Rob Ford's Toronto

[MetroMan]

Yeah, I'm no fan of Ford but the Police budget along with the TTC take up way too much of the City's budget. If Ford wants to get any savings, he has to focus on those two.

- Toronto Police: It's imperative to keep programs like TAVIS going as it is the reason why we've been able to turn the tide on previously skyrocketing gun and gang violence in Toronto. Cancelling programs such as those will end up costing the Police and the City more when we need to hire more cops to deal with the violence. What will dramatically save money is on overtime. I have a cop friend who's been on the force for only 2 years now and he was able to buy an $800K home by taking on a lot of overtime gigs. He said it's an entirely separate income and doesn't even touch his regular salary. I love and respect our Police force and all but there are cheaper ways to provide oversight of street closures, construction sites and film locations. Build up a team of purpose trained "officers" in the same category as parking enforcement. They get paid their own salary, not overtime, and are sent to different sites that would generally require paying cops double time.

- TTC: crack the union. Seriously: $100K to drive a fricken bus? $80K to sit in a booth and (not) watch people drop tokens into a box? Seriously?? Start from scratch. If anybody can go to war with the union, it's Ford. Implement PRESTO as to not require fare collectors. Hire ONE station manager and TWO customer service reps per subway station. Train them primarily in customer service. It's the manager's job to ensure that the station is in working order and clean and the customer service reps would float around, open to questions from commuters. Customer service reps would be entry level positions, paid accordingly. Station managers would be senior positions.
Outsource Bus and Streetcar drivers to a private company. The vehicles themselves would remain the property and their maintenance the responsibility of the TTC but the drivers themselves would be hired, trained and paid by a private company who would be awarded a multi year contract in a competition and renewed based on their performance. I'm sure they'd easily find drivers happily doing that job for $40K.

If there is something positive to look at a Ford administration is that he can tackle a lot of the services the city is overpaying for but was too politically correct to confront.

 

[Dilla]

http://www.thestar.com/article/919782--ttc-fare-hike-off-as-city-comes-up-with-the-money?bn=1

TTC fare hike off as city comes up with the money

Tess Kalinowski
Transportation Reporter

It looks like it may have been a false alarm and a 10-cent TTC fare hike proposed for Feb. 1 may not happen after all.

TTC chair Karen Stintz has summoned reporters to her office at City Hall at 2 p.m. where she’s expected to announce that the city has found the $24 million the fare increase would have raised.

A note from Stintz’s office said the city councillor wouldn’t be available prior to 2p.m.

But another transit commissioner suggested that there’s “no appetite among councillors to engage in a public free-for-all pitting transit riders against drivers in our city.”

“Budgetary losses (resulting in part from the recently-abolished $60 Vehicle Registration Tax) should not be found from another tax hike at the expense of transit users,” said city councillor Maria Augimeri.

The proposed TTC fare hike of $5 a month on Metropasses would cost transit riders $60 a year.

When Mayor Rob Ford announced his proposed Toronto operating budget on Monday, he said he wasn’t happy about the fare increase. Stintz echoed his displeasure. Both vowed they would do everything possible to avoid the price increase.

But city manager Joe Penachetti said staff could see no other way to balance the city budget while ensuring the TTC had the money it needs to operate.

In addition to raising fares, the TTC is proposing to cut late-night, off-peak and weekend service on 48 bus routes it says average 12 or less riders per hour.



Well, look who's come to the rescue after creating the panic? I believe someone in this thread predicted this.

Perhaps now clawing back late night service will get lost in the salvation of fare prices?

 

[MetroMan]

Totally forseeable. Both Stintz and Ford were saying they were going to try to find a way to avoid the increase. Why announce it then? Ford's PR is first class. He's going to come across looking like a folk super hero for saving the "tax payer". In the meantime, the off peak route cancellations is going to get lost in the back patting.

 

[js97]

Yeah, I'm no fan of Ford but the Police budget along with the TTC take up way too much of the City's budget. If Ford wants to get any savings, he has to focus on those two.

- Toronto Police: It's imperative to keep programs like TAVIS going as it is the reason why we've been able to turn the tide on previously skyrocketing gun and gang violence in Toronto. Cancelling programs such as those will end up costing the Police and the City more when we need to hire more cops to deal with the violence. What will dramatically save money is on overtime. I have a cop friend who's been on the force for only 2 years now and he was able to buy an $800K home by taking on a lot of overtime gigs. He said it's an entirely separate income and doesn't even touch his regular salary. I love and respect our Police force and all but there are cheaper ways to provide oversight of street closures, construction sites and film locations. Build up a team of purpose trained "officers" in the same category as parking enforcement. They get paid their own salary, not overtime, and are sent to different sites that would generally require paying cops double time.

