The survey results were used in developing the Special Committee's recommended revisions to the Council-committee structure.

The Special Committee recommended a less hierarchical committee structure that responded to councillors' desires to focus financial control in a single committee and also distribute governance responsibilities more broadly among members of Council. Council adopted the Special Committee's recommendations with few amendments on February 2, 3 and 4, 1999 (Special Committee Report 1 (1)).

Citizen Involvement in the City's governance:

During the course of its mandate, the Special Committee recommended a number of actions that have an impact on citizen involvement in the City's governance. One of its first acts was to recommend interim policy guidelines for making citizen appointments to the City's agencies, boards and commissions. Council adopted the Committee's recommendations on February 4, 5 and 6, 1998 (Special Committee Report 1 (4)). These interim guidelines have been used for the past year. The Special Committee will review a proposed permanent policy on citizen appointments at its meeting on February 12, 1999. The policy will apply to a defined band of special purpose bodies.

The Special Committee also reviewed terms of reference for a variety of task forces and agencies, which include citizen members either directly or on advisory panels. In particular, the Task Force on Agencies, Boards and Commissions, whose terms of reference the Special Committee recommended to Council, will develop a framework to guide the role of citizens on the City's agencies, boards and commissions.

On February 2, 3 and 4, 1999 Council adopted a recommendation by the Special Committee that directs the commissioners to review all pre-existing advisory committees, working groups and task forces within their respective areas of responsibility (Special Committee Report 1 (1)).

The reviews of the Council-committee structure and the roles and responsibilities of community councils were guided by principles supporting strong public access and participation. The Special Committee also requested staff to take a more comprehensive look at citizen involvement in the City's governance. The staff report will be before the Special Committee on February 12, 1999. It examines the relationship between citizens and their municipal government, including the many ways in which citizens become involved, and outlines a broad framework for citizen participation in the City of Toronto.

Council Procedural By-law:

During the past year, a number of specific issues pertaining to the Procedural By-law were referred to the Special Committee. The Special Committee reviewed these issues, usually to clarify anomalies in the by-law, and made recommendations to Council. However the Committee's major focus was on a comprehensive review of the by-law.

The Toronto Transition Team had prepared a draft Procedural By-law, which Council adopted on an interim basis at its inaugural meeting. The Special Committee reviewed motions referred to it by Council and conducted a survey of members of Council before recommending a comprehensive set of changes to the interim by-law to Council. Council adopted the changes on May 13 and 14, 1998 (Special Committee Report 6 (1)).

The revisions were intended to simplify the language, clarify meanings and make minor corrections to selected sections of the interim by-law. They also streamlined the rules and procedures governing Council debates. Further changes to the sections of the by-law dealing with committee mandates and membership will result from Council's actions in response to the Special Committee's recommended changes to the Council-committee structure.

Administrative Structure:

All organizational mergers are inherently destabilizing. Municipal government amalgamations are no exception. Staff are insecure about their future place in the administration and the public want to know that services will continue to be provided and that people will be available in convenient locations to respond to problems. For these reasons, it was essential to move quickly to begin the amalgamation of the seven former administrative structures.

The Special Committee considered options for the overall administrative structure at its first meeting. Council adopted the Committee's recommendations for a senior management structure on February 4, 5 and 6, 1998 (Special Committee Report 1 (3)). The creation of the senior management structure provided a framework within which to build the administrative organization of the new City. It also provided clarity to members of Council about the provision of administrative support to the work of Council.

Agencies, Boards and Commissions:

The Special Committee's work plan did not specify the review of the City's agencies, boards and commissions as one of the priority areas. However, these special purpose bodies are an important part of the City's governance structure and the Transition Team report included about two dozen recommendations pertaining to them. Therefore, in the course of its work, the Special Committee did consider agencies, boards and commissions.

In its review of the terms of reference for the Task Force on Agencies, Boards and Commissions, the Special Committee considered and endorsed a framework for establishing special purpose bodies' composition and the respective participation of citizens and councillors.

