e-Brief June 26, 2019
CAMA Holds Quarterly Board Meeting in Québec City
 
2018-2019 and 2019-2020 CAMA Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) held their quarterly meeting in Québec City before the 48th Annual CAMA Conference. The meeting was held on Sunday May 26th, 2019.

The Board dealt with a number of items, but what follows are the highlights of those discussions:
 
Update from the Alliance for Innovation
CAMA was pleased to have Joel Carnes, President and CEO for the Alliance for Innovation, CAMA’s affiliate partner, in attendance to provide an update on their recent activities. The Alliance’s focus is on developing and sustaining thriving communities and they assist in transforming strategy, culture and ecosystems.   The Alliance offers a special discount to all CAMA members and learning resources for your entire organization. If you are interested in this opportunity call 1-888-496-0944 or e-mail [email protected] for more information on how to leverage these benefits for your community.

2019 Québec City Conference
The Board spent a significant amount of time reviewing the program and logistics associated with the Conference in a joint session with the CAMA administrative team.  If you were unable to attend the Conference and would like to view some of the speaker sessions, the video recordings can be found in the Member’s Section. The presentations can also be found on the CAMA website. Public Sector Digest also covered the CAMA and FCM Conferences from top to bottom and you can read their review here.

2020 Deerhurst Conference
The Board was updated on preparations for next year’s Conference being held at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville scheduled for June 1-3, 2020. The hotel room block will be made available in January 2020 for this event.  The Program Sub-Committee for this Conference will begin meeting in July 2019 to start discussing possible themes and speakers.  If you have any ideas, please forward them to the CAMA National Office ([email protected]).

2021 and 2022 Conferences
These Conferences will be held in Tremblant, QC (2021) and Regina, SK (2022).

Partnership with BoxOfDocs Connects Members to the Next Wave of Search Technology
CAMA’s new partnership with the BoxOfDocs will benefit you and your staff by providing a discounted rate on monthly and annual memberships for this service. The partnership gives CAMA members access to the next generation of municipal documentation tools from municipalities across Canada, in one place.  BoxOfDocs uses advanced technologies that include fast and efficient search capabilities for users to quickly find quality peer documents for researching, benchmarking and creating new documents.  Using BoxOfDocs makes our members more efficient, saving significant time and money for the communities that they serve.  Visit the website for more information.

CAO Performance Evaluation Committee Update
CAMA will continue to promote the CAO Performance Evaluation Toolkit across the country to the elected officials and administrators. A brochure was included in the FCM delegate bags on this topic and CAMA was also pleased to have a booth at their tradeshow to promote membership and this tool.

Political Acumen Toolkit Project & Mentorship Forum
 
              
Recognizing the importance of political understanding in the role of senior municipal administrators, also referred to as political acumen, the Board was pleased to launch the Political Acumen Toolkit. Watch for more details on each topic in the toolkit in upcoming e-briefs and direct e-mails to you.  Check out this valuable resource to support you and your senior administrators in their careers!

The related Mentorship Forum was developed in tandem with the Toolkit to encourage and facilitate the relationship between experienced and new leaders, as well as support succession planning in local government. It is a resource for connecting with other CAMA members, finding mentors, obtaining support from colleagues across the country, and discussing municipal issues at a pan-Canada level.  Sign up today!

Our Next Toolkit
The Board are currently working on preparing a CAO Employment Contract Toolkit that will support CAOs when negotiating their contract. Work will continue on this initiative with a goal to launching it at the 2020 Conference.

Communications/Member Campaign
The Board approved a new marketing plan that will focus on membership in CAMA with the newest benefits being our three toolkits. We will also be increasing the outreach to elected officials so that they will see the value when their senior managers would like to join CAMA and/or attend the Conference.  Watch for more details in the Fall of 2019.

Audited Financial Statements
The Board approved the audited Financial Statements for the April 1st, 2018 to March 31st, 2019 fiscal year which reported a surplus of $8,761 and an accumulated surplus of $631,219.

ICMA
Tim Anderson, International Vice-President of ICMA joined the Board to provide an update on their activities. Canada is the largest affiliate of ICMA with 211 members. 

CAMA Members have a special rate of only $135.00 US to join. Even if you are not able to attend the ICMA Annual Conference, the information and resources available on their website is very valuable. If you would like to join ICMA or need additional details please visit the website.

The next meeting of the CAMA Board will be held in Whitehorse from September 18-20, 2019.
 
If you have any thoughts or comments, don’t hesitate to contact the CAMA National Office or any CAMA Board Member at any time.

Thanks for all your support and enjoy your summer!

Jeff Renaud
CAMA President
 
Are You Interested in Assisting with the CAMA CAO Employment Contract Toolkit?

The Board of Directors has been considering several opportunities to assist our members through the lifecycle of their careers.  What is CAMA’s next toolkit you ask?   In 2007, CAMA developed a basic Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Employment Contract template which also included a list of some of the most common provisions found in administrative employment contracts.  This document can be found in the Member’s Section. A survey to our membership in 2017 revealed that 75% of the respondents have an employment contract.  In a world in which employment relationships are becoming more and more contentious, municipal administrators should consider the importance of an employment contract.

