1999 Schedule of Meetings

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee recommends that the status quo-four week meeting cycle be approved to the end of July 1999, or until the Council-Committee governance structure has been determined by Council, whichever is the sooner.

The Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee submits the following communication (December 8, 1998) from the City Clerk:

City Council, at its meeting held on November 25, 26 and 27, 1998, had before it Clause No. 3 of Report No. 8 of The Striking Committee, headed "1999 Schedule of Meetings".

Council amended the aforementioned Clause by striking out the recommendations of the Striking Committee and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

"It is recommended that, in light of the fact that the issue of the Council-Committee governance structure has not yet been resolved, as an interim measure it is recommended that Recommendations Nos. (1), (2) and (6) embodied in the report dated November 12, 1998, from the City Clerk be adopted, subject to amending Recommendation No. (1) to provide that City Council approve the status quo four-week meeting cycle for the first four months of 1999, as outlined in the attached Appendix 'I', providing for City Council meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so that such recommendations shall now read as follows:

'It is recommended that:

(1)City Council approve the status quo four-week meeting cycle for the first four months of 1999, as outlined in the attached Appendix "I", providing for City Council meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday;

(2)a copy of the 1999 Schedule of Meetings for the first four months of 1999 be circulated to the City's agencies, boards, commissions, Council-appointed task forces, special committees and sub-committees with a request that wherever possible, they avoid scheduling meetings which conflict with City Council meetings and the Standing Committees to which they report; and

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

In addition, Council referred the balance of the 1999 Schedule of Meetings to the next meeting of the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee to be held on December15, 1998, for consideration.

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(Clause No. 3 of Report No. 8 of the Striking Committee,

headed "1999 Schedule of Meetings", as adopted by

Council of the City of Toronto at its meeting held

on November 25, 26, and 27, 1998)

(City Council on November 25, 26 and 27, 1998, amended this Clause by:

(1)striking out the recommendations of the Striking Committee and inserting in lieu thereof the following:

"It is recommended that, in light of the fact that the issue of the Council-Committee governance structure has not yet been resolved, as an interim measure it is recommended that Recommendations Nos. (1), (2) and (6) embodied in the report dated November 12, 1998, from the City Clerk be adopted, subject to amending Recommendation No. (1) to provide that City Council approve the status quo four-week meeting cycle for the first four months of 1999, as outlined in the attached Appendix 'I', providing for City Council meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so that such recommendations shall now read as follows:

'It is recommended that:

(1)City Council approve the status quo four-week meeting cycle for the first four months of 1999, as outlined in the attached Appendix "I", providing for City Council meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday;

(2)a copy of the 1999 Schedule of Meetings for the first four months of 1999 be circulated to the City's agencies, boards, commissions, Council-appointed task forces, special committees and sub-committees with a request that wherever possible, they avoid scheduling meetings which conflict with City Council meetings and the Standing Committees to which they report; and

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

(2)adding thereto the following:

"It is further recommended that the balance of the 1999 Schedule of Meetings be referred to the next meeting of the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee to be held on December15, 1998, for consideration.")

The Striking Committee recommends:

(I)the adoption of the report (November 12, 1998) from the City Clerk, subject to amending Appendices "F" and "H" referred to in Recommendation No. (1) to read as shown in the attached revised Appendices "F" and "H", and that the Committees shown as shaded shall report to the Council meeting shown shaded, and the Committees shown as unshaded shall report to the Council meeting shown unshaded;

(ii)that any matter contained in a Report of a Committee or Community Council, which is deferred for further consideration by City Council, shall:

(a)be deferred to the same Council meeting designated in the cycle to consider such matters, i.e.matters deferred at a Council meeting shown as shaded, shall be considered at the next Council meeting shown as shaded, and matters deferred at a Council meeting shown as unshaded, shall be considered at the next Council meeting shown as unshaded; and

(b)be listed as the first item of business on the appropriate Council agenda;

(iii)that leave be granted to introduce the necessary bill in Council to amend the Council Procedural By-law to give effect thereto; and

(iv)that the City Clerk be requested to submit a report to the Striking Committee in March 1999 on the status of how the two cycles are operating, and how the workload is balanced between these two cycles.

The Striking Committee submits the following report (November 12, 1998) from the City Clerk:

Purpose:

To recommend a schedule of meetings for Council, its Standing Committees and Community Councils, in 1999.

Funding Sources, Financial Implications and Impact Statement:

There are no funding implications.

Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

(1)option 4(a) (Appendix "F"), based on a two and three-week meeting cycle for City Council, be approved, and that the 1999 schedule of meetings submitted as Appendix "H" to this report be adopted;

(2)a copy of the 1999 Schedule of Meetings be circulated to the City's agencies, boards, commissions, Council-appointed task forces, special committees and sub-committees with a request that wherever possible, they avoid scheduling meetings which conflict with City Council meetings and the Standing Committees to which they report;

(3)subject to City Council adopting staff recommendation (1), the City Clerk and Solicitor be requested to report on possible amendments to the Procedural By-law to implement the recommended 1999 meeting schedule, and in particular, address deferrals of Council business from one meeting to another and ways to control the potential for "fast tracking" Committee business as a major exception to the legislative process;

(4)in order to give Members and the public sufficient time to review agenda items in advance of meetings, the current practice of issuing supplemental agendas or "walk-in" items be discontinued, and that any late item be accepted only if it pertains to an item that is already listed on the main agenda or if it is a matter of emergency health or safety, or legal deadline, or if it is a matter referred from one committee to another committee within the meeting cycle, and in the event of a late item, it must be received by the City Clerk in sufficient time for distribution to Members no later than the day before a meeting;

(5)subject to City Council's decision on a revised Council-Committee governance structure, the City Clerk report back, through the Striking Committee, on any amendments to the 1999 Council meeting schedule to accommodate the revised Council-Committee governance structure; and

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

Council Reference/Background/History:

City Council must approve a schedule of meetings to permit the orderly consideration of business in 1999. This report discusses the concerns with the current meeting schedule, presents options for the 1999 meeting schedule, and recommends a 1999 schedule.

On September 24, 1998, the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee referred the following motion by Councillor Nunziata to the City Clerk:

"Unless otherwise decided by Council, regular meetings of the Council shall begin at 9:30a.m. on every fourth Tuesday, unless such a day shall be a public or civic holiday, in which case the Council shall meet at 9:30 a.m. on the Wednesday of the same week".

The City Clerk considered this motion in preparing the 1999 meeting schedule.

Comments and/or Discussion and/or Justification:

The Current Meeting Schedule:

The current schedule was established early in 1998 based on City Council's adopted governance structure. In following the schedule during the past 10 months, a number of issues have arisen which should be considered in developing the 1999 meeting schedule.

(a)First, the monthly meetings of City Council are seen to be too long. The three-day and two-evening City Council meeting is tiring for the Members, staff and the public following particular issues;

(b)Second, the decision-making process is too long. It sometimes takes months for an issue to be identified, addressed in a staff report, considered by a standing committee, and decided upon by City Council;

(c)Third, the layered committee structure which has evolved, with matters being referred through the Budget Committee and Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee to Council, has produced a bottleneck in the decision-making process. Also, the tendency for matters to be referred from one committee to another means there is too much lateral movement of issues between committees before matters get to City Council for a decision. The time required to accommodate this layered structure has undermined the effectiveness of the entire schedule. The purpose of each committee, and its reporting responsibilities, must be clearly defined; and

(d)Fourth, the current schedule makes it extremely difficult for Secretariat staff to follow the Procedural By-law requirements to prepare and distribute agenda materials for committees within a practical time frame in advance of a meeting. The current meeting schedule does not allow for such agenda coordination (e.g., the close timing between standing committee and Budget Committee and Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee meetings). It seems as though there are not enough business days in a month to efficiently accommodate the current City Council-Committee structure and facilitate effective decision-making. The pressure placed on the Secretariat Unit to accommodate the current schedule is unsustainable.

Assumptions and Principles:

In designing a schedule of meetings, a number of key assumptions and considerations are necessary.

Committee Assumptions:

(a)the Council meeting schedule is established for City Council, Community Councils, and those Standing Committees which are established through the Procedural By-law and need to meet on a regular basis;

(b)the Budget Committee is included in the 1999 schedule as it has already initiated the 1999 budget process and it will need to meet on a regular basis during the first several months of the year to coordinate the operating and capital budgets;

(c)the Audit, Striking and Nominating Committees meet on a less regular basis and thus, are not included in this schedule;

(d)the Board of Health is a special purpose body and not a Standing Committee of Council and is not included in this schedule, although it reports directly to City Council; and

(e)special purpose bodies of the City and discretionary committees of City Council, including special committees, sub-committees and task forces, are not included in the City Council meeting schedule and are expected to make their own meeting arrangements in consideration of the adopted Council meeting schedule.

