Do you see harsher measurers necessary for harsher times, or a crackdown on dissent and civil liberties? What do you deem appropriate and inappropriate, reasonable and unreasonable? Oshawa City staff have drafted a proposed update to the Trespass By-law which will increase penalties for breach of a City policy, rule, regulation, Bylaw or provincial or federal law from the current 3 days or 6 months to 7 days or up to as long 5 years. app.oshawa.ca/agendas/corporate_services/2021/04-12/corp-21-19.pdf
At the same time staff are proposing Council approve a new "Frivolous Policy" which would clamp down on members of the public who make complaints and requests that City staff "deem frivolous, vexatious or unreasonable " because such complaints and requests:
1) "consume a disproportionate amount of City time and resources;
2) impede employees from attending to other essential issues;" and
3) there is the need to ensure the City's workplace and employees are free from discrimination, harassment and violence of any kind.
The proposed update to the City's Trespass By-law and the proposed new "Frivolous Policy" are the only Reports on this morning's Corporate Services 9:30 a.m. meeting Agenda, other than a short Report to with applicants fill a couple volunteer positions on the Heritage and Environmental advisory committees.
The update to the Trespass By-law and the proposed new Frivolous Policy, both refer to two other City policies that overlap what is being proposed :
a) The Complaint Management and Resolution Policy, which sets out the City's formal Complaint process, states that the City recognizes public input is important, complaints are valuable forms of public feedback and the City will consider Complaints as opportunities to evaluate programs and services for possible improvement and will record lessons learned.
b) The City’s Respect in the Workplace - Harassment and Violence Policy (which are contained in the Report as Attachments 4 and 5.
The proposed new Frivolous Policy "establishes the process to be used by all employees when handling such requests or complaints which will guide employees in identifying situations that meet the criteria of frivolous, vexatious, or unreasonable complaints or requests, and the associated actions that may be taken in such circumstances."
The proposed Frivolous Policy is Attachment 3 in Report CORP-21-20. http://app.oshawa.ca/.../corpor.../2021/04-12/corp-21-20.pdf
From the Report:
"FRIVOLOUS means a Complaint/Request that has no serious purpose or value or may have little merit and be trivial and is part of a pattern of conduct that amounts to an abuse of the right of access, interferes with the operations of the institution, or is made
in bad faith or for a purpose other than to obtain access.
UNREASONABLE means a Complaint/Request that is likely to cause distress or disruption to the City, its Employees or other members of the public, without any proper or justified cause. Behaviour that because of the nature or frequency of a Complaint’s contact with
the City, negatively affects the ability to deal with their Complaints or those of others.
VEXATIOUS means a Complaint/Request without merit, that is pursued in a manner that is malicious, intended to inconvenience, embarrass or Harass the recipient or is a pattern of conduct by the Complainant that amounts to the misuse of the Complaints processes and procedures."
"The Actions available to Directors/ Commissioners to address Complainant’s behaviour may include one or more of the following:
1) limiting the Complainant’s correspondence with Employee to a particular format (e.g. email only), time (e.g. telephone calls only at specific times and days of the week) or duration (e.g. conversations may last no longer than ten minutes);
2) limiting the Complainant to an established point of contact at the City (where possible, other Employees should be advised not to respond to the Complainant, but to refer them to the established point of contact);
3) requiring any face-to-face interactions between the Complainant and Employee to take place in the presence of an appropriate witness and in a suitable location;
4) requiring the Complainant to make contact only through a third party (e.g. solicitor, counsellor, friend acting on their behalf);
5) requiring that the Complainant produce full disclosure of documentation or information before Employees will investigate any new Complaints;
6) instructing Employees not to respond to further correspondence from the Complainant regarding the Complaint of a substantially similar issue;
7) instructing Employees not to investigate any Complaints regarding an issue that has already been investigated, or which is substantially similar to an issue which has already been investigated;
8) limiting or regulating the Complainant’s use of or access to the City’s services or facilities (e.g. community centres, access to technology systems);
9) informing the Complainant that further contact on the matter of the Complaint or Request will not be acknowledged or replied to;
10) in extreme circumstances, instructing Employees to severely reduce or completely cease responses to further Complaints and correspondence from the Complainant; and/or
11) other actions as deemed appropriate."
