Last week highlights
Prosci Change Management Course
The biggest non-meeting highlight of the last week was my completion of the Prosci Change Management Practitioner certification. This was an intense 3-day course going into the theory and one process for effective change management. Managing change is one of the most challenging aspects of leading any organization, and I see that firsthand. This course went in-depth to show how I can support the City as our staff plan any change.
Agenda highlights
Emergency Communication - 911 Dispatch Delivery Model
Seeing the misinformation about this topic flying around social media for the last few weeks has made me feel sick; Accusations that our external advisors and staff are misleading or that they don’t care about the safety of residents have been, frankly, some of the most disheartening messages that I’ve seen since being elected. As a continuation of our discussion from May 16, we’ll be discussing the future of Fire (not EMS or Police) 911 dispatch:
Currently, “Fire Dispatch answers 911 calls from St. Albert's Public Safety Answer Point (PSAP), directly from alarm monitoring companies, Alberta Health Services (AHS), and staff that may be working alone. Services include operating as an After-Hours Call Centre for City Services/Staff, addressing residential inquiries, and fire and medical first response (MFR) dispatching.” Starting March 25, 2025, however, “existing 911 systems are mandated to be decommissioned… and Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) must transition to Next Generation 911(NG911) to continue taking 911 calls,” which is why we’re considering next steps at this time.
Administration’s recommendation is that we “contract Secondary PSAP and Fire Dispatch to an external service provider Primary PSAP services and [keep] police dispatch… in the St. Albert Police Communication Centre.” Without impacting service levels, this recommended model is expected to save $340,000 compared with the current model, and considerably less than the alternatives of retaining the service (staff costs + upgrading to NG911) or combining the service with the police dispatch (staff costs + increased security requirements of RCMP + capital costs to expand the building or build new).
Evaluation of Standing Committees
This is another heavy agenda item - The decision to move to a standing committee structure was made early in the last term and we had intended to review effectiveness prior to the election. Because of the pandemic, however, the review was delayed until now. At the time of the committee formations, the structure intent was to facilitate more meaningful discussion, decrease workloads, encourage public participation, and streamline effective governance. Similar structures work well in other municipalities. In theory, the structure is excellent, but in practice:
Many recommendations of committees were challenged and re-debated, and sometimes reversed, at Council.
The increase in public participation was not observed, and members of the public often chose to attend Council meetings rather than Committee meetings.
It was challenging for chairs to advocate for Committee recommendations when they conflicted with personal views.
Certain council members often or always attended Committee meetings they were not assigned to, no matter the topic(s).
The duplication of work is intense some weeks, especially when Council meetings stretch to 6, 7, 8 hours long. For anyone reading all agenda packages (like I do), some matters/reports were repeated two or three times before a decision was made. I suspect the impacts to staff are also significant as the staff members responsible for a particular report have to be available each time a matter is brought forward.
Administration is recommending “that the standing committee governance model be discontinued, and… a new governance model be implemented… under which matters for Council decision are initially discussed at regularly scheduled Committee of the Whole ("COW") meetings… commencing at 9:30 AM on the first and/or second Monday of each month.” When I was elected, these meetings were chaired by the Deputy Mayor (DM), who also attended Agenda Committee meetings during their term as DM, which was a structure I feel worked well.
This is a brief and incomplete overview of my activities as a councillor and Council meetings, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. Residents can register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.