Meeting Considerations:

(a)the need for frequent enough City Council meetings to permit decision-making that is not over duly delayed;

(b)the need for Members to be able to attend other Standing Committee meetings which, therefore, generally should not be scheduled concurrently, or if they are, should ensure adequate time for other Councillors to attend a portion of the meeting;

(c)the Community Councils can meet concurrently;

(d)the need to ensure adequate time to permit report preparation by City staff, committee agenda and report management by the Secretariat staff, and review by Members, staff and the public;

(e)the provision of time for Members to tend to constituency matters and attend other meetings;

(f)the need to accommodate a summer break;

(g)the recognition of days and times of religious significance; and

(h)the general principle of not scheduling meetings on a Friday to allow for the scheduling of agency, board and commission meetings, unless necessary as a result of statutory holidays and religious days.

Principles are required to guide the development of options and assist the selection of a preferred schedule. The following principles are to be used for the 1999 meeting schedule.

(a)The schedule should facilitate a timely procedural process for effective decision-making by City Council;

(b)The schedule should be easy to understand and follow by Members, the public and staff;

(c)The schedule should provide enough flexibility and free time to allow Members to address their other responsibilities (e.g., task forces, special purpose bodies, constituency work); and

(d)The schedule must be achievable by Clerk's Secretariat staff given current and projected resources.

It is recognized that the Chief Administrative Officer is currently reviewing the Council-Committee structure and will be making recommendations for changes to the structure, to be implemented before or at the halfway point of the current Council term (June 1999), which may impact the meeting schedule. The City Clerk is aware that any governance structure changes may necessitate amendments to the Council schedule. It is recommended that, subject to Council adopting a revised governance structure, the City Clerk bring forward a further report outlining any necessary amendments to the 1999 meeting schedule.

Meeting Schedule Options:

Various meeting cycle options were reviewed, including a four-week, three-week, two-week, and a two- and three-week Council meeting cycle. Appendices "A" through "G" show typical two month schedules for these options.

(a)Four-Week Council Meeting Cycle:

This option generally replicates the 1998 Council schedule. Community Councils, Standing Committees and City Council would all continue to meet on monthly basis. This is shown as option 1(a) in Appendix "A". It allows for the continuation of the current hierarchical practice of certain financial matters being routed from a Standing Committee to the Budget Committee and through the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee to Council, although the tight time lines would continue to result in delays in agenda and report production and distribution. This option would require the Budget Committee to accept walk-in items from Standing Committees since there is not enough time in the schedule to allow for proper agenda management. The Budget Committee is scheduled one week prior to the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee meeting to allow more time for reports to be transmitted to it. It is assumed that the Community Councils will not deal with financial matters, and therefore, do not need to report through the Budget Committee. City Council would continue to meet for up to three days per session starting on a Tuesday. The only meetings on Fridays would be the Economic Development Committee. This option would lead to 11 City Council meetings scheduled for 1999. Standing Committee meeting days would also total 11 days in the year.

A variation on this option would schedule concurrent Standing Committee meetings to ensure Friday meetings are not scheduled and provide another free day for other meetings and business. This is shown as option 1(b) in Appendix "B". The Standing Committee-Budget Committee- Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee bottleneck would still exist but there would be a few more free days between committee meetings.

This option is consistent with the current schedule, which is now familiar to Members, staff and the public. The necessary conditions for this schedule to be successful would include a flatter committee structure (i.e., a reduced hierarchy of committees) and a more controlled agenda management process with no more supplemental committee agendas and "walk-in" reports to committee permitted only as an exception. It is recommended that the current practice of issuing supplemental agendas or "walk-in" items be discontinued. Late items should only be accepted only if it pertains to an item that is already listed on the main agenda or if it is a matter of emergency health or safety, or legal deadline, or it is a matter referred from one committee to another committee within a meeting cycle. Any late items should be received by the City Clerk in sufficient time for distribution to Members no later than the day before a meeting;

(b)Three-Week Council Meeting Cycle:

In this option City Council, Standing Committees and Community Councils would meet every three weeks. This is shown as option 2 in Appendix "C". This option would mean constant "walk-in" reports from Standing Committees to Budget Committee and Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee. This option would also put extraordinary pressure on the Secretariat Unit to accommodate agenda preparation, production, printing and distribution time lines. The re-organized Secretariat Unit could not meet the agenda time lines suggested by this option. This option was not considered in any detail by staff in selecting a recommended meeting schedule.

