May 1, 2023, at 12:00 PM

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The meeting is called to order at 12:00 PM; it being noted that Councillors D. Ferreira and S. Stevenson were in remote attendance.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

2.1   Integrity Commissioner Appointment and Agreement

2023-05-01 Staff Report - (2.1) Integrity Commissioner Appointment and Agreement

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by H. McAlister

That, on the recommendation of the City Clerk, the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated May 1, 2023 as Appendix “B” BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting on May 16, 2023 to:

a) approve an Agreement to appoint Principles Integrity as the Integrity Commissioner for The Corporation of the City of London and to approve an Agreement for a Municipal Integrity Commissioner between The Corporation of the City of London and Principles Integrity and to repeal By-law No. A.-8117-168, being “A by-law to approve an Agreement for Municipal Integrity Commissioner between The Corporation of the City of London and Gregory F. Stewart and to appoint Gregory F. Stewart as the Integrity Commissioner for the City of London”;

b) the City Clerk BE DIRECTED to make the necessary arrangements to have the Mayor and City Clerk execute the above noted Agreement; and

c) delegate authority to the City Clerk, or written delegate to undertake all administrative acts that are necessary in regard to the Agreement.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.2   Procurement of Goods & Services Policy Revisions

2023-05-01 Staff Report - Procurement of Goods and Services Policy Revisions

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports, the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated May 1, 2023 as Appendix “A” BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on May 16, 2023 to amend By-law No. A.-6151-17, as amended, being “A by-law to establish policies for the sale and other disposition of land, hiring of employees, procurement of goods and services, public notice, accountability and transparency, and delegation of powers and duties, as required under section 270(1) of the Municipal Act, 2001”, by deleting Schedule “C” – Procurement of Goods and Services Policy in its entirety and by replacing it with a new Schedule “C” – Procurement of Goods and Services Policy, to update the Policy, to provide additional clarity and updates.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That Items 4.2 and 4.3 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

4.2   Application - Issuance of Proclamation - Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

2023-05-01 Submission - Proclamation - Childhood Cancer Awareness

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That based on the application dated April 14, 2023 from Childcan, September 2023 BE PROCLAIMED Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Motion Passed

4.3   (ADDED) Application - Issuance of Proclamation - World Refugee Day

2023-05-01 Submission - Proclamation - World Refugee Day

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That based on the application dated April 27, 2023 from The London Cross-Cultural Learner Centre, June 20, 2023 BE PROCLAIMED as Life As A Refugee Event.

Motion Passed

4.1   Application - Issuance of Proclamation - Longest Day of SMILES

2023-05-01 Submission - Proclamation - Operation Smile

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That the application dated April 9, 2023 from Operation Smile Canada for “Longest Day of SMILES”, BE REFERRED back to staff for further information regarding the organization’s connection to London.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential (Enclosed for Members only.)

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by H. McAlister

That the Corporate Services Committee convenes In Closed Session to consider the following:

6.1 (ADDED) Land Acquisition/Disposition / Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice / Position, Plan, Procedure, Criteria or Instruction to be Applied to Any Negotiations

A matter pertaining to the proposed or pending lease of building by the municipality, including communications necessary for that purpose; advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege; commercial and financial information, that belongs to the municipality and has monetary value or potential monetary value and a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality.

6.2 (ADDED) Labour Relations/Employee Negotiations / Litigation/Potential Litigation / Matters Before Administrative Tribunals / Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice

A matter pertaining to labour relations and employee negotiations, litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals, affecting the municipality, and advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose, concerning the Corporation’s associations and bargaining units.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

The Corporate Services Committee convenes In Closed Session from 12:20 PM to 12:46 PM.

7.   Adjournment

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 12:53 PM.

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (35 minutes)

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the ninth meeting of the Corporate Services Committee. By being 12 p.m., I am going to call the meeting to order. And as always, I will begin by acknowledging that the city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lenny Paywalk, and Adawanderin.

We honor and respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. And as representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory. I will also remind those at home and those present in chambers that the city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request.

To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact csc@london.ca or phone 519-661-2489, extension 2425. Colleagues, I’ll begin the meeting, and I want to acknowledge Councillor Ferrera. Councillor Stevenson are joining us by Zoom. The remainder of the committee is in chambers, and Councillor Perbal is also visiting us at committee today.