UPDATE: The Trespass By-law Changes were approved by Committee and will proceed to the April 26, 2021 Council meeting for Council approval. However, as some concerns were raised among Councillors on the Committee and Visiting Councillors about the rush of the Frivolous Policy, that Report was referred back to staff "to allow for further review and consultation with the public and that the results of that review be brought forward to the next meeting of the Corporate Services Committee".
At the same time staff are proposing Council approve a new "Frivolous Policy" which would clamp down on members of the public who make complaints and requests that City staff "deem frivolous, vexatious or unreasonable " because such complaints and requests:
1) "consume a disproportionate amount of City time and resources;
2) impede employees from attending to other essential issues;" and
3) there is the need to ensure the City's workplace and employees are free from discrimination, harassment and violence of any kind.
The proposed update to the City's Trespass By-law and the proposed new "Frivolous Policy" are the only Reports on this morning's Corporate Services 9:30 a.m. meeting Agenda, other than a short Report to with applicants fill a couple volunteer positions on the Heritage and Environmental advisory committees.
The update to the Trespass By-law and the proposed new Frivolous Policy, both refer to two other City policies that overlap what is being proposed :
a) The Complaint Management and Resolution Policy, which sets out the City's formal Complaint process, states that the City recognizes public input is important, complaints are valuable forms of public feedback and the City will consider Complaints as opportunities to evaluate programs and services for possible improvement and will record lessons learned.
b) The City’s Respect in the Workplace - Harassment and Violence Policy (which are contained in the Report as Attachments 4 and 5.
The proposed new Frivolous Policy "establishes the process to be used by all employees when handling such requests or complaints which will guide employees in identifying situations that meet the criteria of frivolous, vexatious, or unreasonable complaints or requests, and the associated actions that may be taken in such circumstances."
The proposed Frivolous Policy is Attachment 3 in Report CORP-21-20. http://app.oshawa.ca/.../corpor.../2021/04-12/corp-21-20.pdf
From the Report:
"FRIVOLOUS means a Complaint/Request that has no serious purpose or value or may have little merit and be trivial and is part of a pattern of conduct that amounts to an abuse of the right of access, interferes with the operations of the institution, or is made
in bad faith or for a purpose other than to obtain access.
UNREASONABLE means a Complaint/Request that is likely to cause distress or disruption to the City, its Employees or other members of the public, without any proper or justified cause. Behaviour that because of the nature or frequency of a Complaint’s contact with
the City, negatively affects the ability to deal with their Complaints or those of others.
VEXATIOUS means a Complaint/Request without merit, that is pursued in a manner that is malicious, intended to inconvenience, embarrass or Harass the recipient or is a pattern of conduct by the Complainant that amounts to the misuse of the Complaints processes and procedures."
"The Actions available to Directors/ Commissioners to address Complainant’s behaviour may include one or more of the following:
1) limiting the Complainant’s correspondence with Employee to a particular format (e.g. email only), time (e.g. telephone calls only at specific times and days of the week) or duration (e.g. conversations may last no longer than ten minutes);
2) limiting the Complainant to an established point of contact at the City (where possible, other Employees should be advised not to respond to the Complainant, but to refer them to the established point of contact);
3) requiring any face-to-face interactions between the Complainant and Employee to take place in the presence of an appropriate witness and in a suitable location;
4) requiring the Complainant to make contact only through a third party (e.g. solicitor, counsellor, friend acting on their behalf);
5) requiring that the Complainant produce full disclosure of documentation or information before Employees will investigate any new Complaints;
6) instructing Employees not to respond to further correspondence from the Complainant regarding the Complaint of a substantially similar issue;
7) instructing Employees not to investigate any Complaints regarding an issue that has already been investigated, or which is substantially similar to an issue which has already been investigated;
8) limiting or regulating the Complainant’s use of or access to the City’s services or facilities (e.g. community centres, access to technology systems);
9) informing the Complainant that further contact on the matter of the Complaint or Request will not be acknowledged or replied to;
10) in extreme circumstances, instructing Employees to severely reduce or completely cease responses to further Complaints and correspondence from the Complainant; and/or
11) other actions as deemed appropriate."
UPDATE: The Trespass By-law Changes were approved by Committee and will proceed to the April 26, 2021 Council meeting for Council approval. However, as some concerns were raised among Councillors on the Committee and Visiting Councillors about the rush of the Frivolous Policy, that Report was referred back to staff "to allow for further review and consultation with the public and that the results of that review be brought forward to the next meeting of the Corporate Services Committee".
