À la recherche de nids-de-poule – et la technologie dans tout ça?
Ce matin, à la réunion du Comité des services organisationnels et du développement économique, j’ai soumis au directeur municipal deux questions au sujet du programme des patrouilles routières qui est proposé (lire le rapport [en anglais]). Le rapport à ce sujet sera présenté demain au Comité des transports et propose le recrutement de sept employés et l’attribution d’un budget de 650 000 $ en vue de créer un service qui sera chargé de repérer les nids-de-poule et d’évaluer l’état des routes.
Je suis conscient qu’il faut être à l’affût des nids-de-poule et des réparations qui s’imposent, mais je propose que nous demandions l’aide des citoyens pour le faire. Onze inspecteurs auront beau avoir des yeux de lynx, ils ne verront jamais aussi bien que les dizaines de milliers de personnes qui circulent sur nos routes tous les jours.
Je trouve qu’il n’est tout simplement pas prudent d’embaucher sept personnes (et de muter quatre employés) et d’affecter 650 000 $ en deniers publics à cette tâche.
Dans l’esprit de la résolution adoptée par le Conseil municipal la semaine dernière au sujet de la technologie, je me demande s’il y aurait moyen de verser dans une base de données les observations des employés de la Ville et des résidents.
À mon avis, le programme des patrouilles routières qu’on nous propose n’est qu’un projet de « création d’emplois », et c’est pour cette raison que j’ai soumis une demande de renseignements (voir ci-dessous) aujourd’hui. Consultez souvent mon blogue, car j’afficherai les réponses du personnel à mesure que je les recevrai.
Demande de renseignements
Expéditeur : Larry O’Brien, maire
Destinataire : Kent Kirkpatrick, directeur municipal
c. c. conseillère municipale Maria McRae, présidente du Comité des transports
Un rapport du personnel qui sera présenté au Comité des transports demain au sujet des patrouilles routières propose la création de sept ETP, l’attribution d’un budget de fonctionnement annuel de 641 000 $ et l’affectation de fonds d’immobilisations ponctuels de 430 000 $.
Le 25 juin 2008, le Conseil a approuvé le rapport no 26 du Comité des services organisationnels et du développement économique, qui renfermait la résolution suivante :
« QUE le personnel de la Ville soit chargé d’inclure, dans le budget préliminaire de 2009, des options pour plafonner les ETP à 13 590,28 (le chiffre approuvé pour 2008) et de cerner des options pour réduire d’ici au 31 décembre 2009 le total des ETP à 13 090,28, compte non tenu de la croissance et des augmentations connexes du nombre d’agents de police de première ligne, de pompiers et de paramédics. »
J’aimerais qu’on réponde à deux questions :
1. Le budget de fonctionnement de 641 000 $ s’ajoute-t-il à la rémunération des sept ETP additionnels?
2. Le directeur municipal a-t-il pensé à la façon de compenser la suppression de sept ETP dans d’autres services afin de ne pas dépasser le plafond ou s’agit-il de transférer ces postes d’ailleurs?
Le maire,
Larry O’Brien
Mayor
septembre 2nd, 2008 at 10:02
Save a few $$ and lets use 311 service to report potholes.
septembre 2nd, 2008 at 11:39
I would like to suggest a third question: Will there be a budget to cover the additional road repair crews and materials needed to quickly fix all the extra road problems discovered by an additional 11 pairs of bilingual eyes? Or, is that already covered off by the City of Ottawa’s share of the provincial infrastructure gift? (Okay, that’s two additional questions.)
Yes, we need road inspectors to assess road deterioration. But, do we really need a whole new, costly pothole patrol department when there’s already a road inspection system in place, which could be beefed up to meet standards for a lot fewer tax dollars? If road inspectors need help with the small, immediate stuff, most Ottawa drivers are quite capable of identifying potholes, deteriorating shoulders and clogged ditches and would report them with alacrity if invited to do so.
I’m with you, Mr. Mayor. This sounds like a “make work” project.
septembre 3rd, 2008 at 7:25
Why create an 11 man team to inspect our roads and byways. We have a system where residents of this city and report any incidents. I am certain that the tax payers of Ottawa are not ready to agree to such a high expense. Is it no the reason why the city amalgamated to reduce cost and make it more efficent. Use the resources at hand that the city has in reporting pot holes by listening to the people of Ottawa and it will not cost any additional cost to the city
septembre 3rd, 2008 at 7:28
There is, no doubt, value in initiatives that effectively contribute to better Preventive Maintenance and emergency repairs. I will leave it to Committee and Council to debate the ‘worth’ of this initiative.
