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OVERBROOK NEWSLETTER
Mars 2003
NEWS FROM CITY HALL
Public Meeting - Donald Traffic Calming Measures
In my first mandate as Councillor in the early 90’s, residents of
Donald Street, between St. Laurent Boulevard and the Vanier
Parkway, had made me aware of their concerns regarding the speed
of traffic on this residential street. The City did a traffic
calming study in 1994. No work was ever undertaken as a result of
that study. Knowing that the problem still existed, I asked the
staff of the new City to re-examine the conclusions and
recommendations of that earlier study. This has now been done and
new recommendations will be discussed with the community on
Monday, April 7, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. at the Overbrook Community
Centre on Quill Street. There is money in the budget this year to
move forward on this dossier and finally correct a situation that
has lasted already much too long. I encourage everyone to attend
to learn of the proposals and to indicate your support or
otherwise regarding the specific measures that are contemplated.
It is your neighbourhood after all.
City Credit Cards
You will have heard that the Corporate Services Committee of
Council has annulled the “Corporate Card” portion of the City’s
credit card system. The recent media controversy was the result of
a very thorough report prepared by the City Auditor. It was clear
that everything was not functioning as intended in the system. The
required controls had not operated effectively in 2001 and 2002.
Overall management of the program needed to be improved to ensure
corporate-wide adherence with the existing policies. The program
itself had previously operated properly for years under the RMOC,
prior to amalgamation. It was a cost-effective payment mechanism
for the purchase of low-dollar value goods and services. Audit
Committee, in its consideration of the Auditor’s report, had
determined appropriate corrective mechanisms to ensure that the
identified problems were corrected including (but not limited to),
100% vetting of every transaction over a 3-month period with a
follow-up report identifying individual departmental performance,
a review of the number of cards outstanding and a review tailoring
the spending limit of each card to the holder’s responsibilities.
Any future breach of the financial policies would be considered a
serious performance issue. It is estimated that this program was
saving the City approximately $400,000 per year. It was most
certainly fixable. The storm of controversy and the resulting
premature cancellation of the program will be costly for the City.
One doesn’t shut down the Queensway when accidents occur. Instead,
one reviews the reasons for the problems, including any necessary
modification of the ‘rules’ (e.g. speed limits) and enhanced
enforcement of those rules.
Councillor Jacques Legendre
I can be contacted by telephone at 580-2483, by fax at 580-2523 or
by email at
Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca
Visit your web site at
www.rideau-rockcliffe.com
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