With city hall’s administrative review officer (ARO) receiving just one resident-driven concern in 2023, city administration has provided a report explaining how the complaint process works.
The ARO is independent of city administration and reports directly to city council, with The Administrative Review Bylaw governing the role and its jurisdiction, a Feb. 12 council report explained in response to Coun. Kim Robinson’s concerns from Jan. 29 about the officer's 2023 report.
Sections 8 and 9 of the bylaw deal with, respectively, the ARO’s jurisdiction to handle complaints and the procedure to follow when investigating concerns.
Jurisdiction
Section 8 says the review officer may, after receiving a complaint or a request from council or city manager, investigate and report on any matter about the administration of the city, a municipal agency or any city-controlled corporation, the report said.
Furthermore, the ARO shall not investigate or report on any matter, decision, act or omission that section 362 of The Cities Act excludes from the jurisdiction of an administration review body. This includes:
- Any matter that The Cities Act has already established for an appeal process or any other act or law, such as matters for the development appeals board, board of revision or property maintenance appeals board
- Any decision, recommendation, act or omission of council; any city-established standing or advisory committee; the board of a city-controlled corporation; or the city’s lawyer
Meanwhile, the review officer will not investigate any matter beyond 12 months from the day on which the complainant should have been aware of the incident, the report added.
Procedures
Section 9 says any person or persons affected by a matter of administration or a decision that the city, a municipal agency or a city-controlled corporation has made may file a complaint, in writing, with the city manager, said the report.
After receiving the complaint, the city manager will inform the complainant of the procedures that the ARO will follow, promptly transmit the concern to the review officer and provide a copy to the department head responsible for the matters, decisions, acts or omissions, and inform council of the complaint’s existence and a general description of it.
If the complaint concerns the city manager, the mayor shall accept it and transmit it to the review officer, provide a copy to the city clerk, inform other members of council of its existence and provide a general description of the concern, the report continued.
After transmitting the complaint to the ARO, the city manager or city clerk shall prepare or start preparing a report about the complaint’s subject matter and transmit it to the review officer, the document added.
Council later voted unanimously to receive and file the report.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Feb. 26.