I do have grave concerns, however, that this is yet another growth proposal that appears to be oblivious to Council direction to cap the size of City Staff. If Council is serious about this need for FTE control, then clear direction must be given that every proposal that includes the requirement for FTEs MUST be accompanied by a statement as to their offsetting source. Should we accept anything less? How else are we going to be able to control Staff growth?
But I would like to make an even more fundamental point. The Councillor “scramble’ that I witness before most committee meetings is almost an embarrassment. How do we expect Council and Committees to professionally and adequately perform their Board of Directors’ responsibilities when they receive the vital Decision Documents only a few days before the meeting? Where is the time for reading, analyzing, questioning [maybe even consulting with residents ?!] before forming a reasoned opinion?
The current unnecessarily-compressed preparation also allows little time to intelligently engage most residents on a topic. Most are relegated to swallowing headlines and participating in on-line polls. Like most residents, I do not have the time to check every day for every committee meeting to determine if anything has been posted recently. I rely primarily on the city’s “Meetings at Ottawa City Hall Next Week” email service to which I subscribe. That is a GREAT tool and lets me scan thru the upcoming week’s meetings, agenda and supporting in a few minutes on HighSpeed. But it is only sent on Friday PM so leaves little time for review and questions prior to the upcoming week’s meetings.
For routine Committee business, why is it not reasonable to deliver the background documentation to Councillors at least two weeks in advance??. What committee decision cannot wait the additional 10 days? Does the City really expect to get the best decisions from Committees when Councillors have to read-into a topic on essentially NO NOTICE.
septembre 3rd, 2008 at 8:51
Hire 11 people to drive around and look for pot holes? Really? That could set a new benchmark for wasting taxpayers cash.
How about, as has been suggested, simply using the 311 service that already exists?
septembre 3rd, 2008 at 10:04
I agree, use 311. Over a million dollars in the first year to run this ‘Make Work Project’??? One million dollars could fix a large portion of the streets that are in horrible shape.
Let’s hope the City actually uses some common sense here and scraps the plan for 7 new employees.
I have used 311 many times in the past, and the operators are very efficient. There is no reason a call to 311 for road issues could not be sent to the roads department to have an existing crew dispatched.
If you do hire 7 new people..can I please have the job?? How stress free would it be to drive around all day in a city truck looking for holes in the road. Man, that would be the life.
septembre 4th, 2008 at 8:28
Larry,
Please stick to your guns. I agree we have lots of eyes that can report potholes. all you need to do is build and communicate an interactive web site where folks can report potholes they need fixed. We certainly don’t need to increase city staff perform this function. This will certainly be cheaper and will also engage taxpayers in supporting a safe city.
Also wasn’t there a internal audit on surface crews recently that brought to light a number of issues?
Thanks!
septembre 11th, 2008 at 7:25
The idea is just silly. Might as well use the website http://www.ottawapotholes.ca - it would be cheaper and be better for the environment.
septembre 16th, 2008 at 7:00
This is one of the problems that FixIt Ottawa was designed to solve. We’ve been working on it for the past couple months as a volunteer project. I met with City staff a few weeks ago to demo the solution and to discuss how it works and what we could do to streamline the site 311.
A screencast is available at : http://www.openottawa.org/fixit-ottawa-screencast/.
We’re currently just waiting on making sure the categories used by 311 sync up with the categories used within FixIt, and finish up some translation to french. I also believe a letter was sent to Councillors recently to advise them of the status of FixIt Ottawa and how we are working together with City staff to best streamline the data coming out of FixIt Ottawa to work with the process in place with 311.
11 full time pothole spotters seems unnecessary. I believe the community would do an even better job reporting potholes and other problems given the usable tools to do so.
septembre 24th, 2008 at 12:47
[…] an inquiry I made at Corporate Services Committee (please click here to view this inquiry) Council decided today to not hire an additional 7 staff at a cost of $1 million including […]
novembre 25th, 2008 at 8:27
Why not spend 2.00 per s.y. more when paving a street by using geotextiles before paving a road. It will act as a mositure barrier and help stop potholes, and extend the life of the road by 60 to 100%. I just learned about this during a seminar for civil engineers. I’m just out of school for engineers and this was never taught to us. I wonder why. Is there politics behind it?
I was lucky to learn about these products at a presentation given by Road Fabrics. I think thye said there were around the Chicago area.
Rick Romano