January 23, 2012 Council-in-Committee meeting, the presentation by Western Management Consultants on the Town’s Operational Review was well received by all members of Council. The Consultant, David Berger, presented his findings in a power point presentation that included benchmarking and 25 specific recommendations for process improvements.
The purpose of the review was to assess the day to day operations, operational structure, current staff and service levels within each department with the objective to identify departmental strengths, area(s) where there may be opportunities for improvement, with an emphasis on practical solutions.
In October, 2011 Council received the Consultant’s preliminary findings and, following a debriefing, requested that the Consultant present the report in a public forum.
The summary of findings included:
- The Town of Fort Erie staffing levels used to conduct the business of the Town appear to be as efficient or better when compared to the benchmarked municipalities;
- There is an opportunity to build stronger relationships between staff and Council, improving trust and in turn, staff morale;
- There were no glaring inefficiencies found; however, the consultant did highlight some areas where a review of work processes could lead to additional time for staff to complete other duties or enhance services delivered;
- The limited staffing in human resources/health and safety was also confirmed and while there may be initial staffing costs the risks associated with not having additional human resource staff was greater, based on recent Ministry of Labour workplace audits of other municipalities;
- Better governance appears to hold the greatest opportunity for improvement and has the potential to increase the number of key operational decisions being made by the Town and decrease the amount of time and effort to make them.
To read the full Media release, click here
To see the slide show presented by Western Management Consultants,click here
To hear the presentation from Western Management Consultants, go to minutes.town.forterie.ca
Interesting that the ‘greatest’ opportunity for improvement is through better governance. Including making more decisions and decrease the effort it takes to make them.
Meaning that council (or rather some councilors) are dragging their feet, trying to slow down the processes which could greatly improve the conditions of Fort Erie and its residents. The Crystal beach Developments, the Proposed Speedway, the Recycling plant, why isn’t the council working every single day to get these things DONE.
These are the things Fort Erie needs.
Can someone at Town Hall please tell me the total cost of this review?
It was great hearing the spin some Councillors were trying to put on the results. Saying that this study reaffirmed their belief that staff are working hard is insulting. The Councillors that voted for the review were looking/hoping/praying for the consultants to come up with a list of names. How naive do you think people in Fort Erie are….seriously? Did you hear the speaker: “Lean and mean”. I’m guessing the lean part was directed towards staff and the mean part to their masters. How is staff supposed to respect any decisions being made by people that have no respect for them?
So, we are finding that various departments are under staffed. Let’s start hiring! People in this Town need jobs. Good idea, vote= 4-3… defeated.
Hi Rita, thanks for participating in the blog. We expect the project to be on budget, which was $91,247.50.