Greater focus on safety led to fewer injured city workers during first quarter
City of Moose Jaw employees experienced fewer injuries during the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same time in 2019, a decline the city manager attributes to better internal communication. From January to March this year, 15 employees injured themselves on the job, including seven slip and falls, four incidents of overexertion, three incidents of something striking staff, and one employee being burned, according to the first-quarter report of city hall activities that city council received recently.
In comparison, there were 20 incidents of injured employees during Q1 of 2019. The fact most of the numbers are down is promising since it shows how much work the senior leadership team has done, city manager Jim Puffalt said. Senior leadership held a meeting in January to discuss safety and how city hall wanted to take a more focused approach with this issue. Injury statistics
Other injury statistics show, for this quarter compared to Q1 2019:
• Medical aid: seven / four incidents
• Lost time: three / two incidents
• Days lost: more than 53, some due to layoffs related to COVID-19 / 10
• Motor vehicle incidents: five / 11 incidents
• Property damage that city employees caused: one / 14 incidents
• Dangerous occurrence: two / two incidents
The human resources department laid off 35 people in March since the municipality had to close many buildings due to the pandemic, Puffalt explained, while city hall redeployed permanent staff to other departments and duties.
With tenders for infrastructure projects coming in lower than budgeted, the City of Moose Jaw should pursue more work and go beyond what city hall initially planned, a city councillor says.
City administration told city council during the latter’s recent meeting that the contracts for paving and cast iron water main replacement came in below estimates, while the tender for sidewalk repairs was close to what city hall budgeted. This news excited Coun. Brian Swanson, who encouraged city administration to undertake more work. “I make the point because it’s very rare when a municipal government finds itself in a position where it’s getting really good bids. Usually we’re the easy pickings, so to me, this is something we should take advantage of,” he said.
“In a year when we could most take advantage of an ultra-competitive environment from contractors, we should be looking to fill our plates with tenders and go beyond what we budgeted because we’re low on the ones we have. We should be going after more.”
However, it doesn’t appear as if city council can do that since it is facing shortfalls in revenue, Swanson remarked. It had budgeted for $5.5 million in revenue for the capital budget. But with $49 million in guarantee investment certificates (GICs) generating $1.7 million at 2.35 per cent, this leaves council with a shortfall of $3.9 million. He pointed out that a report from city manager Jim Puffalt indicated city administration hopes it won’t have to withdraw any funds from its stock investments during the next couple of months to cover the shortfalls.
“It’s (the situation) not as rosy; 2.35 per cent on $49 million (is) significantly less than what we were earning before. We’re not in a position where we can do a drawdown in capital reserves because they are in a negative position,” Swanson said, before reiterating that city council has the opportunity to do more infrastructure work with lower tender contracts.
There is the potential to put 25-per-cent more funding onto the cast iron and pavement projects, said Puffalt. The provincial government has provided an additional $4.8 million in funding through the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP), while there is federal transit funding — up to $6 million — that could go toward the cast iron project. This would allow city administration to complete more work this year. “We delayed a lot of projects to focus on the primary areas and that was why we did that … ,” he continued. “When we get into the capital funding discussion, those will be the things we recommend and will come back to council in June with the process and a further discussion on capital programming.”
“It was not something (staff layoffs) we wanted to do, but we can’t be open and we can’t keep staff,” he added. “We had to divert staff from our summer programs. Parks and recreation did a great job. We got work done on the Kinsmen pool. That allows us, when we reopen, for that facility to be ready to go.”
City hall hired a consultant to evaluate out-of-scope positions and compensation, said Coun. Brian Swanson. He wondered when the consultant planned to submit a report.
Human Resources has not completed it yet — it put the project on hold due to the pandemic — but will likely have it finished in six weeks, explained HR director Al Bromley. The department is looking at a new framework to evaluate those types of positions. However, many out-of-scope positions had to be re-worked since there were changes in the engineering and public works departments.
A committee is looking at how much council should be paid, Swanson pointed out. He wondered when city administration expected that committee to provide a report on remuneration.
That report should come to council during the June 29 meeting, said city clerk Myron Gulka-Tiecho.
According to the city clerk’s first-quarter report, the council remuneration committee held an open house in January for the public to provide feedback about how much council should be paid. There was also an online survey that saw more than 400 people respond. The committee then met in March to review the results of that survey.