I will begin by looking for disclosures of continuing interest, seeing none, moving along to item two, which is the consent agenda. We have two items. 2.1 is the integrity commissioner appointment and agreement. And 2.2 is the procurement of goods and services, policy revisions.

I do know Councillor Stevenson indicated she has a number of questions on 2.2. I’m wondering if colleagues need these dealt with separately or together. Look for a motion either way, but I just want to see if colleagues want anything pulled. If we can do them separately, that would be great.

Thank you, Councillor Stevenson. We can certainly do that. So I’ll look for any questions or comments on 2.1. We’ll deal with that first.

That’s the integrity commissioner appointment and agreement. I’m seeing none. Look for a mover and a seconder for that. Moved by Councillor Trussow and seconded by Councillor McAllister.

And I will ask the clerk to open the vote 2.1. Oh, yes. Posing the vote in the motion carries, five to zero. Thank you, colleagues.

So moving on to 2.2, procurement of goods and services, policy revisions. I do know that Councillor Stevenson has some questions to ask on this one. So I will start with you, Councillor Stevenson. At some point, I will look for a motion to get on the floor, but I do know that you had some questions that you shared with staff in advance.

So I’ll look to you first to start the discussion. Thank you, Chair. Really, my question for today is if, it could just be explained to me around 2.2B, the removal of the supplier spending report. It says that there’s detailed information in the annual compliance reporting, such that this no longer serves a meaningful purpose.

And I was just hoping staff could explain a little about that annual compliance reporting and what’s included in there. Thank you. And I’ll look to Ms. Barbone and her team there.

Ms. Barbone. Thank you through the chair. So last CSC, and forgive me, the date is not just coming to April, whatever it was, specifically that CSC had the annual compliance report that was brought forward.

So within it, there are a number of components that we follow through. So there are a couple of motions that we are obligated to follow through. And we verify and review every single procurement that was done throughout the year to bring any items forward. So there are a number of elements that we bring forward.

There is an administrative component. So all of the delegated authority that was done throughout the year is itemized. And we have a number of those components that appeared in the report for which council approves and solidifies the review of the annual procurement. So one of the things we’ve done is to take a very proactive approach to try to look at how we bolster our policy each and every year and how we ensure that all service areas are maintaining adequate knowledge and training of the policy and compliance with the policy and then what our annual reporting is out to council.

So through that process, there’s a number of schedules that were contained in that most recent report that council just approved last week. And one of the reports is simply an information report that lists cumulatively for the entire year, all of the spending for every single vendor throughout the year on a calendar basis that is reported. So it in and of itself really provides a snapshot of the vendors that have been procured throughout the city of London or for which a payment was made. But there’s no context because one vendor could be used to provide different services.

It’s really just a cumulative total of all the vendors that we use throughout. And given that we have boards and commissions and things that we procure on others’ behalf that are embedded within, there’s a lot of work that actually goes in to trying to take the spending and parse out all of the things that are done through our accounting system for boards and commissions and other things for which spending is done through our system, but that actually apply to non-city of London direct procurement. So that report has been an information report. It is something that predated a lot of the compliance work that we do to bring forward to the council each and every year and really has a lot of time and effort to go in.

That really doesn’t serve any value other than just an informational total of the number of vendors with a great deal of work that has to go into it. So that’s really where we’re proposing is that it doesn’t really, unless of course, it’s the will of council if they wish to keep it, but it doesn’t serve a compliance purpose given the work that is done to bring forward all of the procurements for a delegated authority and administrative requirements and that ultimately require council approval to provide. So that is our recommendation is to remove that just because there is a significant workload and really isn’t telling council a lot of information ‘cause there could be multiple things that are going through the totals in a particular year. Thank you, Ms.

Barwon. Councilor Stevenson, I’ll look back to see if you’ve got any follow up to that. Yes, I do, thank you. Is there any, I’m wondering when we say it takes a lot of time just approximately like what kind of time we are talking about and if it was considered to maybe scale it back rather than cut it out completely so that maybe it didn’t include our boards and commissions and was just city administration.

Ms. Barwon. Thank you for the chairs. So our procurement policy does not consider boards and commissions.

