Mayor: City review seeks 'the good, the bad, and the ugly'

North Bay City Council unanimously passed a resolution during its regular meeting on Tuesday directing CAO David Euler to initiate a request for proposal for a comprehensive third-party independent operational review of the City of North Bay.

See related: City in for independent third-party operational review?

The purpose of the review is to "examine the organizational structure, personnel and resources required in the delivery of services and projects in all departments and benchmark key performance indicators against other like organizations," according to the motion tabled by Councillor Jamie Lowery and seconded by Deputy Mayor Maggie Horsfield.

The evaluation is designed to investigate the organization's overall effectiveness and to ensure value for the taxpayer — and thanks to an amendment from Coun. Gary Gardiner and Coun. Mark King, to "recommend innovative technologies that have been proven to improve operational efficiencies."

Mayor Peter Chirico called for a recorded vote on the matter and spoke pointedly about the importance of such a review, one many candidates pushed for during the recent election.

"We want to make sure the taxpayer's dollar is being spent well. That's certainly not to say that it's not being done right at this moment," he allowed. "Measurement is the key to any organization's success because you cannot manage what you're not measuring."

Chirico continued, "I don't think that we actually know what we're doing very well. There are lots of things in this organization that we are doing very well but we're not measuring it. That's the point of this review, to measure the good, the bad, and the ugly...to set those benchmarks and those expectations...of our effectiveness as a council moving forward."

Coun. Justine Mallah told her colleagues she supported the motion, especially the piece about improving public engagement. "Time and time again, during the election, we heard those concerns and I've heard a few members of the public again raise this to me as a concern — there not being enough open communication and transparency from the City. Having an external review will assist with this."

While the loudest calls for a review came from new members of this council with no municipal record to be scrutinized, not only did incumbent Councillors Mac Bain and Chris Mayne vote in favour but they also graciously defended the work of the management and staff members they have worked alongside for years.

Bain noted previous councils had favoured internal reviews due to the cost of such a third-party review and wondered how it would fit into the budget. Ultimately, Bain supported the resolution because "any corporation should not be afraid to have an operational review and I know our staff are not going to be concerned because they typically use best practices...our staff are really good at what they do and an operational review will show [that]."

"There is always room to modify, improve, and enhance procedures in any organization," agreed Mayne. "Every year as councillors we challenge staff to work leaner and meaner every year and I think we've been successful with that...We are well-served by a very efficient and effective staff and I look forward to some positive recognitions coming out of the procedures and policies we have in place already."

Meanwhile, one holdover from previous regimes who pulled no punches when it came to the need for a review was Coun. Mark King.

"We had hoped at one time, through two separate terms of council that we would get to this point — and quite frankly, it didn't happen," stated King. "The will of council is a very important thing. It's obvious to me that there is will in this council to do what I think is the right thing.

"It's important to understand there are good parts to this city. There are very good people that work inside this system. The problem that we face is that we often aren't able to put it out to the public so the public realizes what's going on in certain segments. I think the public quite often looks at the negative side of the situation when, in fact, there are some very positive things."

King added, "We have to recognize the fact that the public wants measurements for their expenditures, and that's what we're doing."

Lowery is an experienced proponent of using five-year rolling report cards in organizations.

"It forms the basis for the following year's business plan and how we are going to improve," he observed. "The hope is that some form of metrics will come out of this that we can build on and continuous improvement for the municipality so we can make corrections. Nothing is going to be perfect but technology changes, practices change, and legislation changes. Certainly, there is an opportunity for us to have those systems in place so we can be nimble enough to make changes and look for improvement."

In finishing up his comments, Bain said he hoped the eventual proponent would not take a "cookie cutter approach" to the operational review by "taking the template out of the drawer, writing in 'North Bay'...and making a couple of hundred thousand dollars by walking around the building and writing the report. I hope it's a fulsome review, but again, that comes at a cost."