The Special Committee made recommendations to Council on the structure and composition of several specific bodies, including the City's non-profit housing company, the Toronto Parking Authority, the Licensing Tribunal, the Library Board, Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Arts Council.

The way in which the Special Committee dealt with these organizations, indicated the emergence of some common principles. These principles are elaborated upon in a staff report to the February 12, 1999 meeting of the Special Committee. The report provides a conceptual framework for categorizing the City's agencies, boards and commissions. It sets out a policy framework to assist Council to determine how the City should relate to different special purpose bodies and outlines steps the Chief Administrative Officer will take to further develop the concepts and their implementation over time.

Discussion:

The Special Committee focused on the basic structures and processes of government and the municipal government's interaction with communities in the new City. However, the recommendations in the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team ranged from the basic infrastructure of governance in Toronto to the administration of day-to-day business. There were recommendations about the place of community councils and the organization of political decision-making structures in the City government. There was also a recommendation to undertake an inventory of vehicles and garage facilities. Given the mandate of the Special Committee to review the Transition Team's recommendations, the potential existed for the Special Committee to become swamped with matters relating to the content of the City's business, which more properly belonged on standing committee and community council agendas.

Therefore, a challenge for the Special Committee throughout its mandate has been to separate day-to-day issues and business of government from the basic infrastructure of government on which the Committee aimed to concentrate. Overall the Special Committee, with the co-operation of standing committee and community council chairs and staff in the City Clerk's Division, succeeded in making this distinction.

The Special Committee took some specific steps to exclude inappropriate items from its agendas. For example, it recommended the removal from its work plan of 49 Transition Team recommendations that deal with administrative and public policy matters (Special Committee Report 10 (2)). In addition, numerous items were referred to the Special Committee simply because they bore some relationship to matters that were covered in the Transition Team Report. Whenever possible, these items were rerouted to a more appropriate standing committee.

Conclusions:

The work of the Special Committee provided an important bridge between the provincially appointed Transition Team's ideas for Toronto's governance and the emergence of a vision and structures of government that are "made in Toronto" and owned by the elected City Council.

As alluded to in the summary of actions earlier in this report, the Special Committee debated the questions before it in great detail. Most of the Committee's recommendations stimulated a high level of interest and debate at Council, too. This careful review of the issues was productive. It provided a context for the new Council of a new City to pay close attention to how it wanted to make decisions, involve its members, staff resources and, especially, the citizens of Toronto.

The development of "made in Toronto" structures and processes of government - looking at the big picture of governance - was a huge undertaking for Council in its first year. 1998 was, unavoidably, a year of destabilization characterized by an insecure work force and the loss of familiar reference points for councillors and staff alike. It was also a period in which Council had to deal with the implementation of a new property assessment system and the impact of provincial downloading, both enormous agenda items in their own right.

Yet, through this period of instability and uncertainty, a vision of the type of City government this Council wants has begun to emerge. It is a vision that has come from the work of the Special Committee with the benefit of many citizens who appeared before the Committee or sent in their written ideas. It is a vision that has been refined in Council debate and embraced by all of Council in its resolutions.

The vision is of a Council that deals with important issues of City-wide significance and sets broad policy parameters for decision-making which is delegated to appropriate forums such as community councils. It is a vision of an inclusive City government whose mayor is able to exercise clear leadership and where responsibility for governing is shouldered by all members of Council. It is a vision of a City government that works in partnership with the citizens of Toronto to build capacity in all aspects of its communities.

This "made in Toronto" approach is the common thread that runs through the Special Committee's recommendations to Council and the way that Council has acted on the recommendations. It provides a healthy note on which to conclude the mandate of the Special Committee to Review the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team.

The utility of the Transition Team report lay in providing a set of interim structures and ideas to get the new government of a new City up and running. That purpose has now been served. The new City government is up and running and functioning with the benefit of its own policies, responses and style - all given legitimacy by the citizens who elected this Council. Therefore, it is recommended that Council confirm that the review of the Final Report of the Toronto Transition Team is complete and that the Special Committee be disbanded.

Councillor David Miller