Bylaw aimed at keeping staff safe gets the axe
Hamilton city councillors have voted to axe a bylaw created to keep staff safe at council-owned facilities, despite a rise in “unwanted behaviour”.
A recent report described the Cultural and Recreational Facilities Bylaw as “surplus to requirement” after a review found offensive behaviour could be minimised using council’s existing processes.
The bylaw, which was first adopted in 2008 and later reviewed in 2012, was created to minimise offensive behaviour and potential risk to visitors at the council’s pool, library and museum facilities by allowing staff to remove anyone who did not abide by facility rules.
Unit director of community services Rebecca Whitehead said while abusive behaviour was a common occurrence, staff often used the Trespass Act rather than the bylaw as it was more effective.
When questioned by deputy mayor Angela O’leary if there had been an increase in “nuisance and threatening behaviour” and whether there was enough funding and support to ensure staff felt safe, Whitehead said there had been an “uptick” in recent months but she thought they were “adequately provisioned”.
“We utilise, in the central city, we utilise City Safe.
“We’ve been using City Safe at the pools over the summer which has had a good outcome. We also have funding for security when required.
“The teams have also training on how to manage, de-escalate situations which provides a lot of confidence in these situations so we find that that multi-pronged approach has worked really well in recent years.”
City Safe officers patrol the central city during the day as well as some evenings and deal with nuisance and antisocial behaviour.
Councillor Maxine van Oosten questioned whether there had been any engagement with Shama, a support group for ethnic women.
“I wonder, if today’s motion is passed, whether we might be able to ... my thinking is there’s been some unique issues potentially for ethnic women and it would be nice for us to be able to just advise them of this and let them know what our policy is to give them some comfort and I wonder if we could note that as an outcome after the vote.”
O’leary said keeping staff safe was paramount. “We know as some of us elected members are feeling unsafe in the current environment and certainly don’t want that to be felt by staff.”
She urged councillors who may choose to “decrease levels of service” through a Long Term Plan proposal to cut jobs to keep in mind that things like City Safe were ”organically intertwined in the other services we provide“.
“As a growing city so many of our levels of service are so intertwined and rely on each other and there is push-pull with tension on how we deliver a library and make not only staff safe but customers safe.”
Councillor Louise Hutt, who spent a number of days in a row at the new Rototuna library over the summer said she felt confident in staff’s ability to manage unwanted behaviour after witnessing a situation firsthand.
The bylaw will be revoked from May 1.