It was the decision of the CAMA Board of Directors, at its meeting held on March 14, 2019, that the current contract should be expanded to include additional tools for the membership on this topic. The goal of this initiative is to prepare a CAO Employment Contract Toolkit that will support the CAO when negotiating their contract with the elected officials.  This toolkit will also take into consideration the work that has already been completed on CAMA’s Performance Evaluation Toolkit, the CAO Members in Transition Toolkit, and the Political Acumen Toolkit.

The target audience for this toolkit is related to the Chief Administrative Officer position (or senior administrator positions) which would include existing CAO's with past experience in the role or potential future CAO's with  no experience as a CAO.  It is also important to note that this document will be for all population categories and include the components required based on the size of the municipality.

The Committee work can largely be accomplished by Conference Calls and e-mail. They will meet monthly or more frequently at the call of the Chair to ensure the work can progress on schedule.  We anticipate the time commitment to be approximately 3 hours per month in reviewing material and participating in Conference Calls.  The goal would be to have the toolkit prepared, approved and ready for presentation at the 2020 Annual Conference.  The work for the Committee will be between September 2019 and March 2020.

The Committee members are Jake Rudolph (Chair), Jeff Renaud, Marc Landry, Dawn Chaplin and Rodney Sage. The Board would like to have two additional non-board members on the Committee.  If you are interested in serving, please contact Jennifer Goodine, CAMA Executive Director ([email protected]). Applications are due no later than Friday, July 12th, 2019.

 

 FEATURED WINNERS

2019 CAMA AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE PROGRAM
Congratulations to the City of Edmonton: Municipal Natural Asset Mapping

 
The City of Edmonton, AB was recognized with a 2019 CAMA Willis Award for Innovation, in the Over 100,000 population category, for Municipal Natural Asset Mapping.

Natural assets form a valuable part of a municipality’s landscape by providing essential ecosystem services. As such, Edmonton is committed to “understand[ing] the ecosystems and ecosystem services upon which it depends, valuing and protecting them as Edmonton grows.”

Following this Council direction, the City embarked upon an innovative project that would see the standardization, through ecological vegetation classification, of a new and comprehensive Municipal Natural Asset Mapping and Monitoring Framework. Results include:
  • the expansion of Edmonton’s historical mapping by more than 120,000 hectares, including mapping an inter-municipal buffer which enables regional network planning;
  • improving land use planning outcomes and conservation goals by providing stakeholders and staff with detailed information about the City’s natural assets; and
  • a made in Alberta, best in Canada, framework that:
    • increases spatial resolution of Provincial inventories by 200%,
    • introduces 17 natural asset types unique to municipalities,
    • is easily, and cost-effectively, adopted by other municipalities to enable coordinated landscape planning, and
    • can be integrated with Provincial inventories, enabling effective regional land use planning.
Municipal Natural Asset Mapping provides a strong tool for effective local and regional conservation planning, protection and stewardship.

Tony Kulbisky, CAO for the Town of Devon and CAMA Board Representative for Alberta attended the Edmonton Council meeting on June 18th, 2019 to present Mayor Don Iveson and his Council with this award.  To learn more about this award view the video here.
Congratulations to the Town of Niverville for your Sewage Lagoon On-Site Phyto-remediation

The Town of Niverville, MB was recognized with a 2019 CAMA Environment Award, in the under 20,000 population category, for its Sewage Lagoon On-Site Phyto-remediation project to decommission a sewage lagoon that had reached the end of its life.

In 2008, the Town of Niverville was faced with a costly problem: decommissioning its old sewage lagoon. Closing the lagoon meant removing and disposing of its sludge, but Niverville was looking for a sustainable alternative to the traditional option of spreading it on farmlands. Staff from Native Plant Solutions (NPS) and the Town of Niverville came up with the idea to treat the sludge on-site using plants.

Since this form of bio-remediation had never been undertaken before, it required support from regulators in the Province of Manitoba. It was essential that the project be backed by science, so NPS partnered with the University of Manitoba and Ducks Unlimited Canada to research on-site remediation of sludge.

To date, the Province has decommissioned one cell of the lagoon, and another cell is continuing along its remediation trajectory. These sites can now be re-purposed for public use, eliminating the need to spread on farmlands, and reduce the risk of phosphorus loss to surface water. Other jurisdictions are now looking to Niverville as an example of an economical and environmental approach to lagoon decommissioning.

Rodney Sage, CAMA Board Representative for Manitoba and Saskatachewan (and CAO for the Town of Brandon, MB) was pleased to present this award to Mayor Myron Dyck and the Niverville Town Council on June 18th, 2019.  To learn more about this project view the video here.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!
 
  • Chris Murray, City Manager, City of Toronto, ON
  • Byron Riemann, Executive Director of Operations, Rocky View County, AB
  • Allan Seabrooke, City Manager, The City of Red Deer, AB
  • Wally Ferris, Chief Administrative Officer, Town of Sylvan Lake, AB
  • Don Shropshire, Chief Administrative Officer, Municipality of Chatham-Kent, ON
  • Luc Monty, Directeur général, Ville de Québec, QC
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