City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for February 22's Meeting?

It's a night of reports at Guelph City Council on Monday, as the horseshoe will take a look inside. Reports from the Audit Committee, and the Integrity Commissioner are all on the docket, as well as decisions needing to be made about hospital expansion and parking spaces downtown.

Closed Meeting - City council begins with a closed meeting at 5:30, and will cover updates on Ontario Municipal Board appeals of Official Plan Amendment (OPA) #48 and 54, and 171 Kortright Rd. W. It will also tackle an update on the negotiations with the Guelph Storm for their continued use of the Sleeman Centre.

Annual Report of the Integrity Commissioner - To sum it up, "I received no complaints and carried out no investigations in 2015," Robert Swayze writes in his report. That's good news for the city and the relationship between council, staff, and each other, and Swayze agrees. "The current Council deserves congratulations for compliance with the Code of Conduct and displaying accountability and transparency in carrying out their duties." Swayze's work for the year instead included advising two members of council on confidential matters, and advising the clerk for a total cost to the City of $5,000 for the annual retainer and $6,174 for 25.2 hours of docketed time at $245 per hour.

Internal Audit 2016 - 2018 Work Plan - An overview prepared for council about the work that the Internal Auditor plans to undertake in the next three years. The plan is meant to accommodate at least four audits per year, but be flexible as well "to allow for consulting and risk management as well as ad hoc and emergency requests." Guelph's singular internal auditor and a potential audit trainee plan on undertaking this year operational reviews of the Guelph Library and Fuel Security and Systems Audit, a compliance review of Driver Certification Program Compliance, and a value for money audit of Fleet Management and Operations.

2016 Audit Committee Work Plan - An overview of the work intended to be completed by the committee over the next year, including the set dates of the committee's meetings.

Infrastructure Environment and Funding Options - City staff will be directed to work with Guelph General Hospital staff on "potential funding for upcoming renovations/expansions and to report back by the end of 2016 Q3 to Committee for further consideration." Any construction or renovations for the hospital is covered 90 per cent by the province and 10 per cent by the City. Expansion for the Emergency and Ambulatory Care departments are on the books; emergency itself has seen a 39 per cent increase in visits since 2008/09. The hospital is looking at a five year timeline to completion.

Parking Agreement with the Western Hotel Executive Suites Limited - Last year, the City and the Western Hotel, a new establishment based in the former Diplomat, initiated a pilot project where the Western got to reserve 10 spots in the West Parkade for their clients through permits where the hotel paid for the spaces and then allowed guests to access them. The City has similar arrangements with the Co-operators and Old Quebec Street, and are recommending that the pilot program becomes permanent with a five-year term contract with the Western with the standard renewal,

termination and dispute resolution clauses.

The council meeting begins next Monday at 7 pm. The full agenda can be found here.