The City of New Westminster’s staffing challenges highlight the need to focus on core civic responsibilities, say the New West Progressives.
On Monday, council received a staff report and memos from several department heads outlining some of the staffing challenges being faced by the City of New Westminster. In response to “higher than anticipated” staff vacancies due to retirements, departures and challenges with recruiting staff, some department are changing up their work plans and delaying work on some projects.
The reports prompted some councillors to comment that council has heard staff’s concerns, is concerned about the issue, and will do what it can to support staff and city projects.
Ken Armstrong, mayoral candidate for the New West Progressives, issued a press release the following day stating that the NWP team has heard city staff “loud and clear” and is committed to addressing staff’s concerns rather than “shelving them” in a report. He said the report to council showed that city staff are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, short on capacity due to the tight labour market and are overburdened with city council’s strategic priorities.
“First and foremost, our thought is that we acknowledge that the city hall staff are singularly the most valuable resource the city has, and we want to be as supportive as possible with them,” Armstrong told the Record. “A clear meta message from this report is the staff are either burnt out or on the verge of being burnt out. I think everything that can be done needs to be done to support them through that. And that’s a challenge for sure.”
Armstrong noted staff have identified various opportunities and priorities for addressing staffing challenges.
The New West Progressives have consistently called for a “back to basics” approach to running city hall – a message they’re reiterating in response to the staffing challenges currently being faced by the city.
“We would really encourage our city council to direct the city staff to really focus on the basics, the core responsibilities that city hall has with potholes, with repairing the sidewalks, with maintaining our parks, and these kind of topics, ahead of some of the other sort of special projects,” he said. “Not that the special projects aren’t valuable, but when you have finite and taxed resources you sort of need to consolidate around the core responsibilities.”
Armstrong didn’t specify what items would be considered “special projects” but he said some councillors have acknowledged that some of the work being done by the city treads into areas that have traditionally been federal and provincial responsibilities.
“So, finding the fine lines on some of these projects, and saying, ‘This is important to everyone but it is not our responsibility,’” he said.
Armstrong acknowledged that staff recruitment isn’t a challenge that’s only being faced by the City of New Westminster.
“This is economy wide. There are problems in all industries recruiting and retaining staff, and it’s a challenge. I can’t identify one thing the city should be doing that they aren’t doing that is deterring people from coming to the city; I can’t,” he said. “It’s a matter of, as a society, we are going to have to get our head around this problem, this challenge, and find ways to work within the boundaries of what we have.”
While it’s important for council to acknowledge the efforts being made by staff, Armstrong believes council should also be directing staff to focus on core civic responsibilities
“These are important messages, and I don’t mean to discount that,” he said of acknowledging staff’s efforts. “I just really would have added that emphasis on, let’s all of us remember – both city council, city hall staff and the residents – what our core responsibilities are, and our city is going to prioritize taking care of the potholes and the sidewalks ahead of other things, which are important too, but there is finite resources.”
Survey says
In other NWP news, the group is reporting that housing affordability, crime and safety and an “infrastructure deficit” are among the top concerns they’re hearing about from community members through the civic party’s consultation efforts, including an online survey, town halls and doorknocking.
“Community amenities, such as sports fields, recreational programs for youth and seniors, along with the environment, economic revitalization, transportation and traffic management are other frequently referenced priorities,” said a NWP press release. “New Westminster residents can expect to see NWP candidates at their doors and future events as they continue to listen.”
According to the party, the NWP team will be sharing its policy ideas and platform with residents as the summer approaches.
Armstrong said some of the NWP candidates have been out knocking on doors, where they’re getting input from residents.
“Mostly we are listening,” he said. “And we are hearing different concerns that people are expressing to us. Some of them are perhaps stuff that hasn’t come up in the survey.”
Reoccurring themes in the survey and at residents’ doors include safety, the need to engage with citizens and a need to get back to basics.
“Obviously the residents of New Westminster want to see value for their taxes. There is a concern about the tax creep,” Armstrong said. “We acknowledge the importance of being mindful of environmental concerns, and we are hearing that.”