Staff investigated a variation of this option where half the committees would report to one Council meeting within three weeks and the other half of committees would report to the next Council meeting in another three weeks (a six-week cycle), but it was concluded that the time between committee meetings (six weeks) would undermine the ability of the City to do business effectively. Staff also investigated a three-week Council meeting cycle with monthly Standing Committees and Community Councils meetings, but the schedule would not be synchronized and would eventually lead to unacceptable delays between a Committee meeting and a Council meeting.

(c)Two-Week Council Meeting Cycle:

In this option City Council would meet every two weeks to better distribute its total workload, whereas the Standing Committees and Community Councils would continue to meet once per month. This is shown as option 3(a) in Appendix "D". City Council would meet generally every second and fourth week of the month. One group of Committees (shown shaded in Appendix"D") would report to one Council meeting (also shown shaded in Appendix "D"). Similarly, the other group of Committee meetings would report to the second Council meeting. It is assumed that with a division of workload between the Council meetings every two weeks, fewer Council days per session would be required. Assuming the need for two Council days per session, there would be a total of four Council days per month. No Committee or Council meetings would be scheduled for Fridays.

This option would result in 20 City Council meetings per year (the equivalent of 10 meetings when compared to the 4-week schedule option), and more total hours of Council in session (25percent more in-Council time than the monthly schedule). Standing Committee meeting days would be reduced to 10 days per year compared to 11 days for the monthly schedule.

A variation on this option would schedule concurrent Standing Committee meetings to provide more free days for other meetings and business. This is shown as option 3(b) in Appendix "E".

The implications from this option, including fewer free days, a more complex schedule, the inability to address the procedural concerns around the hierarchical committee structure, and greater pressures on Secretariat staff, all suggest this may not be a viable option. While, the distribution of Committee work across two Council meetings could clear up the size of Council's agenda for any one meeting, the extra Council meeting days would further reduce the number of days left over to accommodate special purpose body, task force or constituency meetings. The complexity around which Committees would report to specified Council meetings could lead to confusion and could open up the legislative process to abuse by matters being "fast-tracked" to Council by a Committee before its proper turn. The current practice of having matters referred from a Standing Committee to Budget Committee to Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee (with each Committee meeting every four weeks) could mean that some financial matters may take three to five weeks from the time a Standing Committee deals with it to Council's final decision.

For a two-week Council meeting cycle to be successful, a number of conditions are necessary. First, a flatter committee structure is needed where all committees report directly to Council on a normal basis and referrals to other committees are on an exceptional basis. Second, no fast tracking of a Committee recommendation to Council before its regular turn would be needed, and only permitted in extraordinary cases. Third, a more controlled agenda management process is required with the no more supplemental committee agendas and "walk-in" reports to committee permitted only for emergency health or safety reasons or legal deadlines.

(e)Two and Three-Week Council Meeting Cycle:

This option is based on the two-week Council meeting schedule discussed above, but also has a three-week cycle built-in to accommodate the procedural relationship which has evolved between Standing Committees, the Budget Committee, and the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee. It allows reasonable time lines to accommodate the work flow between these different committees. A typical schedule is shown as option 4(a) in Appendix "F". In this option, the Standing Committees (except for the Corporate Services Committee) meet every five weeks but report to Council about two weeks after their meetings. The Community Councils, Corporate Service Committee, Budget Committee and Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee form a second group of committees that meet every five weeks and report to Council about three weeks after their meetings. These groupings allow for city-wide operational and policy matters to be addressed at one Council meeting and local, corporate, and major financial matters to be addressed at the other Council meeting in the cycle. Grouping the committees any other way such that half the Community Councils meet with one group and half meet with the other would require more committee days and further confuse the meeting schedule. No committee or Council meetings are scheduled for Fridays.

This option would result in 18 City Council meetings per year (the equivalent of 9 meetings when compared to the monthly schedule option), and more total hours of Council in session (13percent more in-Council time than the monthly schedule). Standing Committee meeting days would be reduced to 9 days per year compared to 11 for the monthly schedule.

This option is designed to accommodate the procedural practice of having financial matters processed through Standing Committee, Budget Committee and the Strategic Policies and Priorities Committee. Like the two-week option, however, this option still means the possibility of a five week time line between when a Standing Committee deals with a matter requiring Budget Committee approval and when City Council makes a decision on the matter. This option does provide more free days for other meetings and business than the two-week schedule option. It also is more flexible to accommodate statutory holidays and religious days. This option still places pressure on Secretariat staff to manage the legislative process and produce reports, agendas and minutes. Like all the other options, a more controlled agenda management process is necessary with this option with no more supplemental committee agendas, and "walk-in" reports permitted on an exceptional basis only.

