Accountability & Transparency

As a long-time business woman Councillor Leadman is committed to making City Hall a more efficient place. She wants the decisions made by the City of Ottawa and the reasoning behind them to be made more transparent and accountable to ensure residents get value for their tax dollars. Councillor Leadman is working hard to ensure that City Hall will once again become an institution residents trust is operated effectively.

A Better Framework
Councillor Leadman has advocated and supported changes to the framework which the City operates which include:

• Better sustainable efficiency programs at the city dedicated to changing business processes to provide better use of tax dollars. Councillor Leadman has worked to ensure the right framework for the Strategic Branch Review (SBR) that will provide meaningful delivery standards and develop the best methods to provide services.
• Councillor Leadman supported the creation of an Audit and Budget Standing Committee and would like to see an improved review of branch work plans to increase the input and oversight of city operations.
• New city wide corporate financial governance plans such as the Accountability & Transparency policy, long-term budget forecasts, City strategic plan and the human resources plan.
• Reviewing and supporting a significant re-organization of the City bureaucratic structure that is aimed at streamlining decision making, increasing service delivery and reducing redundant operations. In conjunction with large productivity targets set for each branch these actions have improved the corporation’s efficiency without damaging the quality of the services delivered.

Targeted Action
Councillor Leadman has been involved in various initiatives that are helping to transform the operations of the city as part of a $100-million target of sustainable efficiencies over the term of Council. Such initiatives include:

• A new approach to City Asset Management practices to better identify, scope and address the depreciation of the capital infrastructure gap (asset burn). This is done through better reporting and tracking systems that are being put into place as part of a province-wide initiative using unique monitoring databases and systems. Being developed by the Finance and IT departments it will yield significant improvements to its long-term asset management practices.
• Pushed for and approved financing for retrofitting existing City buildings to make them more environmentally friendly and financially economical. This will provide substantial long-term benefits to our community. Over $10M will be invested in each of a five year program that is forecasted to provide an annual 20% return on investment.
• She led the charge for an overhaul of the 3-1-1 system. The programs and methods being emulated are based on the New York model. By concentrating on the citizen’s need and then streamlining the city’s response to that need, better service delivery will be provided at lower costs.
• Better tracking and addressing of potholes and road damage to undertake cheaper repairs instead of expensive road repaving.