Every year, the City approves its staff complement to meet the needs of communities and ensure the provision of essential City services by all of its Divisions. Every year, the City reports vacancy rates through unfilled staff positions and gapping. Changes in staffing directly impact Divisional service provision – often with cause for concern. The services we deliver are key to building the social and physical infrastructure at the base of Toronto’s economic growth and social inclusion.
Cluster C (click on a Division to jump to it)

• Toronto 311
• Office of the Treasurer
• Fleet Services
• Information & Technology
• Facilities, Real Estate, Environment & Energy

 
Toronto 311

• 5 full-time equivalent Customer Service Representatives, along with 8 coordinators roles, support the 311 service. (Operating Budget: 2).
• Approval of the 2016 Preliminary Operating Budget will result in 311 Toronto reducing its total staff complement by 1.0 position from 167.3 to 166.3 (Operating Budget: 7).
• By working collaboratively with Local 79 on the introduction of a part-time availability form and a modified call out list that enhances flexibility, 311 Toronto will be able to generate staff reports much quicker when an unplanned event occurs (Operating Budget: 22).
• The increased complexity of calls will be managed through a quality management framework that will monitor, coach, and train staff on how best to improve handling time for complex calls. Call escalations will go through a dedicated line attended by staff that will be primarily focused on the escalation process (Operating Budget: 22).

Notes from Social Planning Toronto, January 18, 2016

• 311 is meeting its service standard of responding to calls within 75 seconds 80% of the time – they are doing it 82% of the time
• 311 which provides 24-hour service gets suicide calls in the middle of the night, staff have received training to provide support
• 24-hour service also takes pressure off the peak hours
• 311 has set up a “redundancy site” at North York Civic Centre; that means in case of emergency and the Metro Hall office, where 311 is located, is down, it can switch operations to NYCC; 311 gets 4,000 calls per day on average

For more details, visit the 311 Toronto budget page

Office of the Treasurer – net decrease of 11.8 positions (8 permanent and 3.8 temporary) at a total cost of $0.659 million gross and $0.315 million net.

• A reduction of 8 temporary positions in the Revenue Services Payment Processing Unit will realize cost savings of $0.204 million gross and $0.133 million net with no impact on service levels.
• These reductions are offset by the addition of 0 new permanent positions required to sustain new payroll processes and technology of the Time, Attendance, and Scheduling System (TASS) at a cost of $0.310 million gross and net.
• Support for the Social Procurement Initiative has added 1 Coordinator position at a cost of $33,000, to ensure meaningful incorporation of social impact requirements on purchasing decisions. 1 FTE has been eliminated in the base budget to offset the cost of this initiative.

For more details, visit the Office of the Treasurer budget page

Fleet Services – net increase of 8.0 temporary positions ($0.465 million gross, $0 net) will be required to implement the solution from the Automated Odometer Download pilot project by installing
Vehicle Identification Boxes on an estimated 3,000 City of Toronto units. These temporary positions are funded by capital and are required for 2 years.

• The 2016 Preliminary Operating Budget of $51.452 million gross is $0.743 or 1.5% million over the 2015 Approved Budget of $50.709 million gross, mainly attributable to an increase in maintenance costs and demand for fuel from client Programs.
• Last year, a report identified significant deficiencies related to the organizational structure, people, processes, and effective communication and provided improvement goals and associated strategies to address those deficiencies. Government Management Committee requested a report back in the third quarter of 2016 with a detailed implementation plan for the Fleet Services Strategy; and to consider outsourcing as part of the detailed implementation plan.
• Due to the Auditor General’s report for TTC non-revenue vehicles, a pilot was established with Fleet Services to improve reliability and internal controls for fuel purchases. Since 2015, the TTC non-revenue and Toronto Parking Authority vehicles have been using Fleet Services fuel sites, thus resulting in an increase of $0.481 million gross and ($0.024) net in 2016.
• In order to ensure compliance with Provincial legislation and City policies and guidelines, Fleet Services continues to provide safety training, testing and certification to approximately 10,000 City employees who are required to operate City vehicles and equipment.
• Some of the Parks, Forestry and Recreation new/enhanced initiatives would require associated fleet and fuel budget increases. For a detailed list of which new and enhanced services the Mayor has supported and which ones he is abandoning, see our discussion here. [LINK]

For more details, visit the Fleet Services budget page

 
Information & Technology – net increase of 12.0 permanent positions for a 2016 cost of $1.056
million gross and $0.591 million net.

• 12 new permanent operating positions are required to sustain completed capital projects.
• Operating impact from completed capital projects required in 2016 (excluding maintenance of $0.367 million) was $2.440 million for 30 positions. I&T is unable to continue to absorb these operational sustainment support and maintenance pressures in the current fiscal climate, especially since the vacancy rate is declining significantly and options for gapping are very limited. 4 vacant positions have been re-aligned to provide the sustainment support required by the Data Integration and the Web Revitalization projects” (Operating Budget: 29).
• The 2015 approved complement was 838.0, gapping rate is at 17.1%.
• IT is considering moving toward cloud computing and away from housing physical infrastructure (servers) within City buildings.
• I&T has a ratio of 1 Manager for every 3.5 workers.

For more details, visit the Information & Technology budget page

Facilities, Real Estate, Environment & Energy (FREEE)– net increase of 6.25 positions (2 permanent and 4.25 temporary positions) resulting in savings of $0.532 million gross and $0.734 million net.

• In an effort to improve coordination, standards and process effectiveness related to the management of facilities, the Facilities Operations and Facilities Design & Construction teams were merged in February of 2015 to form the new Facilities Management Division (Operating Budget: 24).
• Service Efficiencies of $1.315 million will result from streamlining maintenance functions, reducing overtime, implementing organizational restructuring to eliminate positions without service level impact, and in-sourcing half of all security system demand and preventative maintenance. These service efficiencies result in the reduction of 3 vacant positions (Operating Budget: 16).
• Vacancy rates have fluctuated around 7% before gapping throughout most of 2015, an improvement over 2014 and 2013 levels of 9% and 13% respectively (Operating Budget: 26).
• The operating impacts of capital projects, once they are finished, are mainly driven by the completion of the Solar Photovoltaic (PV) FiT (Feed-in-Tariff) capital project. This project is expected to generate significant revenues as new locations go online in 2016 and 2017. It is anticipated that 24 new projects will go online in 2016 with 28 new projects to follow in 2017 (Operating Budget: 11).
• Attracting, developing and retaining staff in a competitive market for talent and managing the loss of institutional knowledge continues to be a challenge for FREEE. In an effort to address this issue, FREEE indicates that it will invest resources in talent management, leadership development, succession planning and mentorship programs (Operating Budget: 26).
• 2016 Service Deliverable: “Invest in the growth and development of staff through talent management, leadership development, succession planning, mentorship programs, and by creating a healthy and positive work space” (Operating Budget: 2).

For more details, visit the Facilities, Real Estate, Environment and Energy budget page