- TTC: crack the union. Seriously: $100K to drive a fricken bus? $80K to sit in a booth and (not) watch people drop tokens into a box? Seriously?? Start from scratch. If anybody can go to war with the union, it's Ford. Implement PRESTO as to not require fare collectors. Hire ONE station manager and TWO customer service reps per subway station. Train them primarily in customer service. It's the manager's job to ensure that the station is in working order and clean and the customer service reps would float around, open to questions from commuters. Customer service reps would be entry level positions, paid accordingly. Station managers would be senior positions.
Outsource Bus and Streetcar drivers to a private company. The vehicles themselves would remain the property and their maintenance the responsibility of the TTC but the drivers themselves would be hired, trained and paid by a private company who would be awarded a multi year contract in a competition and renewed based on their performance. I'm sure they'd easily find drivers happily doing that job for $40K.

If there is something positive to look at a Ford administration is that he can tackle a lot of the services the city is overpaying for but was too politically correct to confront.

Who hijacked the account? lol.

 

[typezed]

Blair is a bit touchy-feely for a police chief, and he has been wounded. Ford probably dreams of being able to get rid of him, to replace him with someone as hardnose as the cops on TV. Would he have been able to stand up to someone like Fantino or would he be a starry-eyed fanboy?

No gravy train puffs harder than the one that delivers overtime for cops on the paid-duty assignments. I've seen them standing beside construction projects on quiet residential streets that are already signed 30kph, and I've seen them standing inside the fences on projects that already have erected protection from surrounding traffic. It's a scam.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Outsource Bus and Streetcar drivers to a private company. The vehicles themselves would remain the property and their maintenance the responsibility of the TTC but the drivers themselves would be hired, trained and paid by a private company who would be awarded a multi year contract in a competition and renewed based on their performance. I'm sure they'd easily find drivers happily doing that job for $40K.

If there is something positive to look at a Ford administration is that he can tackle a lot of the services the city is overpaying for but was too politically correct to confront.

I get the spirit of what you're saying here, and I honestly don't oppose what you're saying on an ideological basis, but I think you're underestimating the magnitude of what you're proposing and the many mechanisms working against it. What you're talking about requires more than just a tough Union-hating Mayor - it requires major changes to existing contracts, city policy that goes back decades and (the big one) Ontario Labour Laws that are very Union-friendly.

Even a simple measure like eliminating the ticket taker position (something I support) is complicated because that's generally a position given to workers who are on disability. You can't just fire a disabled worker, so another placement would be required.

In short: it's way more complicated than you're presenting here.

 

[MetroMan]

^ So you're saying that it is something that needs to be done at a higher level. The provincial election is coming. Which premier is going to give Ford the power he needs to reboot TTC human resources? Maybe this is something that will have to happen through attrition and a gradual take over.

Phase 1: Implement PRESTO and make ticket operators station managers as they become more senior. Give existing employees willing to get trained in customer service the Station Ambassador positions. As they become more senior or retire, offer that position to entry level TTC employees.

Phase 2: As employees retire from senior positions, fill their jobs with drivers. As drivers retire or move up the chain, begin outsourcing those jobs to contracted private HR companies. The driver outsourcing contracts would gradually become larger until eventually all drivers are outsourced.

If you don't tackle the enormous overspending on TTC salaries, then the system will never get more efficient. Fares need to come down to $2 and the Metropass to $80 and the only way that'll happen is if the huge waste of union salaries come down. The city is paying a premium for a subpar effort by many of these employees. That needs to stop.

 

[GraphicMatt]

I'm not convinced there is an enormous amount of overspending on TTC salaries as much as there is an inefficient allocation of available labour, and perhaps a surplus of labour in certain departments. If you look at other first-world transit systems, the hourly rate your average TTC driver makes seems fairly comparable.

For the sake of reference, I'm using the number quoted in this Steve Munro post from 2007: http://stevemunro.ca/?p=456. It's likely gone up by 3 or 4 percentage points, but back then the maximum rate for a driver (before overtime) was $26.58. That works out to about $55,000 per year. That's not an entry-level driver, mind-you - that's the most an operator can make before overtime.

Overtime skews things, especially recently as there's been a hiring freeze which has led to a TON of overtime. That's where you see drivers making $100,000 or more a year.

Keep in mind also that prior to the hiring freeze the TTC was having a hard time finding people to work as operators, even with the decent wage.

A look at the history of union relations and right-wing politicians tend to reveal that they tend to slash labour costs by slashing service. It's a lot easier. I think that's what we'll get under Ford, and a Ford/Hudak tag team would be even worse. Neither has any motivation to make transit better - just cheaper.

A progressive, balanced approach would be to look at non-core services currently performed by TTC staff. Things like cleaning, managing advertising, customer relations, etc. Contracting those duties out to private entities could work well.

 

[taal]

Yeah, I'm no fan of Ford but the Police budget along with the TTC take up way too much of the City's budget. If Ford wants to get any savings, he has to focus on those two.

- Toronto Police: It's imperative to keep programs like TAVIS going as it is the reason why we've been able to turn the tide on previously skyrocketing gun and gang violence in Toronto. Cancelling programs such as those will end up costing the Police and the City more when we need to hire more cops to deal with the violence. What will dramatically save money is on overtime. I have a cop friend who's been on the force for only 2 years now and he was able to buy an $800K home by taking on a lot of overtime gigs. He said it's an entirely separate income and doesn't even touch his regular salary. I love and respect our Police force and all but there are cheaper ways to provide oversight of street closures, construction sites and film locations. Build up a team of purpose trained "officers" in the same category as parking enforcement. They get paid their own salary, not overtime, and are sent to different sites that would generally require paying cops double time.

