Members of Council and Staff:  Please keep this agenda and the accompanying material until the City Council meeting dealing with these matters has ended.  The City Clerk’s Office will not provide additional copies.

Special Assistance for Members of the Public:  City staff can arrange for special assistance with some advance notice.  If you need special assistance, please call (416-392-5227), TTY 416‑338-0889 or e-mail buc@toronto.ca.

Closed Meeting Requirements:  If the Budget Committee wants to meet in closed session (privately), a member of the committee must make a motion to do so and give the reason why the Committee has to meet privately. (City of Toronto Act, 2006)

Notice to people writing or making presentations to the Budget Committee:  The City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the City of Toronto Municipal Code authorize the City of Toronto to collect any personal information in your communication or presentation to City Council or its committees.

The City collects this information to enable it to make informed decisions on the relevant issue(s). If you are submitting letters, faxes, e‑mails, presentations or other communications to the City, you should be aware that your name and the fact that you communicated with the City will become part of the public record and will appear on the City’s website. The City will also make your communication and any personal information in it – such as your postal address, telephone number or e-mail address – available to the public, unless you expressly request the City to remove it.

The City videotapes committee and community council meetings. If you make a presentation to a committee or community council, the City will be videotaping you and City staff may make the video tapes available to the public.

If you want to learn more about why and how the City collects your information, write to the City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto ON M5H 2N2 or by calling 416-392-7340.

Declarations of Interest under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act

Communications/Reports

The City Manager and Chief Financial Officer recommend that:

CITIZEN CENTRED SERVICES - B

City Planning

26.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for City Planning of $36.182 million gross and $13.222 million net, comprised of the following service:

27.       City Planning’s Application Revenues for Community Planning and Committee of Adjustment applications be decreased by $1.429 million in 2010 based on application volume and application mix trends experienced from 2004 to 2009, showing a significant reduction in both volume and revenue per application beginning in 2007.

28.       The Deputy City Manager responsible for City Planning report back to the Budget Committee in 2010 on the results of the detailed review of development application costs and an approach to increasing community planning and development application process fees in the future to allow for full cost recovery of all City wide costs related to the processing of community planning and development applications.

Fire Services

29.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Fire Services of $371.741 million gross and $359.141 million net, comprised of the following services:

30.       These Analyst Briefing Notes for Fire Services’ 2010 Recommended Operating Budget be considered concurrently with the (February 2010) report from the Fire Chief and General Manager of Toronto Fire Services entitled “Change False Alarm By-law to allow Fire Services to Charge for attendance at all Nuisance and Malicious False Alarms”.

Municipal Licensing and Standards

31.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Municipal Licensing and Standards of $50.209 million gross and $19.226 million net, comprised of the following services:

Policy, Planning, Finance and Administration

32.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Policy, Planning, Finance and Administration (PPF&A) of $24.966 million gross and $12.014 million net, comprised of the following services:

33.       The information contained in confidential attachment 1 remains confidential until the outcome of Council’s decision has been communicated to the Unions and affected staff.

Technical Services

34.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Technical Services of $67.682 million gross and $12.207 million net, comprised of the following services:

Toronto Building

35.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Toronto Building of $45.830 million gross and ($10.801) million net, comprised of the following service:

Toronto Environment Office

36.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Toronto Environment Office of $12.758 million gross and $3.372 million net, comprised of the following service:

Transportation Services

37.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Transportation Services of $285.660 million gross and $180.815 million net, comprised of the following services:

Waterfront Secretariat

38.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Waterfront Secretariat of $1.547 million gross and $0.957 million net, comprised of the following service:

39.       The Deputy City Manager responsible for the Waterfront Secretariat and the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer report back to the Executive Committee on the updated Operating Budget Impacts of New Waterfront Infrastructure in time to inform the preparation of the 2011 Operating Budget.

INTERNAL SERVICES

Facilities and Real Estate

40.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Facilities and Real Estate of $169.629 million gross and $54.262 million net, comprised of the following services:

41.       The information contained in confidential attachment 1 remain confidential until the outcome of Council's decision has been communicated to the Unions and affected staff.

Fleet Services

42.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Fleet Services of $47.292 million gross and $0.0 million net, comprised of the following services:

43.       Fleet Services continue to review the size of the City’s fleet inventory and report back with further budgetary savings for consideration with the 2011 budget process.

