Vandewal looks to compare apples to apples as council supports new hires

Wilma Kenny | Feb 23, 2022

On Feb 8, South Frontenac Council held a last-minute Council meeting just prior to the regular COW, primarily to discuss a motion made by Mayor Vandewal, and to pass the 2022 budget.

At the Council Meeting of February 1, Mayor Vandewal had served a notice of motion requesting that “the building inspector and planner positions in the 2022 Budget be held and that staff provide additional information on the staffing complements and workloads of Development Services Departments in other comparable municipalities.”

“I want to compare apples to apples before agreeing to staff increases,” said Vandewal.

Rather than waiting to see if the motion would pass, staff prepared a short report on the matter as a way to respond to some of the issues that Vandewal raised in his notice of motion

The report said that South Frontenac has a building/planning staff of 9 serving a population of 18,600*. The staff report brought to council showed that by comparison Loyalist Township, with a population of 17,000 and a building/planning staff of 11, issued 462 building permits last year, compared to SF’s 891. Prince Edward County (pop. 24,000), with a staff of 15 compared to SF’s 9, issued only 165 more permits than SF in 2021.

(Editor’s note – the report compared population and permits issued but not construction values for the three townships. In 2021, the construction value of the permits that were issued in Loyalist Township was $55 million. In Prince Edward County, the construction value for the first 11 months of the year was $160 million. The value in South Frontenac for 2021 was $41 million)

Councillor Ruttan led off the discussion: “Either they’re not working very hard, or we’re working too hard; something seems amiss. It looks like our staff is doing a whole lot more than anybody else.” Acting CAO Louise Fragnito agreed: “The numbers reflect that there is some disparity.”

McDougall listed some planning/building challenges on the near horizon: “The Conservation Authority is talking about sharing costs, and is expecting more downloads from the Province, we’re facing climate change and mitigation, water issues, social housing development in Verona. Not too long ago, the County hired an economic development officer, then assigned her the purchase and funding of the K&P trail, followed the next year by asking her to organize the 150th anniversary celebrations. Then, she was criticized for neglecting Economic Development. We’re not ready with staffing, but keep piling on the jobs.”

“That was before my time with the County,” said Vandewal.

Morey asked about overtime: “Yes,’ said Dodds; “All our senior staff are doing substantial overtime.”

Deputy Mayor Revill said that (if we hired more staff now) there could be cost savings in the future, not having to hire short-term workers from outside. Sleeth asked whether a new staff person would be able to handle technical data? Dodds said they were trying to bring more engineering services in-house. Some drainage issues and more complex subdivision services might still need to be contracted out, but on a cost recovery basis, paid by the applicant, not by township taxes.

Mayor Vandewal asked Deputy Mayor Revill to take the chair, so he could speak to his motion. He said he was not asking to remove the two positions from the budget, but to put them on hold until they received a “clear report comparing (SF) to other similar municipalities: apples to apples.” He did not feel either Loyalist or Prince Edward were good comparators.

Sutherland said the building inspector’s work was cost recovery, so had no taxpayer impact, and the sooner one was hired, the sooner they would be up to speed. He went on to list a number of issues that seemed to have stalled due to lack of staff time to develop policies: roadside signs, property standards, short-term rentals, shoreline cutting. Sutherland said he did not think we would ever get absolute comparators. “Johnston’s Point is just the first of several complicated developments coming up which will need site plans created. We should hire that extra planning staff person as soon as possible: it can be done within the 2% budget increase, and our need is overwhelming.”

Morey asked whether the Mayor had an ‘apples to apples’ comparator in mind. Vandewal replied: “Any time you ask for comparisons, staff finds them. This has not been done; there was not diligence to find ‘apples to apples’ in this report.”

In response to Leonard’s question of how long it would take staff to bring more information, Fragnito said they could aim to get something back by mid-March. Vandewal asked ‘Can’t we wait till March; yes or no?”

Sleeth asked whether the addition of Part 8 (septic inspections formerly done for the four Townships by the health unit) had added to the workload, noting that it was intended to have been user-pay, and therefore self-financing.

Dodds replied that SF had taken on the regional sewage work based on the last three years’ data provided by KFL&A Health Unit. However, this program has seen a marked increase in the past year: 300 more files than forecast by public health. Another inspector is needed. She said “In view of SF’s increasing development, I think taking over Part 8 has been an advantage for us, but we must have the resources. We’re dropping behind, with no likelihood of the work volume dropping, and the recent increase of ‘in-migration’ to this area. A Building Inspector is of first importance.”

Dodds said one other potential problem was the current very high demand in the province for planners: “Sixty-four positions are currently being advertised across the Province; six of them by our neighbours.” She is proposing they bring in a lower price level person to take up some of the basic work currently being covered by herself and the senior planner, so they could return to the work they are being hired to do.

“I’m just asking for a report,” said Vandewal; “We have succession planning; there is no fire here. We have already added a Deputy Clerk.”

“We need to make things easier for developers,” said Ruttan; “And we can’t if people are frustrated by timelines. It’s hard to be a progressive leader if we’re always playing catch-up. We need to get in front of things.”

Roberts asked how seriously a two-month delay in staffing (waiting for a comparator report) would affect the planning department. Dodds said that beginning the hiring process for a building inspector as soon as possible was ‘most critical and immediate’. “Hiring can take 6-8 weeks, and that is assuming we can find viable candidates. There’s a heavy and increasing demand for building inspectors. Spring will bring a surge in applications, and after the snow melts, there will be a backlog of projects that couldn’t be inspected in winter. Any delay in planning means other projects won’t get started.”

“I think Director Dodds is being very calm and understated,” said Ruttan; “Will delay (to obtain other comparators) impact your department?”

Dodds: “Yes it will. Time is of the essence. The pressure of preparing for the spring surge in development demands is already having an overall impact on the department.”

Revill called the (recorded) vote: All members of Council except Vandewal, and Ron Sleeth voted against the motion, and the two new staff positions will remain in the budget.

The 2022 budget of $21,192,849 was then passed, with only Vandewal opposing it.

*(The population numbers used in the report pre-dated new census figures which were released a few days later. South Frontenac now has a population of just over 20,000, Loyalist Township, 18,000, and Prince Edward County, just shy of 26,000)