- TTC: crack the union. Seriously: $100K to drive a fricken bus? $80K to sit in a booth and (not) watch people drop tokens into a box? Seriously?? Start from scratch. If anybody can go to war with the union, it's Ford. Implement PRESTO as to not require fare collectors. Hire ONE station manager and TWO customer service reps per subway station. Train them primarily in customer service. It's the manager's job to ensure that the station is in working order and clean and the customer service reps would float around, open to questions from commuters. Customer service reps would be entry level positions, paid accordingly. Station managers would be senior positions.
Outsource Bus and Streetcar drivers to a private company. The vehicles themselves would remain the property and their maintenance the responsibility of the TTC but the drivers themselves would be hired, trained and paid by a private company who would be awarded a multi year contract in a competition and renewed based on their performance. I'm sure they'd easily find drivers happily doing that job for $40K.

If there is something positive to look at a Ford administration is that he can tackle a lot of the services the city is overpaying for but was too politically correct to confront.

Please correct me if I'm wrong - but for each and every single overtime event you mentioned - the event it self (i.e. movie shoot / building) pays for the police i.e. they pay for their hours to work! Or your telling me we pay for policing film shoots? That doesn't seem correct.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The budget, as presented, will not work for 2011 or for the coming years. It has the wrong assumptions. The budget assumes that there will be no inflation, the attrition of personnel will reduce expenses, and there will be no outside economic influences. Just by saying the property taxes will be the same as 2010 assumes there will be no inflation. Cutting the budget expenses by 5% means a cut in services.

What about the price increases from outside city control? What about the price increases coming for electricity, water, and petroleum? No cut in service? You got to be kidding!

Just try to budget for the same dollar amount of electricity or gasoline as last year for 2011 and you will see for yourself. You maybe able to reduce the quantity but not the prices.

 

[AMB]

Rob Ford seems to think backwards and will cause harm to this city in the long run. The only good thing is that the TTC became a essential service, now's the time to clean that mess up. The TTC is a real shame, paying ridiculous wages for mediocre jobs. Majority of the employees are un-professional and its a real shame, mind you some riders can be as well. I believe its time to run a more efficient public transit system, bring back the Vehicle Registration Tax, bring tolls for entering downtown during working hours only, have designated bus lanes and build a descent subway system, this city needs one. Cities in Asia (China, Taiwan) have built massive subway systems almost overnight, why cant we? For now Toronto is still a car city, improving and by no means L.A.

For now, I take my car, hopefully one day I wont have to!

 

[Torontovibe]

Hey, where is this huge gravy train of cash that Ford was gonna find in the budget? If he knew about large sums of money being wasted, hidden, stolen or whatever, why has it not materialized in the budget? What gravy train was he talking about? Shouldn't Ford be accountable for all the crap he was claiming for so long? I'm waiting.

 

[Peepers]

Please correct me if I'm wrong - but for each and every single overtime event you mentioned - the event it self (i.e. movie shoot / building) pays for the police i.e. they pay for their hours to work! Or your telling me we pay for policing film shoots? That doesn't seem correct.

When you see a police officer policing a movie shoot - this is called "paid duty" and the $65 / hour goes directly into the officers pocket. Toronto Police does not make any money off of this despite providing the overhead for the administration of this business and the training and uniforms.

The Toronto Star had a very good explanation of how this racket works.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/art...-off-duty-police-cash-in-on-private-paid-duty

Notice that "paid duty" officers have been mandated on city construction work. In the Star article an officer was paid $65 / hour for a minimum of 7 hours and this $500 gets billed to the city (works dept), i.e. we the TAXPAYER pay for it!

Completely separate from "paid duty" is normal overtime for police work. There was $48 Million of this "premium" time in last years budget. Do away with this overtime and you could afford to hire the 100 new officers that Ford wants (not that we need them) and still have about $40 Millions in savings!

I think that we need to cut out ALL overtime for police officers. They need to be well rested and alert to do their job properly. If they are working 20 hours overtime a week there is no way that they can be properly rested. A side effect of all of this overtime is that the police force has very high levels of absenteeism which also adds to policing costs - especially if an off-duty officer is called in to fill in and paid overtime for his work. All this lucrative overtime has created a viscous and costly cycle for the city.

 

[GenerationW]

^ Who pays for cops policing movie sets, the City or the production company?

 

[Peepers]

^ Who pays for cops policing movie sets, the City or the production company?

The production company would pay for the policing. The money goes directly to the officer so the Police Force does not make money of this sideline business.

"Paid Duty" officers are also mandated on City of Toronto construction sites and in these cases the taxpayer DOES pay the exorbitant overtime bill. Civilians could perform these duties for just a fraction of this cost (as is done on most private condo construction sites).

Doing away with the requirement for paid duty officers on city construction sites would save the city $MILLIONS. As for private policing work on movie shoots or at Beer Stores - the city should furnish on-duty officers and pocket the difference between what the officer is paid and the client is billed. This could become a source of revenue for the Police.