Auditor says city should keep wrongdoing hotline

While the number of complaints has dropped to 124 last year, compared to 156 in 2017, Auditor General Ron Foster says the city's wrongdoing hotline is providing good value to citizens and should be maintained.

In a report headed to next week's audit committee, Foster says complaints are lower this year as people get used to the line, and as the integrity commissioner takes over complaints about city council.

“Only 30 per cent of the 124 complaints received during the year end May 31, 2019, required a detailed investigation compared to 32 per cent in 2018 and 35 per cent in 2017,” Foster says in his report. “The volume of active complaints under investigation at the end of May 2019 was six, compared to 15 in 2018 and 35 in 2017.

These trends are favourable and reflect the steps taken by staff to develop and implement customer service standards.”
Internal costs by staff to investigate and process complaints totaled $49,500 last year, but the need to use outside investigators dropped from $23,137 in 2017 to zero in 2019.

“The 124 complaints received during the year end May 31, 2019 came from 82 identifiable and 42 (were) anonymous,” the report said. “Five of the identifiable individuals filed more than one complaint. One of the anonymous complainants appeared to be responsible for filing seven complaints about the same city process.”

Complaints about city council dropped from three in 2019, compared to nine in 2018, likely as a result of the integrity commissioner beginning his work last December. Of the 124 filed last year, 52 were referred to other departments, three were duplicate complaints, 32 were closed because of a lack of evidence, and 69 were investigated. There are six complaints that still have to be dealt with.

The report lists the nature of complaints, and the action taken to deal with them. Many relate to people complaining about municipal employees using city cars for personal use and complaints about city contractors.

Other calls include complaints about social media postings by city staff, staff conduct, allegations of harassment in the workplace, building permit issues and governance of the city's library system.

While the wrongdoing hotline costs money, Foster argues that the benefits outweigh the costs because the hotline: 

• Promotes openness, transparency and accountability
• Promotes timely actions to address legitimate complaints 
• Improves the coordination of investigations by having the Auditor General’s Office Independently assign, monitor and report on the status and cost of administering complaints; 
• Clarifies the responsibilities for conducting timely investigations that meet service levels that are identified on the city’s website; 
• Provides an effective buffer between the Office of the Ombudsman which has been able to rely on the Auditor Generals’ Office to coordinate investigations within the city. 

The audit committee meeting goes July 9. Read the full report here.