Residents need more info on how to make complaints
St. Catharines doesn’t need more bylaw officers but does need to better communicate to residents how they can lodge complaints after hours, city staff have concluded.
A report to city council on the feasibility of increasing staff or hours for parking and property standards bylaws concluded staffing levels didn’t need to be changed at this time.
But the report did recommend action be taken to improve communications with the public so they know how to lodge complaints and the process by which they are addressed.
The staff report was requested last October by Merritton Coun. Dave Haywood, who wanted to know the feasibility of increasing bylaw enforcement during peak periods, seasons of the year, after hours and on weekends because of resident frustrations.
On Monday, Haywood said one of the problems is there doesn’t seem to be any followup once an officer has been out to a property.
He said a resident in his area treats his garage like a mechanics shop and works on race cars day and night, parking on the lawn and revving engines.
“I start getting flooded with phone calls. Property standards have been there, parking enforcement’s been there, but then it seems like it stops there,” Haywood said, adding the resident was revving an engine at 10 p.m. this past Sunday.
“I’m at a loss trying to address this issue and we’re coming up against a brick wall.”
Fellow Merritton Coun. Jennie Stevens said there have been parking issues in the ward as well, with people parking under no-parking signs on the weekends. Stevens was contacted by a resident who said she’d tried unsuccessfully get the city and police to deal with the matter.
Currently, parking enforcement officers work seven days a week. On Monday to Friday, eight officers are on overlapping shifts that cover 8:45 a.m. to 8 p.m.
On weekends, there are two parking enforcement officers who overlap to cover the hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The report said if council were to extend parking enforcement to 24 hours, it would require adding $37,000 to $47,000 annually to the budget for one additional officer based on a 40-hour week.
The staff report said revenue generated from parking tickets does not cover the cost of enforcement services and there is no ticket quota in place.
Meanwhile, the city’s four bylaw enforcement officers who deal with property and municipal bylaws typically work Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. They can work after hours or on the weekend on an as-needed basis.
In order to hire additional bylaw enforcement officers, council would need to authorize $94,000 per officer, as the annual salary is $71,000 plus $23,000 for benefits.
But the report to council said St. Catharines residents can make complaints at any time and enforcement staff will act on them in a “timely manner.”
Director of financial management services Kristine Douglas, who oversees the parking enforcement officers, told council that residents can call the city’s Citizen’s First number after hours at 905688-5600. The system is set after city hall hours to go to the Kiwanis Aquatics Centre and staff there can dispatch parking officers.
When staff aren’t working at the Kiwanis Centre, residents can call the Lake Street service centre where there is a foreman on duty 24 hours who can take complaints.
Douglas said Niagara Regional Police can issue penalty violations outside of city hall’s operating hours and have copies of the city’s penalty notices.
Between January 2016 and April 2017, the NRP issued 27 penalty notices related to parking matters, she said.
The staff report was referred to council’s parking and property standards bylaw enforcement review task force that was struck to study bylaw enforcement.