Therefore, when we run our information to do this report, it picks up all of the procurements that are done throughout the city. So the work involved is to strip out all the stuff that is actually not subject to the policy because it was spent, because a lot of these boards and commissions do share the city of London’s system. So that’s where the workload involves is to actually prepare the report in the form. If we were to run it just as is, it would be a whole bunch of stuff that actually isn’t the city of London’s because that’s the default on the system.

And unfortunately, there’s no way just to print the report with all that stuff done automatically. There’s a level of intervention that needs to go in. Thank you, Ms. Barwon.

Councilor Stevenson, anything further? Yeah, just, is there a reason why we wouldn’t be able to just release that report including all of the boards and commissions? I understand that it doesn’t fall under the procurement policy but I’m just wondering if that’s an option. Ms.

Barwon. Thank you through the chair. I think that the whole purpose is what’s the intent and how is that information useful to anybody who’s reviewing it and when it includes information that is totally not relevant and ultimately needs to be analyzed to actually give it the intent for what is governed by the procurement policy. So I think that’s really the intent is, I mean, certainly we could release that without any context but it doesn’t actually, I think the question is what’s the purpose and how is that useful to a public reading that and/or council when they’re ultimately looking at?

And Mr. Collins actually can speak to how long it takes to prepare that report. Mr. Collins.

Through the chair to committee, the time involved by our accounts payable team to go through all our payments that have been made through a calendar year takes approximately two to three weeks. And aside from isolating out our boards and commission payments, we take a look and extract out payments made for payroll liabilities and employee benefits. School board payments as we pass on the education tax that we collect as part of the property tax billing. Also payments to individuals, non-contractors where they’re not actually suppliers to the city but the city does have to pay individuals occasionally.

For example, during the municipal election, there was a number of elected staff that were paid that were administering the election. We also have to strip out property tax payments and payments processed by our AP team on behalf of some of our boards, such as the Elegant Water Board here on Water Board, tourism London and the Housing Development Corporation. Further, we pay security releases, insurance premiums, claims settlements and adjusted services that are gone through our legal area, which once again is not in scope of the procurement of goods and services policy. So there is some manual intervention to extract out all the payments that the city makes in the course of the calendar year.

And this just reflects cumulative spend where we’ve paid a vendor or supplier greater than $100,000 in the calendar year. Thank you. Thank you. And before I follow up to see if there’s questions from other Councillors or any further questions from Councillor Stevenson, I’m just gonna quickly ask for a little, I guess, point of clarification, Mr.

Collins, ‘cause you talked about a number of transfers. Would that include transferring the levies we collect for our BIAs back to them for their purposes as well? I’m seeing nods on that. So that would be part of that as well.

So looking for any more questions on this, Councillor Stevenson or other members of the committee, Councillor Stevenson? Yeah, just one last one. I guess for me, I quite like looking through that report and it was a little bit like the Sunshine List. You know, it just lets us have a look at what payments are being made.

Is it possible to, ‘cause there are other alternatives, I guess is what I’m asking, to be able to provide the transparency and the openness without two or three weeks of work. As per owner, Mr. Collins. Thank you through the chair.

So the majority of procurements are done and approved by council. So they ultimately end up here. So a lot of those are reflected within that summary that is provided. Obviously, there’s many other payments that the city collects that we have to transfer through that are not procurements.

They are simply collection of funds. And you named the BIA, that’s a perfect example of where the city collects things and has to disperse because it’s statutorily required to do so. So where the items come forward that there’s the transparency is the listing of things that are delegated to civic administration, which are contained within those reports. So a lot of the things that you see in that greater than 100,000 are already contained within the other appendices that are provided as part of that report.

So there’s a lot of double counting. So I mean, certainly there, in terms of listing them, I can’t think of another way quickly off the top of my head. I’d have to think about that if there’s another way, but I believe the majority of them are already through council and approved through council through the large procurements that are made and through our ultimate spending and monitoring reports when we report through the various channels that we have through our budget. Okay, thank you very much.

I appreciate the information. I’m gonna think about this a little bit more, thanks. Thank you, Councillor Stevenson. Any other questions or comments from colleagues?

I’m seeing none and I just looked over toward 13 seat and Councillor Ferris on the screen today instead of on my left side. So I was looking over to your MTC Councillor, but that said, I don’t see anyone else with questions or comments. So I’m gonna look for a mover and a seconder for the staff recommendation moved by Councillor McAllister and seconded by Councillor Ferrera. And I will ask the clerk to open the vote on that.

Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Thank you colleagues, moving along. There are no scheduled items. So that brings us to section four, items for direction.

There are three applications for proclamations and I’m looking to see if colleagues want to deal with these separately or if we’re prepared to move them as a group. Councillor Truss out. I think I raised this every meeting. We get applications that are on their face incomplete and they’re still forwarded on to council.

So item 4.1, unless I’m missing something, does not have anything on it referring to person in the city of London. And I hate to be the one to pull it ‘cause it’s a good cause. But I think that if we have this policy, we have to enforce it. So could they be sent?

Could you look at that quickly and make sure I’m not missing something and maybe they could be sent a note saying— Yes, give us just a second on that. Let me check on that. So just a quick check with the clerk and to let colleagues know, this organization has applied before. They do not require the proclamation until June 18th.

So we would certainly have time to refer this back with direction to the clerks to reach out and ask for the organization to respond with their London connection if that’s satisfactory to the committee. So I’m seeing councilor trust out supporting that direction. So why don’t we deal with 4.1 first as a referral back with some direction and then we can deal with the other two proclamations. So I’m gonna look for a mover and a seconder for a referral and that’s moved by councilor trust out.

Just seconded by councilor Ferreira and we’ll just make sure that the clerk has a moment to include that the direction will include reaching out to the organization and that should be open now referred back to staff for further clarification. Posing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Thank you colleagues. Look to see if we’ve got a mover to deal with 4.2 and 4.3 together.

These are the proclamations for childhood cancer awareness month and the issuance of a proclamation for world refugee day. Moved by councilor McAllister and seconded by councilor Ferreira. Any discussion on these? Seeing none, then I will ask the clerk to open the vote for that.

Posing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Thank you colleagues. Moving on item five deferred matters and additional business, councilor trust out. Just a question to the chair to the clerk.

Would it be possible for these not to come to council if one their face, they’re defective and they’re gonna get pushed back anyway, just do that administratively? And let’s go to the clerk on that. If you’re looking to see clarification on the lending connection, that certainly can be something we can follow up with staff but we would need a direction in the change of a formal policy change in order to seek any further clarifications. Thank you, clerk.

So that might be something that the committee might want to consider bringing forward as a motion to a future meeting. That way we’ve got some time to discuss it and debate it when it comes forward and it’s on the public agenda so that folks are aware that we might potentially make a change there. Any other deferred matters or additional business? Seeing none, so we do have two items to deal with in camera.

So I will look for a motion to go in camera and I will just advise members of the public. Our reasons for going in camera are with regard to land acquisition and disposition, client solicitor privilege and criteria or instructions to be applied to any negotiations. And the second item is labor relations, employee negotiations. Again, solicitor client privilege advice on matters that may potentially see litigation or go before an administrative tribunal.

So I’ll look for a mover and a seconder to go in camera, moved by Councillor Trussau, seconded by Councillor McAllister, and I will ask the clerk to open the vote on that now. Councillor Stevenson, are you still with us? I am, it’s not coming up, I vote yes. Thank you.

Closing the vote, motion carries five to zero. Thank you, everyone. We’ve already started to shuffle some of the deck chairs but we’ll just give the clerk a moment to make sure that we have— Recording stopped. Thank you, everyone, for your patience while we’re in confidential session.

We are returning to public session and I will ask Vice Chair Trussau to report out. At the ninth meeting of the Corporate Services Committee held on May 1st, 2023, the committee considered two confidential matters. 6.1 pertain to a proposal on a proposed or pending lease of a building by the municipality, including communications necessary for that purpose. Advice that’s subject to the solicitor client privilege on commercial and financial information that belongs to municipality, which has monetary value or potential monetary value.

The second matter was with reference to labor relations, employee negotiation matter, litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the municipality, and advice that is subject to the solicitor client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose, concerning the corporation’s associations and bargaining units and progress was made on both matters. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. And that concludes our agenda colleagues.

I just need a motion to adjourn. Moved by Councilor McAllister, seconded by Councilor Stevenson. By hand, all those in favor? Motion carries.

Thank you for those looking for more committee excitement, planning and environment committee begins at 4 p.m.