Getting to the Root of the Issues - 60 Day Action Plan Update

The Auditor General's report provided 18 recommendations for the consideration of City Council, that are aimed to strengthen PFR's oversight, monitoring and contract management related to tree maintenance services to ensure value for money for the City. In addition, the Audit Committee made 12 recommendations to City Council for consideration and provided three directions to PFR, in response to the Auditor General's report, which included the request for the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to provide an update on the progress made with respect to the 60-day actions and report directly to the May 5 and 6, 2021 meeting of City Council. PFR agrees with the assessment and recommendations of the "Getting to the Root of the Issues: A Follow-Up to the 2019 Tree Maintenance Services Audit" report and has established a 30/60/90 Day Plan of Action to advance short and medium term deliverables related to the report's recommendations, which focus on three key objectives: - improve tree maintenance crew oversight; - enhance contract management measures; and - improve productivity and operational efficiency. PFR had the opportunity to respond to the Auditor General's recommendations at the February 16, 2021 Audit Committee meeting through the delivery of a presentation which focused on this 90-day work program and outlined the 13 actions PFR will take. Further, PFR provided a 30-day update at the City Council meeting of April 7/8. The purpose of this report is to respond to the Audit Committee's direction on February 16, 2021, that PFR report directly to the May 5 and 6, 2021 meeting of City Council with a progress update on the 60-day Action Plan. PFR will be subsequently reporting back on the following topics on the following dates: - update on the progress made with respect to the 90-day actions to May 31, 2021 Audit Committee; and - improved system to deal with parked cars that impede tree maintenance crews to May 31, 2021 Audit Committee.