A consultant’s report on restructuring city operations was substantially altered between the time a draft version hit the former city manager’s office and the time the final report was presented to Victoria council, says Coun. Ben Isitt.
Isitt used a freedom-of-information request to obtain the draft report, dated May 31, that Maximus Canada provided to former city manager Gail Stephens. He compared it with the final report presented to council in June and maintains major changes were made.
“Specifically, the final report omitted the consultant’s two main recommendations: to consolidate city operations into six departments; and to create a stand-alone asset management function,” Isitt says in a report to be presented to councillors Thursday, Oct. 3. “The final report also introduced new recommendations that were not present in the draft report, including eliminating positions within the city’s sustainability function.”
Isitt now wants to see an uncensored version of the draft; parts were blacked out in the copy he received.
“For me, it’s a matter of exercising my due diligence as a council member in terms of insuring that the contract to Maximus was well spent,” Isitt said in an interview. “It also would be providing some accountability of how reports are handled by city staff.”
Isitt said the redacted portions of the document could be relevant to council deliberations as it looks at budgeting in the future.
“I definitely want to know what the consultant said in their first run report — their external analysis of the city operations and potential changes to it.”
In August, two senior city managers lost their jobs in a restructuring that came on the heels of the $75,000 Maximus Canada review. The shakeup saw Peter Sparanese, former general manager operations, and Roy Brooke, former director of sustainability, lose their jobs. A vacant position of general manager of strategic services was also cut.
Maximus, management consultants specializing in public bodies, compared Victoria with other municipalities and concluded the city’s administration is generally lean, spending the same or less than similar-sized cities, including Nanaimo, Kamloops, Kelowna and Vancouver.
Stephens resigned in July to become chief operating officer of the Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. Conference Centre general manager Jocelyn Jenkyns is serving as acting city manager.