A variation of this option, with concurrent Standing Committee meetings, is shown as option4(b) in Appendix "G". Having concurrent meetings would free more time for other business and special purpose body and task force meetings.

A Recommended 1999 Meeting Schedule:

In considering the principles outlined earlier in this report, option 4(a), based on the two-week and three-week schedule and shown in Appendix "F", best satisfies all the principles. This option accommodates the current procedural process which has evolved to allow for a unique process to be followed for financial matters. The different groupings of public service-oriented Standing Committees reporting to one Council meeting and Corporate, financial and community issues reporting to another Council meeting is understandable. This schedule allows more free days for other City business. Consideration of concurrent committee meetings should be delayed until a revised committee system is in place so the full benefit of concurrent meetings can be properly assessed.

This option also provides enough flexibility to accommodate the revised Council-Committee governance structure to be adopted by City Council. This schedule can be adapted to accommodate a modified two-week schedule or a four-week schedule to accommodate the new Committee structure.

Appendix "H" to this report sets out the full 1999 Council meeting schedule based on the two- and three-week Council meeting cycle. This schedule accommodates a Council spring break in March and a summer recess. It also accounts for the annual meetings of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario where representatives from the City have traditionally played a major role. It is recommended that the 1999 Council meeting schedule as shown in Appendix "H" be adopted by City Council. If Council prefers to keep the status quo meeting schedule until the governance structure is changed, then it is recommended that option 1(a), the modified status quo monthly schedule (Appendix "A"), should be adopted by City Council until a decision is made on a revised governance structure. Appendix "I" shows the full 1999 schedule for this option. Subject to Council adopting a revised governance structure, the City Clerk will report back on any amendments to the 1999schedule to accommodate the new Council-Committee structure.

Implementing the recommended 1999 schedule will necessitate amendments to the Procedural By-law to address a means for dealing with matters deferred from one Council meeting to another (i.e., are deferred items placed on the agenda of the next scheduled Council meeting for that group of matters or can they be dealt with at the next successive Council meeting in two or three weeks?). Also, controls will need to be put in place to prevent Committee matters from being "fast tracked" to the next immediate Council meeting instead of the proper Council meeting for which it is scheduled. Exceptions to "fast tracking" will need to be identified for emergency health and safety matters and legal deadlines. It is recommended that the City Clerk and Solicitor prepare a report recommending amendments to the Procedural By-law to ensure the 1999 meeting schedule can be implemented in a practical manner.

Clerk's staff are continuing the legislative process review and anticipate presenting an interim report to Council before the end of the year which will suggest other process measures to improve the legislative process and help achieve the recommended 1999 meeting schedule.

The 1999 Council meeting schedule, as adopted by City Council, will be posted to the City Internet site. The City Clerk's Division will develop a comprehensive reference guide on the Internet for the meetings of Council, Standing Committees, Community Councils, Special Committees, sub-committees, agencies, boards and commissions, and task forces.

Conclusions:

Given the current number of committees reporting to City Council and the hierarchical committee structure, there is very little flexibility to shorten the decision-making process, to reduce the agenda workload, or to free up more days to accommodate other meetings. In a typical four-week cycle with 20 business days, 13 days are already allocated for meetings of Standing Committee, Budget Committee, Community Council, and City Council meetings. Only seven days are left for all other meetings.

This report recommends a five-week cycle with two Council meetings in a cycle. The more frequent Council meetings will help to speed up the decision-making process, better distribute Council's agenda workload, and allow more time for constituency and other meetings. The schedule does not address or resolve the issues pertaining to the governance structure which is being undertaken by the Chief Administrative Officer. If City Council decides to change the Council-Committee structure, then the City Clerk will report back with possible scheduling changes to accommodate the new governance structure.

Contact Name:

Jeffrey A. Abrams, Director, Secretariat, Printing and Distribution, Clerk's Division

Telephone: (416) 392-8670 E-mail: jabrams@city.toronto.on.ca

Peter Fay, Senior Policy and Planning Analyst, City Clerk's Division

Telephone: (416) 392-8668E-mail: pfay@mta1.metrodesk.metrotor.on.ca

(A copy of each of the following attachments:

Appendix "H"-1999 Recommended Schedule of Meetings, City of Toronto Council and Committees Appendix "I"-1999 Schedule of Meetings (Based on Option 1(a): Status Quo 4-Week Council Meeting Cycle), referred to in the foregoing report dated November 12, 1998, from the City Clerk, was forwarded to all Members of Council with the agenda of the Striking Committee for its meeting held on November 16, 1998, and a copy thereof is also on file in the office of the City Clerk.)