Information and Technology

44.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for Information and Technology of $85.708 million gross and $61.524 million net, comprised of the following services:

Office of the Chief Financial Officer

45.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of $15.512 million gross and $8.928 million net, comprised of the following services:

Office of the Treasurer

46.       City Council approve the 2010 Recommended Operating Budget for the Office of the Treasurer $75.671 million gross and $29.482 million net, comprised of the following services:

Submitting recommendations on the 2010 Operating Budget.  See Analyst Notes for all programs at the following address:

http://www.toronto.ca/budget2010/analystnotes_operating.htm

The Fire Chief and General Manager of Fire Services recommends that:

1.          Appendix B - Schedule 1, Fire Services of Chapter 441, Fees, of the Municipal Code be amended to require Owners to pay a fee of $350.00 per hour for each fire vehicle dispatched in response to the first and subsequent malicious false alarms, in respect of the same address, per year, and to require Owners to pay a fee of $350.00 per hour for each fire vehicle dispatched in response to the first and subsequent nuisance false alarms, in respect of the same address, per year.

2.         Authorization be given to add two positions; one Financial Analyst (TF0351) position at $93,610.00 (Salary & Benefits), one Accounting Assistant 2 (TF0113) position at $79,663.00 (Salary & Benefits) to the establishment, plus associated equipment and supplies of $6,000.00 for the two positions and additional mailing costs for the additional invoices of approximately $9,600.00 on an annual basis, for a total annual cost of approximately $188,873.00.

3.          The appropriate City officials be authorized and directed to take the necessary action to give effect thereto.

The recommendation in this report is to charge for Fire’s attendance at all false alarms categorized as nuisance or malicious beginning in 2010. Fire Services currently charges for attendance for the second and subsequent nuisance false alarms in a two-month period and for the second and subsequent malicious false alarms in an annual period.

To deal with the issue requires updating Appendix B - Schedule 1, Fire Services of Chapter 441, Fees, of the City of Toronto Municipal Code identifying fees to be charged for nuisance and malicious alarms.  An administration fee of $350.00 per hour for each vehicle dispatched will be charged (based on the Ministry of Transportation schedule for emergency vehicle dispatched) when the following criteria are met:

1.         the first and subsequent malicious false alarms, for same address, per year, per fire vehicle dispatched, and

2.         the first and subsequent nuisance false alarms, for same address, per year, per fire vehicle dispatched.

The recommended action will increase Fire Services’ False Alarm Revenue in 2010. In 2008, Fire’s year-end revenue in this category was $4,955,600.00.  Fire’s 2009 false alarm revenue estimate was $5,269,400.00, with posted year-end revenue of $4,471,120.00, representing a shortfall of $798,280.00. The recommended change will more accurately align revenues with expenditures.

The analysis of call data indicates that there are potentially over 10,212 incidents that would become chargeable as a result of the by-law change. However, based on a previous change to the by-law in 2006, when the exemption was dropped from two to one incident before incurring a fee, slightly more than half of the projected revenue was realized, mainly based on building owners taking corrective action. 

The current annual workload of 3,277 invoices, the associated research and customer service volume is managed by 5 staff.  The associated workload on staff as a result of the additional invoicing of up to 10,212 charges, incident identification and address verification, managing additional complainant responses, and processing re-imbursements, will require adding two positions to the establishment; one Financial Analyst (TF0351)  position at $93,610.00 (Salary & Benefits), one Accounting Assistant 2 (TF0113) position at $79,663.00 (Salary & Benefits) to the establishment, plus associated equipment and supplies of $6,000.00 for the two positions and additional mailing costs for the additional invoices of approximately $9,600.00 on an annual basis for a total annualized cost of approximately $188,873.00.

In 2010, Fire Services is budgeting that implementation will occur by the end of the first quarter resulting in nine months of additional revenue of approximately $4,890,375.00 and staff costs for the two new positions of approximately $145,600.00.

There are no exemptions to the false alarm charges and records show that Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) accounted for approximately 2,100 or 14% of the total 14,932 in nuisance and malicious calls reported in 2008; TCHC has been billed for 1,265 of these calls that were the second and subsequent incidents under the current by-law provisions, meaning that the agency could incur a further $876,750.00 in additional charges if it experiences the same call volume in 2010.  TCHC will be required to develop strategies to mitigate the occurrence of false alarms.

The Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this report and agrees with the financial impact information.